H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – The mystery of party trumping dignity of family

Nov 14, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Say it aint so, Sam….  Regardless of whether Sammy (or Danny) say it is so or not, the fact is that it is so.  The whole world saw it, heard it, thanks to the modern technology marvels of today.  That is, except for me.  Why spare the time to be near the frivolous, the felonious, the leprous, the slanderous, and the mischievous?  I didn’t see anything, but I did hear about it, and it has that ring of substance about it.  Family.  Don’t ever go near to family.  Never mess with family.

La Cosa Nostra in its many offshoots and imitations has put away a small legion of people.  But, among the most notorious of criminals, there is a sacred rule: family is off-limits.  Dare to touch family, and collect that last certificate to take on that last journey.  Yes, there is that kind of peculiar honor among the worst of thieves, murderers, and those who call themselves men of honor.  But then, there are other thieves, mobsters of a different kind.  We have lived with many of them in Guyana since August2020.  Among these desperadoes in the local environment, the culture is that nothing is outside their sniperscope, and nobody is safe.  Not even a citizen who was once primus inter pares.

Depending on the day, and with a nod to the circumstances, there may be a moment of rare looking the other way to justify a media hit on a citizen of such magisterial ranking, such high standing.  But never will be the day, when I could rationalize tottering into the latrine pit, and taking aim at a man’s family, and hauling down its members into the fray.  Nothing of the sort would ever be thought of, could ever be harbored, when staring at the sacred Ganges that represents family.

My word!  My Lord, my God! Is there no decency left in this country?  When even a comrade-one still ensconced in the bosom-could be made into a target, and blasted away at, then more than a Rubicon is crossed.  When his family could be vilified and viciously vandalized, then life in Guyana has breached the point of no return.  Not even the devil deserves such a dirty deal.  Where is the outcry?  Where is the retreat into some pale shade of remorse?  Where is that first public word of regret from controllers and sponsors of foot soldiers and street executioners that the zeal of lesser men did get the better of them?

As difficult as all of that is to absorb, and as bad as that itself is, there is still worse to contemplate, come to grips with, find some speck of wisdom and self-respect in what followed.  The absolute worst should always be expected of foes, and with a bow to that old mafia saying: keep enemies close, but keep friends closer.  But that has this one inviolable quality, this irreversible feature, which shatters all prior bonds, no matter how binding: don’t ever play with family.  Think about that, and begin to think immediately about parting company with just about everything else. A man is insulted, and I would be the first to plead with him to turn the other cheek, not to respond with the retaliatory.  Let go, move on, go on living with honor and dignity intact.  But not when family is involved.

Which party can ever possess such superiority that it trumps the dignity of family?  I invite any Guyanese to tell me, help me.  Which mother (expletive omitted) of a party could ever have such standing that it comes before family?  Perhaps, the more appropriate question is this: who is so debased in integrity, so vacuumed of spirit, and so decayed in the chamber of personal character that he or she [the one excoriated into increments of excrement] does not take any type of action?  Who has lost so much face that they don’t care that no face is left, and all because of love for the party?  I recall that it was the Apostle Paul in one of his epistles to the rowdy Corinthians (not the Brazilian football team) who wrote that if I have all the many great things, but if I don’t have love, then I am nothing.  At the risk of sacrilege, I prefer to be without that love, if only for that one occasion to register the most unforgettable message.

When a citizen of whom I wrote about-half seriously, semi provocatively, quasi mockingly-could crumble for care of comrades, then what more is there left to be said and written about Guyana and Guyanese?  This is neither the obtuseness of the mulish, nor unalloyed loyalty to party, nor self-abnegation taken to unprecedented depths.  This is being a willing contributor to self-demonization, helping others to make oneself into the worst of caricatures, and lighting the pyre for burning self in effigy. I keep telling myself that this can’t be happening, that I am hallucinating.  Indeed, Guyana is in a bad state, but it can’t be this bad.  Regrettably, the ugly reality, the nasty and dutty story is that it is.  Why do I ever bother, think, that this place and people are worth salvaging?  Perhaps, the problem is me.

(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.)

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• Danny, family, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Sammy

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