Latest update December 25th, 2024 1:10 AM
Dec 25, 2024 Editorial
Kaieteur News – A Happy Christmas to all Guyanese, all who are in this country for one reason or another. Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas, is so easy to say, almost a reflex action during this season. The joy of this season really should belong to every Guyanese family, every Guyanese. It is what should accompany being described as among the richest people in the world, that deep, lasting joy. The richest would energize to that special state: peace of mind. As citizens in an oil rich country, Guyanese must know what it is to celebrate a good Christmas, and not only in December. On this day, too many of our Guyanese brothers and sisters do not have enough, long for the ease of release that brings a little more.
The tables of those in charge and their circle of family and friends, the highly favored in Guyana, are overloaded with richness. They have all they want, and then so much more. In contrast, there is a different story on the tables of the poor on the coastland, the distant hinterlands, and many other parts across Guyana. They need and don’t have, need not want, but must do without in this season of joy. In a country, applauded universally for its many treasures, where oil stands at the pinnacle. It is the grim reality of the haves and have nots, when there should not be one have not in a country so rich with natural resources, with oil as king. There are those at the top and their laughing, drinking, and dancing comrades, who live the opulence of Oil Guyana. Then, there are the many Guyanese crowded around the bottom of the ladder, who are dragging due to lack of food. They don’t have enough money to buy basics, including clothes and pay the bills.
In one of the richest countries on the planet, many Guyanese cannot even think of buying a toy for their children, doing something extra for the family at Christmas. This is what should never be in this era of 650,000 barrels of oil being produced daily, and of five years producing oil. Leaders and their gang of insiders enjoy themselves to the hilt. Ordinary Guyanese are consumed with figuring out how they are going to manage, going to endure, going to survive. Some may have collected $100,000, if their names were called. What is $100,000 in a country producing oil in the amounts that it does, for as long as it has? The mildest way to express this is that $100,000 is worse than a pittance, worse than an insult. Regardless of any helpful way in which we consider this $100,000 slap in the face from the government and its leaders, it is the height of their callous indifference.
No Guyanese should be in need on Christmas Day, or any other day. Those in control, with the power in their hands, have more than they want, more than they can imagine or consume. While they are on top of the world and living in ecstasy, many in the ranks of the Guyanese man and woman in the street are hungry, hurting badly. Leaders and their cronies are knocking glasses and having a wonderfully good time. All that Guyanese around the poverty line can do is knocking their heads on finding a way out of their distress. Their hard times never seem to end.
The richer the statistics, the poorer they are. The brighter that well-nourished fat cats in the ruling clique are, the gloomier the weak and struggling in Guyana are. Because of the oil wealth that this country has, there should be peace and contentment in the heart of every Guyanese. They should have enough, so that something is left to share with neighbors who leave their torn societies to find relief in Guyana. What should have been, is a dream that loses some of its promise daily. The rich get greedier, the poor learn to live with their woes. Christmas should not be this way in Guyana anymore. To those who have less, change must come. Better is what must be, and there will have to be a strengthening of the will to achieve that lofty goal.
Dec 25, 2024
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