In the search for parity, one area is studiously left alone

Feb 28, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,
There is this wonderful and interesting conversation occurring currently. What is interesting also harbours revelations. Because for a change, it can be deemed a conversation and not a confrontation, with the fiercest of passions, the usual contradictions, leading to the inevitable deteriorations. It has to do with reading of all things, which I think is a good thing, has its merits, and something that I hold dear in its very exercises and epiphanies, its enabling wisdoms, its sometimes frightening truths. And this of course, this being our dear land of Guyana – the dearest for them, as many swear – what began with reading and learning, quickly trickled into another area, then another.
One of those is culture, of music, and of honour of place, pride of recognition.
I hear, I applaud, and I say, why not, for we should, and what could be simpler than that…. Having said so, I now dare to step into the known minefields of this lovely land, and take those same lush assertions, arguments maybe, and amplify them in those places from which we shudder the mere contemplation, beat the hastiest of rapid retreats. It should be noted that cowardly was sidestepped, in keeping with what is intended to be the hoped-for appealing tenor and delicate touch of this little writing. It would be unjust to contribute to matters degrading into the contentious, since we have more than enough of that in this heaving society.
Editor, I take the plunge. We wish for, call for, push for some level of satisfying equity in the public service (good), and some greater degree of parity in the law enforcement service, and wider national security (better).
Another aspect of this continuing conversation is that some of the same interest and energy ought to be, in a climate of fairness, deployed in the economy and agricultural realms. These are all (all) praiseworthy visions and objectives.
But we balk in their fulfillment. In the required sincerity and authenticity of efforts and enthusiasms employed.
Some groups want something better than where they are, always have been. But of those who are positioned to relinquish some ground, from such there are the fiercest of resistances. It is territorial, like we live with in the corporate and capitalist world; but more of the tribal, which is the emotionally stirring reality of Guyana. And if we yield not an inch in these noble insights that visit a few, I ponder what madness takes hold of me that I go still some more up the already steep, mostly uphill of roads. It is one littered with the treacheries of agendas best couched in platitudes and slogans, in the canned concoctions that please us all. Momentarily. Hollowly. I refuse to say foolishly, but must assert farcically.
Because the one thing, the one area, the one slightly taller, more elevated hill that stands in our way, but beckons, we see it most fitting to ignore, dispute, and discard, ultimately. Of that we will have no relationship, no semblance of association. Perhaps some other day, if that day ever comes, and we will ourselves go (or circumstances do) to that place, but not today. It is that point in our affairs, about which we resist both time and tide, for of that we will not have.
Editor, and to my fellow Guyanese, I ask: what about equity and parity in our system of governance? For those who pretend at incomprehension, I refer them to the USAID hint, which is much more than a nuanced hint, almost the force of a pronouncement from above. We want all these enhancements in all those other areas, but of movement in this one truly national direction, we lag, are content to lapse, and excited to lose out, and languish behind. To emphasize, public service equity is good, security service parity is better, but of what is the very best for this prejudiced, pained, and polarized nation, we will not have, not be any part of. Period.
When a scoundrel like me risks mentioning shared or joint or even togetherness, it is the worst of treasons, be such racial, trumped-up, actual.
All gush in torrents of what tortures and tears at the texture of this society, but still we will not let go. It is backdoor and side door, and a door beyond, which we must never travel past its threshold.
Not even approach mending in honest outreach, in the idealistic and altruistic that lingers somewhere deep inside of those who say they love this hurting land, and really do. Of this we will none of, nothing to do with.
Now that the foreign mind, the Caucasian hand, an outside spirit, has surveyed our coast and national character, there is only one conclusion.
Sharing. As I see it, that just had to be. Sometime or the other, it will be. It is the long, hard road of oil, history warns. And if mentioning amounts to an unpardonable hanging offense, I am ready.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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