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CHARITY AT CHRISTMAS

Dec 22, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The mad rush to Christmas is about to take place. The next few days are going to be frenetic as Guyanese do as they do well, make a mad dash to ensure that every thing is in place for Christmas day.
The commercial centers are already bursting at their seams with shoppers. These days you do not know the difference between Sundays and week days. The difference is blurred. The stores are open. The streets are crammed with vehicles and pedestrians.
Shoppers are everywhere. But if you ask most store owners you would get the usual answers that people are not buying, they are looking. That is not true at all. People are buying and have been buying for weeks now. But it all gets highly frenzied in the days approaching Christmas.
One of the best days of business in the municipal markets is usually Christmas Day. There are people who are still looking for things and since this is the one day that the stores are closed, the markets are the places that people go. Business is usually brisk but do not ask the many vendors. They will sell you a sad story about this being the worst Christmas ever.
For many reasons, it can never be the worst Christmas ever. For one there is nothing like a bad Christmas. If you do not enjoy your Christmas it is because you do not want to do so.
You do not need suitcases of cash to be happy at Christmas, at least not in Guyana where no sooner do you step out of your door on Christmas morning you are greeted with loud greetings from some stranger whom you have never seen, wishing you the best for the Season and indicating they came for their “Christmas”- as if you have an obligation to help them.
I have seen thousands of beggars and panhandlers from all over the world, but I have never seen any brazen faced as some of those we now have in Guyana. I have seen beggars evoke sympathy from strangers by the way they look, by the stories of personal tragedies that peddle and by their theatrics. I have seen beggars soften the hearts of passersby without asking for anything. But in Guyana today and especially at Christmas time, there are some individuals who actually make you feel that you have an obligation to give them a “raise”. They actually make you feel that before you put bread on your own the table, you should give them some money.  And if you refuse or apologize for not being able to help, they are highly offended. That is what makes this country and its people extraordinary. We can make an act of charity seem like a basic necessity. Christmas can never be bad in Guyana when people are so gifted.
I remember one day this guy who I never saw before came to my door and asked me for some money. I said, “I have no money”.
He said, “Please for some rice.”
I replied, “I have no food.”
He said, “Give me an old shirt and pants.”
I said, “I have none.”
He said, “Come join me and let us go begging together. You are worse off than me.”
We have a great many shysters in Guyana but Christmas is also a time to take care of those in need no matter how difficult or trying they can be. But if you have to help somebody do so out of the goodness of your heart and not because they make you feel as if you have an obligation.
You would not really know the difference unless you slow down, take a good look around and ask yourself whether all this fuss about Christmas makes you happier or broke.

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