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Mashramani is for Guyanese wherever they are

Feb 23, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Shall we reason for a brief bit? I crave your indulgence to address Mashramani 2017, the Guyanese, ‘Celebration after hard work festival’. Could we celebrate this year as one young population who knows how to celebrate ourselves? I’m calling on all my peeps that have not yet gotten their gears to do so. Get cracking to prepare your husband, wife, mother, father, children, grandmother, grandfather and neighbour.
Even the people who came late and did not get one of the 225 vending spots, those who disagree with the route, come out, it’s still your Mashramani, it’s still your song, it’s still your wine (gyration), it’s still your snow cones. Granted with my inside seat I can safely say with conviction that it was a fair fight to get the few business units of vending equitably distributed, so they had to be served by first-come-first-serve. But the dark horse rode in slinging mud with dirty hurtful tricks, launched attack after attack in what is coined as intellectual dissecting of the intent of the Ministry.
From my experience their intention is further from the truth. This kind of poison can only bring us to mirror Trump’s America. As we march forward in a few days’ time we will be celebrating our 47th Republic Anniversary. Let’s not neglect to celebrate the uniqueness of our differences. My heart leapt with joy at the huge attendance at the children’s competition and ultimate road parade and the even larger turnout for the Adult Calypso Monarch competition and we did it as a diverse and unified people. Let’s do this again on Mash Day, February 23, 2017. Make a statement to the deflecting search light on the Caribbean and Guyana. Embrace our Mashramani! Reject the negativity, hate, politics, economics and social differences. Do not give in to the human trick to alienate centrist and undecided
Fact is, more than 225 spots were sold for vending on Mashramani Day to a cross section of Guyanese on a first-come-first-serve basis. By all standards 225 spots for vending inclusive of large scale Beverage companies as well as the average man seeking to, as they say ‘catch their hand’ is more than the usual amounts of vendors who come out on February 23.
For what it’s worth, it is my belief there must come a time in our development when people move beyond the last minute scramble to planning ahead embracing the term -‘it is the early bird that catches the fattest worm’. One cannot just decide to turn up at the last minute and get a spot to vend. We are sorry that you saw the advertisement late. If you did, let’s agree on one thing more ‘Vending spots are finite but the demand is infinite’. Truth be told, not one of us including the coordinators; we have not yet gotten the recipe to spin straw into gold. But we can come out in our numbers and dance, gig, wine, flounce, socialise as a united Guyanese people.
Humbly I submit the idea for us to work towards order and a better society and a better Guyana, not just for ourselves but for future generations in an orderly fashion remembering always that Mashramani is not a political nor personal event, it is by Guyanese for Guyanese and whosoever may come to our shores. Let us show the detractors and mischief makers in our numbers that division solves nothing while respecting and celebrating our differences does
Mondale Smith

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