Acid attack

May 05, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-  The acid attack at Chateau Margot scarred more than those two children and their folks.  When images of the alleged perps are broadcast, the nation has now added another scar to its already huge collection of such.  Heinous, poisonous, and felonious all belong, yet somehow seem not to be enough.  Not enough to capture the naked ugliness that disgraces this country and its people from time to time.  I am deeply troubled by this incident, if that was what it was.

There can never be any justification for such acts of madness.  These are not random at all, but provide evidence of the deep-seated animosities that deform so many Guyanese, provoke bitterness.  When some are spurred to such acts of depravedness, this country goes through still another episode of soul wringing and psychic revulsion.  Any civilized person would.  I think that I am, so I am appalled.  Whatever book has to be thrown at the alleged perps, let it be, and with not a page missing.  Indeed, there are those street perpetrators, but to target deliberately two strangers, two young children at that, reeks of so much more.  Citizens are weighing whether one child in another location was made into a sacrificial victim.  I sift through thoughts that would not let go, that this acid attack in Chateau Margot may not have originated with, nor terminated in, the handiwork of the men in those gauzy images.  Meaning, that these two children were, by the luck of the draw, convenient targets of opportunity, hence, made into sacrificial victims in their own right.  After all, the more barbarous the action in the street or village, the higher the production waiting to be made out of it.  Into this separate cauldron, there was a steady stream of ready actors.  It is as if they were straining at the leash for such a moment on the ground, followed by their own exhibitions, duly noted and properly recorded for public consumption today, for dredging up later.

I regret having to say so, but this is the level of distrust and cynicism that prevails.  Some in this society never see some actions as too low, too out of bounds, so they go for whatever serves their objectives.  And that is no matter how much those possess the stinging substance of depraved indifference.  To be clear, who are the real perps in this obscene acid attack?  It boggles the mind that there are those walking around, riding around, and roaming around, with a mind firmly set on mischief embracing such horrors.  A container of acid for criminal purposes (and not just the criminal, but a word that rhymes with it) has more potency that an open canister of teargas used during official duty.  The latter is a passing development; the former is a lifelong trauma that has its own nightmares.

Rather miserably, Guyanese are forced to absorb one mystery from across the Demerara River that becomes more puzzling by the moment, and then another just outside the edges of Georgetown.  The immediate reaction of many boils down to this: how could they?  My reaction is that, plus what else could I be missing in this sordid story?  Often, the random is not so random as it appears.  What gives every indication of an incident that is spur of the moment is when suspicion draws closer, casts a fatter outline.  What did the alleged perps gain for their efforts, other than their faces on surveillance videos, and a branding that singles them out as pariahs of a special kind?  I am purposely toning this down in the interests of my duty to all Guyanese, which spans from friend to self-appointed foes.

For take stock of what is had from that mindless (maybe) acid attack.  The acid splashed on those two youngsters might as well been splashed across that entire community, and then across this country.  It is that type of country.  Some things do not rub off, nor are they easily remedied.  Certainly, they are never forgotten, since some segments in Guyana have among the best memories that I have ever encountered.  Worse, they are so swiftly and smoothly marketable.  For the usual.  By the usual.  Whoever seeks to declare their distance from the usual and traditional have the right to step forward and set themselves apart.  I do so; unhesitatingly and unambiguously.  Minus me from that mass, from that madness.

Last, I conclude that war has been declared on our children.  It is not surprising, given the deformed nature of some of those appointed to stand guard over them, be protectors of their youthful innocence.  In many respects, that is an acid attack all by itself, one of the crassest proportions imaginable.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)   

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