Why are these devastations occurring?

Feb 02, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News -There have been too many fires in too close a span of time. These are not fires of dwelling places, which are bad enough by themselves, nor are they in out-of- the-way areas devouring less prominent spaces.
First, there was the Laparkan Trading Bond and more recently the workshop of the Guyana National Shipping Corporation Limited (GNSC). These are not really the first, but only the latest. Before there were those Guyana Police Force (GPF) fires; one that demolished the central Brickdam Police Station, and a crucial link in the command apparatus of the GPF and the second being at Eve Leary, with most of its effects borne by the sensitive Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Office of Professional Responsibilities.
We at this newspaper are neither persuaded nor satisfied that the Guyanese public has benefitted from the full account of these conflagrations, in all of their rawness, in all of their truths which could be alarming.
We say alarming because we ask our fellow citizens to do what we did and look back. We urge them to search their memories and see if they can remember whether any of those places burnt had a fire before. We couldn’t come up with anything, which means nothing, since what didn’t happen in a hundred years could be delivered in a flash.
Still, we would be less than human, and less than wise, if there are no stirrings of suspicion about these fires. So many, and so quickly, does not lend to the accidental, as in electrical or human negligence and error. There could be the malicious and mischievous at work, if not more than that, because these fires are so dangerous, devastating, and costly for the present and for the future.
The bottom line is that the last two fires unfolded in high value locations, with low risk. There has been little human collateral damage, which has a significance all by itself. So far, it is only waterfront properties that are damaged in the two instances. Could there be more? If not, then what and where next? It is not a long walk from boards to bodies, and concrete to carcasses, human ones.
These staggered fires could be part of a creeping escalation plan operating on stealthy feet and in darkness. If it is a strategy to neutralise certain vessels, the mystery question then is by whom. The GPF is hobbling as a result of its own fire, and we lack credible answers.
We urge citizens to think. Cease being consumed with PPP/C, PNC, and AFC (coo..and bla…man). This could be nothing.
Then, it could be more than we have ever experienced in this country, or ever envisioned within the limits of our self-imposed narrow-mindedness. Think long and hard and deep. This is oil, which could be related in some manner. We must admit that we know little to nothing about it, and this is regardless of what the PPP/C Government and its Vice President say. Wars have been fought over oil. People have died because of it in too many societies. Societies have been torn apart by its unyielding curses. Look at neighbouring Venezuela, and there is a preview of a possible Guyana. Why not, given our inequities?
These fires flare with a glow that will not be suppressed by official denial, or leadership diversions. We cannot help thinking that the territory looks ripe for more of the same, as much as we hate having to be the communicator of such troubling thoughts.
We are Guyanese foremost, and we are worried. What is going on here with these fires that do not have much of an aura of innocence about them?
The most comforting foundation, most compelling truth, would be reports that furnish credible proof-based conclusions that these fires are unfortunate incidents without calculated objectives, or underhand machinations besides the loss and detritus left in their wake. To put it differently, there are no ulterior motives, no hidden agendas, no treacherous visions.
They just happened and left us to pick up the pieces. Somehow, that doesn’t measure up, doesn’t leave a right feeling or a settled one. Again, what is the real meaning of these fires?

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