I have great expectations, too

Jan 05, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

---

 

 

The New Year has come and with it, some of the leftovers from the past year. There were the murders which never fail to amaze me. For example, almost on the stroke of midnight, a man shoots a young woman in the head and heads for Suriname. Then the police find the body of a man with a bullet in the head.
Hours later a man enters a house in which his reputed wife opted to stay and in an indescribable rage, he drags her out of the house, takes her to the back of the yard and kills her. The woman had opted to move on since the man was already living with someone else. To my mind, this was the case of the dog and the bone.
But just a few hours earlier there I was at Beterverwagting with my relatives welcoming the New Year as I did the year before. There were the usual explosions from the firecrackers and there were the phone calls from people telling me that these ‘bombs’ had damaged their roofs. All I could do was beg the homeowners to provide the photographs. I refuse to mention the woman who lost her shop to one of these bombs.
I saw a man who obviously had a whale of a time walk into a trench as he tried to cross a bridge. I knew the trench was not deep so I laughed. Old Year’s Night is the time when many people don their fineries and this man was no exception. When he crawled out of the trench he looked anything but a partygoer. He looked as though the city council had just let him call it a day.
But that apart, everything looked as though the new year would be more of the same, unless people really decide that life is more than hostility. I was still trapped in 2013, because that was the year I was writing. It is taking an effort to remember to write 2014.
The year should be about enjoyment although what is enjoyment for some is boredom for others. I could not hear my ears for Beres Hammond and John Legend. I heard the latter’s music, but unlike the days when I was hooked on the singers, he could have been Mary Poppins for all I cared.
But I was not going to miss football. This is the year of the World Cup, one of the most viewed games in the world. I just cannot keep a football under my control, but I can admire those who could and I will. I cannot say that I know many of the players, but I do know the superstars. I am going to have fun.
Who I want to have more fun with are my colleagues. Some of them were beaten to a pulp and some of them were so complacent that had they been more relaxed they would have been sleeping all the time. There is so much to report on because the nation needs to be kept abreast of what is happening. The government does not have the best public relations team in the country, so even the good things that the government might have done passes unnoticed.
At the same time, the mistakes are highlighted and the same government can do nothing to mitigate the situation. Last year, in their exuberance, some of my colleagues made some mistakes too and created conditions for the government to harshly criticize the media. That must not happen this year.
Fun things must happen, though. I am going to encourage reporters to leave the shelter of the office to visit distant places in Guyana, that to many are just names. Not many of us have gone to the mining communities, not even Mahdia. These places have many stories — stories other than little girls who had gone there for one reason or the other, trying to come out.
There are the stories of resilience, of determination and of course, stories about what the children really aspire to be, even as they go to school. Many years ago when I was a teacher at Bartica, the young people did not have much to look to, so they became foresters and miners. A few broke free and became doctors and agriculturists and teachers.
Since then, there have been improved communication links to just about every corner of the country. This is providing some motivation for the children at school in the hinterland. But there must be visits from prominent people. I remember Forbes Burnham visiting the many hinterland locations at the drop of a hat. Those visits motivated the young people.
I expect to see improvements in health. There are reports of phenomenal drug shortages in the system. Just the other day I learnt that even saline is in short supply. Why this should be is not known, especially when the government spends billions of dollars in drug purchases.
Perhaps there is no audit and we just buy what we think we should. Linden hospital is in trouble and the staffers there hope that they do not see people who need drugs that the hospital does not have. As reporters we propose to maintain our focus on those drug purchases. We care not who gets angry because we know that someone is getting a free ride with taxpayers’ money.

 

---

---