Guyana is thankful for much

Nov 28, 2019 Editorial

It is the quintessential American holiday, but Guyana has been blessed with so much that it is timely and appropriate for this paper to extend greetings through saying: Happy Thanksgiving! Guyana.
There is no question that thanksgiving is appropriate from the citizens of this land overflowing with almost every natural gift imaginable.
As to whether it is a timely occasion or a happy state of affairs in this country may it be subject to inquiry and some dispute from a couple of quarters. Regardless, it is all there, save for the usual squalling and ugly oozing, so audible and palpable before a disbelieving world.
The rest of the world has good grounds on which to disbelieve the divisive power priorities of groups and the self-serving visions of countless crass individuals. Brethren in the region would be thankful for a fraction of what we have, covetous neighbours look on angrily (but happily), while we dig holes in the river, dig the spirit out of each other, and dig what they say belongs to them.
Without missing a beat, we still partner with others to continue digging at soil and soul, which brings a special joy, not just on a sacred Thursday in November (as in America), but throughout the year here in Guyana. That’s the national joy and delight.
It is appropriate for us, Guyanese, to be thankful because of what we have, of what it can do for us, and where it can lead us. No longer should we feel compelled to seek the welcome of lodging and acceptance among strangers in foreign lands.
No longer should we be willing to allow ourselves to be humiliated and converted into the human doormat of so-called friends, whether close by or far away; or those looking to exploit us, whether we go there, or they come here.
We have oil to be thankful for, notwithstanding draining contract and known overheads and still unknown exposures. Now if only we could work out the intricacies of our knotted love-hate relationships, then there just be so much more for which to rise every day and be truly thankful.
Other places have droughts, while it seems that we have more water than we know what to do with it. Other places–bigger and more advanced than us by far–have smog that strangles the life out of them, while we still have that precious something called fresh, clean air. There is no need to legislate that just yet, only to be thankful that we do exist in such a pristine state.
Oh, and there are those places right over there and the others way out there across the oceans that have disasters and devastations, while all we have is the manmade disaster of each other and the devastations we inflict on one another–scaremongering and inciting, race-baiting and race-hating, dividing and ruling, in the age-old practices of crafty men since time immemorial.
Those are our now public family secrets, our bared Achilles heels, our agonising crosses that we carry around all the time and even wear as badges of honour.
It is because of the latter components present in nation politics and community fellowship,–in ourselves, too–that is can be argued with some degree of authority, that now is not the most timely moment to be thankful or there is reason to find anything happiness-inducing from the gifts, which abound in this land.
For there can be no ignoring (despite the current quiet on all fronts) the ongoing, deep-seated venoms about lists and elections, and the significances of those. Those are the buckets of dirty water that rain on Guyana’ s parade. Come to think of it, that might not be water at all.

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