Race can surely kill you

May 07, 2015 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
A Government is elected by the citizens of a country to run its affairs in a manner that results in a better quality of life for all.  It is a privilege that should make one feel humbled.  On the contrary, we are made to feel that we have been done favours by this present Administration who throws out a few crumbs, after taking the hog for themselves, primarily through those pretentious infrastructural works which allow them to engage in creative accounting.
Just look at the fantastic costs of some of the so-called works, the recent one being the court building on the Corentyne. Incidentally, having lived through the Burnham era, when compared with the doings of the present Administration, Burnham is beginning to look like an angel to me.
Bob Marley’s song aptly urges us to ‘emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds’.  Mental slavery is not confined to idiots.  Educated people could be mentally enslaved too.  We may think that only a fool or a self-serving person could support the atrocities of the current administration, but tradition and culture can make us do irrational things too.
An abused, manipulated people would find it hard to move away from their abuser, who, as masters of manipulation, would constantly send them a message of the evils of Burnham, even though Burnham died thirty years ago; and abused people would never allow themselves to know or see anything else that would cause emotional discomfort. That is how bad abuse can have us.  Look at how an abused woman may be unable to leave her abusive husband, even though she knows could die at his hands.  It is hard to change our beliefs!
I read one of Freddie’s articles the other day in the newspapers, which posited, if I remember correctly, that human beings are very tribal, and would incline towards the tribe and its wishes.  There was the suggestion that educated Guyanese Indians would continue to vote for the current administration, regardless of how many atrocities they commit against us, Guyanese (of different races), because of allegiance to their tribe or race.
I can understand this and sympathize greatly. I have Indian friends, and I know how overwhelming and conflicting things can be for them.  Because of loyalty to their race they have to play down the atrocities of the present administration, no matter how bad, and play up the atrocities of Burnham. Not surprisingly, one of my friends of Indian ethnicity was expected by her family and relatives years ago to continue to live with an educated Indian man, her husband, who was beating her into unconsciousness.  Today her medical issues are many.  I remember another friend telling me years ago, about some of her Indian relatives being all enthusiastic and ‘pumped up’ about visiting the ‘motherland’, India.  They were very disappointed and disillusioned when they got to the place of their roots to discover that people chewed some yellow stuff (tobacco, perhaps?) and spat it out all over the place, leaving these hideous and insanitary yellow markings of their saliva behind in a very disgusting manner. I am sure there are similar disappointing stories that could be told of parts of Africa.
I looked at myself to see if race could be giving me a perspective that was untrue, but the big mansions and the unethical distribution of licences, the awards of contracts to friends and family, and my own inability to work meaningfully here, for pay, are not figments of my racial imagination.  Neither have I imagined that I was conned by a Guyanese government official of Indian ancestry into working for them, and then, two years later, in spite of having a signed contract, I am still to be paid, and have had to resort to the courts to seek redress.
They needed skills, but since I was neither friend nor family, I did not have the right qualifications to be paid the small sum that they owed me; small compared to what they pay idiot friends, thugs and family.  I have not imagined any part of this.
My race has not so affected me.  I have not imagined that the candidates’ list for the ruling party has semi-illiterate family members on it who do not even know the difference between ‘there and their’, judging from a printout of one of the favoured relative’s Facebook page; and it was not because she was using a shortened form of English.  It was clear from the repetition that she did not know the difference in meaning of those two simple words. But, God forbid, she can become a Minister of Government.  Help us Lord!   I want to know if it is okay for loyalty to race, rather than country, to make it possible for that person to hold high office. I am imagining because of my race, no?
I lived through the Burnham era, the Hoyte era and the PPP/C era.   I know I had reservations about Burnham, with whose race I am identifiable. I do know that there was a period of restriction of imports like wheaten flour and split peas, where it was harder for me a single (divorced) parent at the time to get by, and I did not have a party affiliation to help me.  I never have.
What I do know though is that today if I had the circumstances I had then, with all the supply of imported flour and peas that is available now, I certainly would be groveling in the dust to make ends meet.  Do not be fooled by large numbers that are thrown at you without any adjustment for the time value of money.  It is an insult to the intelligence of the ordinary man.  These people take you for fools.  A dollar today does not have the same value of a dollar from one year ago.
A lady recently was recounting to me how she lived on her forty (40) dollars a month salary, years ago, paying twenty (20) dollars of it for her rent.  Today for forty thousand dollars you would be extremely lucky to get a decent room, given VAT and all that goes into building a house.
What I do remember is that the restrictions that were in effect during the Burnham era then, were not the act of a madman trying to punish Indian people or any other race for that matter, but were intended to deal with the foreign currency situation, which incidentally, was aggravated by the current administration’s supporters sabotaging the economy by burning sugar cane, to weaken the Burnham administration. However, I am not passing judgement, just stating what I knew at the time.
Incidentally, Burnham’s restrictions had the desired effect of spawning local industrial activity, which are now being revived and masked as the Grow More Campaign and similar slogans, to make them look original to fool the simple-minded into not seeing the positive link to the ‘Blackman era’.  It may confuse the psyche of the relevant persons to see anything positive about Burnham, or Mr. Hoyte for that matter. What I do know, is that when we lie to ourselves, or we try to stifle the truth, the effect on ourselves is devastating.  The truth shall set you free!
I have an Indian handyman/’gardener’.   I remember him saying to me recently, how hard ‘everything’ was for him – not being able to get the mortgage to build on the house lot he was allocated, trying to build etc.  I wondered if the hardships he was facing would penetrate his ‘Indian’ psyche to the extent that race would not factor into casting his vote.
I thought about the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who played his music to charm the rats and led them to their destruction.  A group of greedy people who really cannot afford to relinquish power (and will do anything to keep it) will play the con music of race that your mind is shackled to, and will continue to manipulate and abuse, if you let them. It would have been a truly good thing if their cleverness was extended to creating jobs that would improve people’s lives without them having to work like slavery was never abolished.  But thieving and consideration for the poor make strange bedfellows.  The thief takes from you, disables you and your mind and emotions, and thus prevents you from making real progress.
If country does not come before race, then it makes sense to maintain integrity by not going through the motions of singing the national anthem and reciting the pledge which become a farce that only snare our emotions, especially when young people are looking at our behaviour and taking notes, even when we think they are not looking.
Rosemarie Terborg Davis

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