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Lack of empathy

May 29, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – One of the biggest threats to Guyanese right now isn’t racial inequality or Venezuela, but the growing lack of empathy and indifference of the public and political leaders.

A few days ago, 19 children died in a torture chamber. It wasn’t the first time people died in a torture chamber, and I’m betting you that it will not be the last time. These children’s death is the most deplorable death-in-dormitory case in the history of Guyana.

Now the family is seeking accountability. These children were completely reliant on their caregivers to provide both day-to-day care as well as the acute life-saving care that was needed to save them in the event of a fire.

Guyanese prove they are their own worst enemy. A few years ago, I gave some smoke detectors to my family in Guyana, and I educated them about the importance of having smoke detectors in their home. I took these people to my home and showed them how I have smoke detectors everywhere in my house. And yet, these people refuse to get smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

Fast forward 10 years, the smoke detectors I gave to my family are still hanging at the same place I put them. The life span of them has been long since expired. There is no battery inside of them. The smoke detectors have become ornaments and a reminder that at one time they had smoke detectors.

Their house is heavily grilled and nowhere to escape a fire.  And yet, no smoke detectors and no fire extinguisher. This is why I said that Guyanese are their own worst enemy.

Guyanese don’t want to learn from their mistakes, and so they repeat their mistakes. How in the world you can have a dormitory and not have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers? The answer is because you have a society that lacks empathy and is indifferent.

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them,” someone said.

If I were to make a guess, I would say 99 percent of Guyanese doesn’t have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in their homes. Guyanese like to learn the hard way. “It will never happen to me,” they say.

No matter how much the country is growing economically and becoming one of the richest countries in the world, unfortunately this will not change the mindset of people. Changing economically is much easier than changing mentally.

The mindset of Guyanese is to wait until a disaster happens to make a change and sometimes after a disaster happens, Guyanese still don’t make a change.

Simply put, this will not be the last torture chamber we will be hearing about.

Referring to the type of political leaders we will have, one commentator put it this way, “You will have a technocracy that just doesn’t ask us our views anymore because they can’t get an answer out of us. And I always say, this will not be a takeover. Other people will govern us by default because we don’t care.

Regards
Name Provided

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