National conversation – probability zero

Sep 12, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I do something publicly certain to send partisans and bigots into frenzies, what Guyanese call ‘fits’. I have private conversations with myself. I ask questions, answer them. I seek not hilarity, possess no insanity. I am thinking – can we have a conversation? The question boomerangs: on what, why? Thus, powerful confirmation of national sickness, decay.
I continue: can we speak of something. I regret unprintable answers, many expletives. I try again. Look, we have to start somewhere, we can’t go on like this, making absolute fools of ourselves before all. Is there any Guyanese (or group) anywhere, who can bring us to the same room? I think not. We have to have home remedies for our maladies, will we try? No! Not now! You are bothering me, boy… What about our religious houses, a united front that insistently pressures leaders? Each group (possibly except Jehovah’s Witnesses) is too much of the heaving political partisanship. They will lose support (membership, funding, relevance) if they take stands. Religious leaders prefer sacrificing spirituality and credibility; money and pride of place take preference; so, they are preferred politically. No exceptions. Who is not seeing this? If the spiritual component cannot overwhelm, even be interested in influencing, the secular meaning political-then what? What do we have, when the rotted and roguish secular/political commands our attention, demands our loyalty, dictates our integrity? To ask and answer: we have what we have, and end up where we are: the national cesspit.
We, the potentially richest per capita people globally, can’t be the dumbest, so disgracefully ignorant. I am not giving up; too important to retreat. On the other hand, to stand still in passive acceptance before the national culture of partisanship now so pervasive throughout. Regarding ‘throughout’ I name from top political leaders without exception, to rank-and-file partisans, to those who carry on in ecstasies of racist passions, and to those who once meant well, but give up too easily. I believe politicians converse privately, but too infrequently, too feebly, too hesitantly. On the big things, where are they, but separated? Anyone disagrees? I say no.
What about flooding, since we just had a sustained countrywide deluge? “Deh teef de money, fix deh own peeple, doan know wha de hell deh doing. And from the other side – deh duh de same ting tuh.” If we can’t see our way out of nationally disastrous floodwaters, then what hope is there for us? It is September and there is still some amount of steady rainfall. What does this promise us, come the rainy season of December-January? We could be drowning and still ‘cussin’ out each other, looking to carry enemies down. I clutch at any lifeline, though; something must be wrong with me.
I swallow hard; plunge: how about truth and reconciliation. The attacks come from all sides: you mad, not ‘wee’. That is all we know, love. Look at Venezuela, “deh comin fuh wee”; but the only enemies we see is ‘wee’. The ABCE people are aghast, asking themselves: who are these people? Rich, but incredibly stupid; too smart for their own good. I ponder another ant’s nest: can we talk of leadership ethics? The reflexive flares brightly: “all dem does teef and lie. But dem do it fust, longer, bigger.” On and on. All (me, too) speak of the bad Burnham ways and days. He was the smartest and smoothest we ever had, but we saw through him, because we wanted to, and didn’t fall for his sweet words, let ourselves be blinded to his glitter or failures. Where is that today? What happened to us: PhDs, pundits, pollsters, professionals, profound ones? Where are our marbles? Surely, we can’t be so warped that we ignore the blatant distortions of today’s leaders in government and opposition? Citizens read this and shrink in shame, but return with the same. What can be more tribal and racial than that? Why not? But we are for one nation and one destiny… I say to hell with that, let’s get real, will we?
I address the nonthreatening: schools, vaccines, narcotics, crime. Nobody wants to hear, get anywhere, other than the endless squabbling. Nothing should be more neutral than domestic violence. But that’s not safe, since I take it beyond partners battering loved ones. What about the pyrrhic violence in our thinking in the broad national domestic environment? That we heap upon one another? Most just hanged me. Are we still talking at all? Am I making any sense? Anyone listening? Anyone cares, anymore? That is furious shouting I hear.
Whether traffic, oil, accountability, corruption, or governance, the probability of a national conversation is zero. Over and out. We are sickos, sitting ducks, and sorry specimens of what it takes to be citizens, speak of democracy’s ideals. To speak of, be about, any damn thing. I am sorry.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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