Latest update September 7th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 03, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column
Kaieteur News – Guyanese have to stop shouting at each other, learn the futility of their incessant reciprocal, primal screaming. Nobody benefits, not a single inch is gained, besides some applause from one’s own circle, while an entire country is oppressed under the foreign jackboot. My fellow Americans are today’s Prussians.
Politicians snarl at politicians. Politicians lunge at citizens, especially those who disagree openly with them. Citizens growl audibly, bark furiously, at citizens. This is the cacophony of a polity at war with itself, democracy’s death throes. Guyanese mobs rampage, while invaders take advantage. Exempt me from any cursing, the vilifying. I turn my cheek; one hand can clap for all its worth. We have people hurting, issues devastating.
About elections: who rigged before, who is rigging today. Beyond any doubt, elections are the most important thing in Guyana, a matter of life and death. It is unbelievable that elections could take precedence over this nation’s oil patrimony, family, patriotic duty, holds the unmatched place they do in our calculations. When we cannot govern ourselves in a civilized manner, then oil means nothing for the masses, few prosper. The odds of it being the pathway to universal prosperity plummet. When we maul one another, we tender a blank check to local and foreign exploiters to take advantage of us avoid addressing the roots of our ills. The only instinct is to outshout the other. I do not have to return to America to encounter a raging Trump, or a declining Biden, (and the people propping both up); I get that right here in the noise, rage, and hate.
Political leaders and their helpers scream and shout at Guyanese (there are few opposing), who question, challenge, object, and expose what surrounds this national wealth, and how it is mismanaged. Certainly, it cannot be said that screaming and shouting enhance the prospects of ordinary Guyanese. It is more of a self-recommendation to Exxon by those longing for a pat on the head. Good dog! Down boy! Put differently, Guyanese thrill to kowtow before foreign exploiters, so lacking in self-respect they are today. Locals suppress their own intellect and commonsense and pretend that they are contented with how the American oil company has treated Guyana’s patrimony. To stay in Exxon’s good books, men prostitute their minds first, and then themselves. Field Marshall Alistair Routledge must be utterly delighted. Exxon holds all the cards, controls the human levers, at the highest political levels. This is why Guyanese grovel to get near the action, and shout at their peers to prove their loyalty to Exxon’s brand, vision, narrative, and actions.
My irreversible position is that we make a start at addressing our many local issues when we respect the person across the fence. When the arenas of conversation are characterized by curses and mob mentalities, such meet with the fullest approval, applause, of people who thrill at the spectacle of colored people attacking colored brethren. They delight at Guyanese being reduced to this passionate warlike state. Their presence is sanitized; our shouts justify it. When we know our Achilles heels, we may manage ourselves better, succeed in possibly standing upright. If and when we prioritize living in a civil manner, we might even progress.
I listen from the periphery to the furious exchanges, the uninterrupted streams of reciprocal vilification, and ask of myself whether we appreciate, or even care, that this is how we give comfort to the enemies of our promise, the saboteurs of our destiny. More are coming out to denounce me. My evil is refusal to subscribe to American slavery, as aided by Guyanese. Do the best with the scurrilous, vicious and unscrupulous. Unmoved, I am.
There shouldn’t be a single Guyanese political figure around such putrid practices, the product of offal-overwhelmed minds. If they can inspire their people into the streets, they can require of them that they manage themselves better. We only do favors for the Caucasians who have long exploited and damaged our ancestors. Some of our forebears from India and Africa had the backbone to stand in resistance to the Whiteman’s burden, that become the nonwhite man’s bondage. There was the Indian Mutiny at Meerut, and the Zulu triumph at the Battle of Isandlwana. They died fighting against those calumnies, those racial crimes, those racist demagogues. We must be the worst kind of unmentionable people, the most craven type of sons and daughters have we become, when we feed the hand that enchains us, then whips us.
They are going to have to get rid of me before I besmirch the legacies of those who came before. I distance myself from foreign expectations, move away from foreign maneuvers, and abhor their sanctimonious paternalism. Somebody can convey that to Bharrat Jagdeo, Alistair Routledge, and whoever is the incoming American Ambassador. They have crowds of Guyanese fighting to attract their attention, falling over themselves for their smiles. It is their right. I stand apart. Whoever it pleases can do so, but I will not shout for joy and distort my peace by bending to serve the White man’s piratical interests.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
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