My niece committed suicide last week in Wakenaam

Apr 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My niece, Karishma, committed suicide four days ago in Wakenaam where she lived. On hearing the news from her brother my mind flashed immediately to Black Bush Polder, which is the suicide capital of the world; in case you didn’t know, let me repeat it – per capita Black Bush Polder has more suicides than any other place in the entire world. I first saw Black Bush Polder when I was five years old when my sister took me there on her visit to her farmer-boyfriend.
I have no memories of that visit. I went back to Black Bush Polder more than fifty-five years after. It was during the 2015 election campaign and twice I shared the AFC’s platform with Dr. Ramayya. At one of those meetings, I asked Berbice attorney, Charrandas Persaud, what exactly is this place; it becomes a haunted castle when the sun goes down.
After the second campaign meeting, I did some research on the election results in Black Bush Polder from the fifties onwards. The PPP has won Black Bush Polder in landslide victories from 1957 to 2015. That party controlled Berbice for 23 years. What did it do for that part of Berbice?
It is the same for Wakenaam. That is the island in the Essequibo where my wife has her roots. Her parents were born there. My first visit to the island was when she took me there. If you check the election history of Wakenaam you will find it has a strong similarity with Black Bush Polder – it has historically turned out landslide wins for the PPP and it was a landslide in 2015. From the first time I set foot on Wakenaam, I saw the underdevelopment and onto this day I cannot understand why my wife’s relatives continue to vote for the PPP.
I could not see a future for the young people in Wakenaam and I always wonder why they wanted to stay there. There is no future for anyone in Wakenaam in the 21st century. So many have got out and because of that, have done well – three famous names from that place are Glenn Lall, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Baroness Amos.
Kaieteur Sports journalist Zaheer Mohamed, too, is from Wakenaam. He grew up with my niece, and yesterday when we were discussing Karishma’s death, he told me the island’s population has been reduced to a mere 5,000 when a decade ago it was 8,000. Glenn Lall only last week said that the part of the island that he comes from, Zeelandia, had about 900 a few years back, but his friend recently told him that Zeelandia now has a mere 41 persons
Maybe Karishma should have long moved out. Maybe my wife and I could have done more for her, since my wife is very close to Karishma’s mother. Maybe Karishma’s brother who stayed with us in Georgetown could have done more. But most definitely, the party Wakenaamers put in charge of Guyana for 23 years should have done more for its supporters on the island. There is absolutely nothing in Wakenaam. The PPP Government did absolutely nothing for that island. It is a place of high unemployment; it has been like that for over fifty years.
One of the things I hate in life is when academics use their hard-earned talent to prostitute themselves on the altar of opportunistic sycophancy and questionable fear. We have study after study on the reasons for suicides in Guyana, but not one points to the role of the lack of a modern society in Guyana and the underdevelopment that creates depression and pessimism. There are two reasons for this.
I referred to opportunistic sycophancy. That means they want to stay nicely in the government’s good books, so they do not want to cite political factors. The other – questionable fear – is the trepidation they have of the government of the day being annoyed with them and they fear victimization.
I end with an extract from my September 9, 2014 captioned, “Suicide in Guyana also has a political cause to it.” And my Saturday, February 6, 2016 column captioned, “Guyana’s breakdown is connected to our high suicide rate.” What I wrote back then, I still accept.
In the first I wrote; “What is driving suicidal inclinations is the uncontrollable angst among the young… they have to face the reality that not in their lifetime will Guyana become even semi-modern, much less like what they see in other countries. “
In the second, I observed, “Guyana is a country that is almost impossible to live in. The stress it brings to its population cannot be handled by the younger folks.”

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My niece committed suicide last week in Wakenaam

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