Our existence is bound up with paper upon paper

Sep 14, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
When we acquire enough goods and services, society looks up to us; the more we get, the better. Our names might even make it on pieces of paper circulated for the population to read. Eventually when our time comes to die we make markings on a piece of paper giving our assets that other pieces of paper got for us to our relatives and beloved ones. When we die, others desperately rely on that last piece of paper of our humanity to get what we have left for them. When they get it, they have to go to a place called a court to get that final paper accepted. Then the assets become fully theirs, generating in the process more pieces of paper.
Our entire lives are governed, influenced, controlled, recorded and given meaning by pieces of paper. Our lives begin with a piece of paper – the birth certificate, and ends with a piece of paper – the death certificate without which the will is not accepted by the court. Our entire humanity has been reduced to pieces of paper with markings on them. Without those pieces of paper our lives have no meaning. We cannot live in today’s world without those pieces of paper. Paper, paper, ink, ink for everything. Where is our humanity in all of that? We begin with a piece of paper, live for pieces of paper, even worship pieces of paper, slave for pieces of paper and our lives end with a piece of paper.
To be human in today’s society means to make and find representation of oneself in pieces of paper with the right markings on them. That is what we have become – pieces of paper with markings on them.
But long ago before there was text, language was oral, verbal and aural and our humanity more peaceful, egalitarian, richer and fuller. We are human not because of pieces of paper, but because we can reciprocate and exchange and inter-depend like no other creature on Earth can. So we have to learn above all to reciprocate in the best manner so that all will benefit and none will lose.
So what have we become? Paper, ink, markings – is that all we are? That is why a picture or a painting is said to be worth a thousand words.
With the advent of the electronic information technology age and digitized data, our humanity will be reduced even further to electrical and magnetic forms to be recorded on tapes, discs and other means of electronic storage. We will then become an electronic-based society and our humanity will be further reduced to devices with electronic markings in or on them. That is why we panic when we lose a computer, a storage device or a mobile phone with our humanity impressed in electronic markings in it. Every time we reduce our humanity, we lose an essence of our being and become dehumanized. So what are we really? What is the essence of our being? Markings on pieces of papers? Markings on electronic devices?
Winston Churchill wrote volumes of books on pieces of paper, but he is remembered for his deeds and his spoken word, not so much for his written words. Spoken words existed long before written words and when the written words or electronic markings no longer exist, as will certainly happen one day, our spoken words will be eternal and the thoughts from which they spring will also be eternal. For the words we speak into air and the thoughts we think from our mind (brain) will emanate throughout space and time long after we gone, carrying the record of our humanity on and outward forever. This is a physical uncontestable fact. So let us ensure we speak the right words, think the right thoughts and do the right actions. This is the essence of our being: our thoughts, words and actions.
Michael Xiu Quan Balgobind Hackett
Editor’s note: this is the conclusion of Mr. Hackett’s letter captioned originally as; “what does the Wai Wai culture have to offer Guyana?” carried in our Monday edition. There is a title change because of the contents of his conclusion.

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