The court has spoken

Mar 24, 2019 Editorial

The Court has spoken. And how it has…And however interpreted by all parties, there is neither cause for rejoicing, nor self-congratulating, nor excoriating and disdaining. The process is sure to stay alive in what has been–and promises to be–a bitter struggle all the way to the final bell. And then beyond, too. No favour offered, no quarter given.
As a practical matter, the ruling of the Court of Appeal can be articulated in numerous ways, but which all say the same thing and return to the same place: status quo ante. Square one.
It is an uninspiring place: a place and time both upheaving and undermining to the wellbeing of citizens in this pathetically fragmented society.
At an hour when this nation should be thrilled with its discoveries of nature’s bounties, and God’s gifts, there is only reciprocal rancor, mutual madness, and divisive and diversionary disagreements. Diversionary because when the nation’s eyes ought to be firmly fixed on its unfolding burgeoning promise, it is crippled by an oozing, weakening sickening.
Neither leaders nor people can concentrate on what the developments of the times demand be prioritized: ownership. Stewardship. Authentic statesmanship and responsible citizenship. Like Midas of fable, there is only the greed and discontent of wanting more, of wanting it all.
Unlike Midas and his bitter learning travails, this is no storybook message, but the hard lesson of life, real life.
Regrettably, the now is upward to the CCJ. And no less regrettably, upward to the CCJ means a spiral of the downward for a poor country that persists in pauperizing its prospects, through the dissipation of its energy, its intellect, and any capacity that it may have possessed for good sense and the reasonings and visons that come with those.
In view of all of this, and the current boiling, agitated state in which this beleaguered state finds itself yet again, it is no longer surprising that that pejorative which combines mud and skull applies so accurately and so stubbornly.
There is no space, no traction for what is thoughtful and progressive. What is left in the aftermath of a verdict that will wend its way into the annals of the storied (contingent upon point of view) is dismay and disgust, on the one side: how could that be?
And on the other side of this harsh, tense, bottomless divide: why should it not be? What is left is the continuing flight of substantive activity in the arena of enterprise, through a sitting on the hands, waiting for still another decision, and then the inevitable re-partnering with onetime colonial history. This time it is a voluntary exercise, which is already in motion; and, at the crux, a willing bowing before the sagacity and supposedly superior judgment of lesser gods.
Twist or turn, like or leave, this is where Guyana is presently. This is where a nation and its citizens stand with disfigured psyche, rancid, swampy visions, and with all the many cerebral and cardiac clots that leave it crippled, depleted, and utterly wasted.
So the plaintive cry remains in a threnody of the stricken: help wanted. That would be the CCJ in this trail of tears. Hear the continuum of that cry: help needed. At that time, it would translate to the saving grace of a patient, benevolent international community.
Help wanted and is desperately needed to enable this sad country, its woebegone leaders, its warring groups, and its trapped citizens to find a way to somewhere. The hands and minds of strangers are called upon again, to put on the temporary unified political pathway that continues to elude.

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