The realities of Guyanese at the bottom

Sep 13, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It is clear that the brunt of the struggles in Guyana fall on the heads of those Guyanese, who are least able to cope with the challenges. Though our media channels are filled with the voices and postures of leaders promising the moon and stars, it is poor, weak, and vulnerable Guyanese who are at the mercy of the times, who most times are forced to fend for themselves too much of the time. We carried three news stories on Friday, September 3rd, which reveal and emphasise how this is so, and the results of their exposures.
The first was of Bourda Market vendors, who are victimised from time to time, when their stalls are robbed at will. This happens at night, and has been so for months, and when the robbers are unhappy with their take, or for the sheer malice of it, they then vandalise the stalls on which these vendors depend for a living.
It is not a princely living, but they make do with what they can eke out of this business of buying and selling for small mark-ups that add up to a little something by the end of the day and week.
It is a hard and honest living, but one made harder by these robberies and the resulting losses that they can ill afford. The Bourda Market is not the only municipal market where these robberies and ongoing acts of vandalism are known to occur. And this is while there are market constables to watch over and serve as a block to aspiring robbers.
Further, this is while Central Government (Ministry of Local Government) and Municipal Government (Mayor and City Council of Georgetown) are locked in ceaseless reciprocal and public blaming of who is not doing right, and who did wrong, as the public suffers the consequences.
In this case, it is the stallholders first, and the extended shopping public at a wider expanse. For somewhere along the line, availability of items could decline, prices of items sold in the markets register an increase, and suffering stallholders decide to shut up shop and be done with the troubles that they face. This means that the competition that was there before decreases and the poorer consumers who shop at the local markets are the ones paying the price.
Paying a stiff price, a sometimes lethal one, is what is confirmed by our second story on September 3, which is, that the Guyana Police Force was moving “to tackle high incidence of violence in Swan” which is on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
In an area with a mere 600 residents, three murders have been recorded. It is a poor community, with some alcohol consumption, fuelled in part by two underlying secondary offenses. The first is liquor being sold by unlicenced shops, and the COVID-19 curfew restrictions being recklessly ignored.
One does not have to be an expert on anything to appreciate that poverty, youth, and alcohol don’t mix well. In fact, it is an explosive blend, which too often leads to violence and worst, that is, murder. Now, three lives are lost, three more are in jail, and six families struggle to cope with new nightmares, amidst their other worries.
The hardworking at the bottom of the economic ladder (stallholders), and the poor (a depressed community) are just snapshots in what is the harsher aspect of another side of Guyana, rich Guyana. After all the quarreling and fighting at the political leadership level, this is what our people in too many lesser-known segments and communities face and have to deal with continually. It is a losing battle.
Finally, there was the item where “Residents of the Circuit Area Timehri community appeal to government for improved roads.” We spend countless billions on roads, yet we seem to be stuck in the same old places. Broken areas, deep craters, impassable roads keep making the rounds after all this money has been spent, and after many such appeals to government before.
This Government promises to do something. We wonder how long that will last. The same can be said for all the other people and places that need value for their money, and incorruptibility from government leaders and agents.

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