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We as a nation do not always do what we are supposed to do
DEAR EDITOR,
I have been bombarded with questions about the letter I wrote in the SN of 5th April 2019 captioned, “Ill persons from mine should have been quarantined in Region One, not brought to city”; my intention was never to suggest that we abandon these people where they are, but we as a nation do not do what we are supposed to do. For example, on making enquiries yesterday, I was told that when the functions of the Guyana National Defence Commission [GNDC] was formed, this was one of their mandates i.e. to establish a functioning mobile quarantine unit well enough equipped to handle these situations effectively. As usual, we get the grant aid or the tax money extorted from our citizens to establish these safeguards to the population but we don’t. My enquiries yesterday have disclosed to me facts which at first impression are that even though it is the mandate or even though it is supposed to be their mandate, they have never been given the money to set it up. It’s a national anthem not to do what we are supposed to do to protect the people who live here.
For example, the Asian men who came off the plane from Region 1 had on masks and other protective gear, and one friend I spoke to tells me that he has pictures of the two pilots who transporting them, had no protective gear whatsoever! These two pilots could have gone home and given the virus if it were the H1N1 to their children, who will go to school next day etc, and spread it to the entire Georgetown!!
We were lucky this time since it was not H1N1 but the full diagnosis is still not in, Leptospirosis is not communicated through the air, but by coming into direct contact with the contaminated material. H1N1 however is.
Just as we have no Judicial system because our constitution decided in 1980 to tell us that we will no longer have access to the Privy Council in England, that all appeals become final here in Kingston, Georgetown at our Court of Appeal. We recently saw the effects which still plague our justice system here. It has been widely held by the leading legal minds I spoke to over the years, that the main reason our justice system has been rendered useless, was this act of making the clearly politicised Appeal Court the final court on all legal Matters in Guyana, because when matters were taken to England to the Privy Council, the law lords in handing down their decisions, did not pull their punches on denouncing and criticizing bad decisions by judges made in the countries from which the cases came, so it affected the entire judicial especially in Guyana, since even today our judicial system which is supposed to be independent is NOT INDEPENDENT!
Just as it was the opinion of many of the top [local doctors I spoke over the years that our medical system is dysfunctional because we brought Cuban doctors here to help us in the 70’s it was a bad move. In Trinidad, the standard of medical practitioners is very much higher; they are all fellows of the royal college of physicians or the American Boards. The Cuban doctors try their best but they [most of them not all] are not capable of delivering excellent medical service. They also come here from Cuba because and I extracted this from the internet, “Doctors are like slaves for our society,” said Sandra, an art student and photographer’s assistant who makes more than her mother, a physician. It’s not fair to study for so many years and be so underpaid.” Apparently, they get the equivalent of 40-60 US per month. To complicate matters their qualifications are complicated; some are specialist and some are barely better TRAINED than a Medex. They are graded 1 to 3, this grading system is complicated and not fully understood here; incredibly, there is very little difference in pay between a high grade doctor and a low grade one about $25US per month. Of course in Cuba, the doctors are educated free – by the state.
Tony Vieira
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