Father’s Day has passed but let’s look at the state of our fathers

Jun 23, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Father’s Day just passed and the United Republican Party (URP) would first like to say how proud we are of the men who did not only fathered children but more so, parented those children. The role of fathers has always been challenging. Not only internationally but more particularly in Guyana.
The Guyanese Father has always had an unparalleled struggle as compared to any other father across the Caribbean. The Guyanese father makes the least amount in salaries and wages. The Guyanese father has less access to proper health care. As a result of this, the Guyanese father has a predictably shorter life span than any other male in the region. The Guyanese father is more susceptible to being the victim of crime. He is also more likely to commit suicide and murder than any other father in the Caribbean.
All of these negative realities which the Guyanese father face are as a direct result of the repressive, narrow-minded, autocratic and greedy kind of political leadership to which the Guyanese populace has been subjected, for more than half of a century. The average Guyanese father is a very broken man. The proof of this can be visible any evening, particularly on the weekends. Pass by any rum shop, pub or beer garden and see the endemic decimation of the average Guyanese male. It is as if rum is now the substitute for even the desire for religious or political involvement.
Most of the conversations that take place around the rum and beer bottles are political in nature, however, the gutter-most depth to which the political arena has sunken in Guyana, is a deterrent to many. So they would rather sit and imbibe alcohol and talk about politics, rather than get up from the rum-table and actually get involved. Many of the alcoholics and budding alcoholics know that Guyana is in a political mess.
Their conversations fluctuate back and forth between those realities. They also know that if they cast aside their own political ideology and racial biases, they can effect a movement that would substantially change the political trajectory of this Guyana wasteland. However, they have been abused and beaten down for so long (50+ years) that they feel powerless of doing anything other than drink their sorry lives away.
It will be a while until the average Guyanese man is made to feel like a real man. It is nowhere in the near future that the average Guyanese man will be able to achieve a living wage and live a life comparable to the work he puts in. Guyana has seen neither the kind of transformative leaders nor those with the political will to so turn around the fortunes of the average Guyanese man.
Yes, the politicians, the contractors, the cronies of the politicians and the family of those connected will make it. They will travel (if their visas are not revoked), build impressive homes and experience the good life. In even the most autocratic and vile societies, they are those who manage to squeeze out a decent living. However, in these kinds of politically subversive societies, where objective views are frowned upon and where any opposition to the powers-that-be are taken as insurrection, many are left on the breadline and asked to be thankful for the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.
So notwithstanding the naked realities of the suffering of the average Guyanese man, the URP would like to belatedly wish the fathers a Happy Fathers’ Day and we hope and pray that as we move forward in this thing we call a democracy, that we will put our shoulders to the wheel and do what we know needs to be done to improve the lives of all men; not just the privileged and well connected.
Dr. Vishnu Bandhu
Leader, URP

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