Guyanese things that startle

Mar 30, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Guyanese are endlessly innovative people, blessed with an expansive imagination. Those citizens that think less than cleanly, legally, and righteously come up with one concoction or involvement after another that tell how far people will go to get their way. Some of those ways are not so positive.
Black money – what is that? A 62-year old involved? And all the way over by the Golden Triangle? I am surprised to learn that Guyanese are even aware that a place called Thailand exists, actually end up over there, and then are so clever as to seek to get one over by criminal action; prisons are reputed to be dungeons.
When these players come to light, I end up thinking: what a waste! For I am speculating how much they could have brought to the motherland if put to positive uses. Truly, with daring, talent, and tireless energy like that, this country would have learned something; not necessarily always beneficial, but something anyhow. Think very good cyberhackers, who are recruited from the dark side to that of the light.
From Bangkok I make my way to Georgetown. To be specific, the bus park. Dante Alighieri would have drawn a special circle for that hell-hole. Police authorities must be commended for taking a look at an eyesore and eye-pass. There is a low-grade racket – many of them – at work in plain view.
For the longest while, daily travelers have been subjected to one abuse after another; so, too, are those seeking to work at an honest living. I understand that the elderly come in for the intimidating; pictures, eyewitness accounts, and many shared individual experiences speak of routine lawlessness that squeezes simple, working class people trying to get from one point to another. Harassment, menacing, robberies, and the rest.
Near a bustling, central marketplace, this is the harsh reality. It is one big brawl, because the perpetrators know that they have been given a free pass. That is, until now. That this could have gone on for so long without a determined effort boggles the mind. Yes, I understand lack of manpower; might be will, too. Low level crimes, and quality of life travails, are some of the troubles what spawn serious felonies, give the thuggish reason to believe that they can and will get away with anything.
It is getting away with anything that prompted the startling development of protest against the installation of surveillance cameras in that same heavily populated area. Somehow, I hear strains of America: privacy concerns, exposure traumas of suddenly shrinking violets. Say what? For whom? What about the welfare and security of the many people who cannot afford taxis, exist on minimum wage, and must use that warzone called the bus park?
I suppose in a town where the order and discipline of parking meters unleashed one furor after another, then why not object to security cameras, too? I should have seen that one coming. I am still adjusting to the national mindset and culture of not wanting to pay taxes (unsettling); not liking governmental pressure on narcotics trafficking (mindboggling); not appreciating anti money laundering and its positives (disturbing); and not welcoming official anticorruption moves (stupefying).
It is stupefying (at least to me) that the very things that have devastated this society attract disfavour and run into heavy resistance. The same people who feel the brunt of the disadvantages, shortages, pressures, and stringencies – the mass of the smaller man and woman, are those who lend either oral or spiritual support to those who play profitable games with these fires. It is why I am not surprised that elections of the kind that have been known, governments and politicians of the calibre experienced, and a constitution of the specious character and quality endured have all continued to flourish for so long.
The smaller improvements (security cameras, traffic lights, parking meters) are routinely scorned, ignored, and dismissed. It should come as no surprise that the real heavy-duty bigger ingredients that make for some degree of coexistence have failed to find a core of hearing, and solid traction on which to build for future momentum.
These matters should startle any sober and sane observer. Rather regrettably, I confess to becoming so acclimatized to the environment that I am not even surprised anymore. Worse yet, I have reached that terrible state where I can anticipate the next once-disturbing incident of the latest Guyanese creative irregularity and shrug nonchalantly, then move on.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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