The tradition of wishing away the Old Year continues

Dec 28, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The New Year is fast approaching and there are things that some of us would like to forget. We all want to forget those murders and road accidents that left so many families in mourning; we want to forget the attempts at victimization merely because people were critical.
But then again, we all hold out so much hope for the New Year. It is as if every year we are glad to see the back of the old one. We make resolutions which we don’t keep because habits die hard, so within a few days into the New Year we are back to being what we have been all along and this is what makes every year as bad as the one just past.
I remember the start of this year and it seemed as if it was only yesterday. There were the fireworks and the explosions of the squibs and ‘bombs’. Then the pessimist in me came to the fore and I asked myself how many people would not live to see the end of the year. There have been many, some of them dying needlessly.
I expected developments in the relationships in the National Assembly and I have been disappointed. Nobody seemed willing to give an inch, choosing instead to demonstrate power. Of course there were the shenanigans with the budget. A minority government decided to behave as though it had a majority and an opposition that was intransigent.
At one stage it looked as if the budget would not be passed, but at the very last minute, with the President out of the country, the Prime Minister signed it into law. But that was not the end of the story, because the government continued to spend as though there were no modifications to the budget.
People became disgruntled and this is going to be reflected in the votes cast when the elections are held within a few months. I thought that in a country with so few people, everyone would have opted to use the strengths of each other. Not so. The race card came out. Poor old Forbes Burnham who died before the majority of people in the country were born was resurrected.
His perceived ills were hung out at the same time people were trotting out the ills of the present government. Corruption became a household name and the government never got its public relations people to smooth over whatever was being peddled.
I came in for my share of criticism, although I merely sit in my little corner and do the job for which I am paid. Toward the end of the year one fellow reportedly gave me an award for being ugly. I have not seen it, but I do appreciate it for a variety of reasons. For one, my visage has not been found to be unpleasant to many and even if it were, those with whom I came into contact never let me feel uncomfortable.
There were times when I wished others could have been like me—law-abiding. There would not have been so many deaths resulting from greed. People attacked the gold miners, those who had visited the commercial banks, gone into people’s homes, and so many other dastardly acts.
There were others who were critical of my blackness. Again, I was not discomfited because I am extremely comfortable inside my skin.
Of course the police are now coming to grips that there are corrupt people in their midst. Just this week they arrested some ex-soldiers and former policemen who were hunting a crime scene. Earlier, they had arrested others and seemed to have solved the riddle of people being attacked on their way from the airport.
But there were highs. In the education sector our young children did very well, but they still left me hoping that they could really think instead of churning out almost by rote, what they learnt. Of course, the children of the more fortunate people—those who have disposable income—topped the list of high achievers.
Many of these children will be lost to this country as has been the trend for decades. Their parents would encourage them to seek greener pastures where the view is that they would be adequately compensated for the skills they acquire.
However, as the year draws to a close, I cannot help but spare a thought for the people who die on the roads. For this month alone there have been some inexplicable accidents. There was the woman on West Bank Demerara who died soon after completing her Christmas shopping. That same day a young man who had gone to follow some friends to East Bank Demerara died while crossing the road at Providence.
A father driving his family home from the city after Christmas shopping crashed his car and killed his daughter. Hours later a man crashed his car while transporting his friend. Another friend who rushed to rescue him came into contact with a live electric wire and perished.
On Christmas Day a man crashed on the East Bank Demerara and had to be cut from the car. Then on Saturday, a car slammed into a koker and another crashed again on West Berbice. The gut-wrenching thing was to see a husband reaching out to strangers while crying uncontrollably because his wife had just died in another road accident.
With the influx of cars on the road I expect many more, and wish that as careful as I am, I do not end up in the path of some errant driver.
Talk as much as we want about electricity theft, people will continue seeking the short term benefit. But there is always going to be pain. On Boxing Day, a 10-year-old came into contact with one of the contraptions and died.
I wish that the things that lead to such deaths would vanish in the New Year but of course, that is only wishful thinking. I also wished my late son was here for another Christmas, but that too was wishful thinking.

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