Mash 2026

Feb 23, 2026 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – I see the colorful floats with sounds thundering through oversized speakers on flatbed trucks during the day. I hear the revelries deep into the dark night for many a night. Amid the blare of music, the voices have more of an American and Jamaican tint, than native rooted. It is MASH 2026. Guyana’s rollicking version of carnival, and not the American TV hit show M*A*S*H.

It’s a show here all right. But who among Guyanese have hit the right buttons, struck a shower of gold? And, who on this grandest of national holidays have been hit for six, given a six for a nine, and hit down by a truck all over again? The people who used to make hay with MASH is a Burnham holiday (no human complexities [or complexions]) are now the biggest celebrants. To keep the color scheme bright and beautiful, the newly converted to the MASH flag waving and chanting and cheering succeed in incentivising some of Burnham’s children to join in the festivities. Whoever cannot be so engaged is coerced from the usual public buildings into the tramping, resonating streets. A moment of charity emerged; stuck motorists cursing excluded. Under their breath and behind tinted windows, naturally. Doesn’t pay to draw undue attention, and get on the wrong side of the masters, in this democracy.

I am all for those having a good time, but what of those Guyanese shoved out of the gleaming, gyrating MASH pictures? Those who see the energy, the rush of movement, and the impressive heights of the modern Guyana skyline? From flat houses and two-floors to eight and more in less than five years is some achievement. But what of those who stare at the heights and then look down, and down, only to be forced to stare at an abandoned pot, a lonely plate, and a forlorn family? A partner tired and told that that’s all there is; children thinned to the texture of thread, all clad in porous apparel, as though they are exhibits for a nudist colony. To add caustic soda to the stubborn and gnawing acids in the stomach, they watch in numb disbelief (and simmering rage) as ministers and their spawns of family and friends live like oil barons that would make the playboy Gettys and other Epstein file candidates look like rank amateurs. In 2026, this is one part of the portrait of a section of Guyana that is in full MASH mode, while not too far out of sight, there are the many villages and remote corners of Guyanese being mashed into the flattest bakes imaginable.

From capital city to the vast, empty stretches of Guyana, this is MASH 2026 live and in color. There is red and blue, with white dominant. Green and yellow have since taken early retirement or have been retired. No Guyanese should have any difficulty interpreting my own color coding of One Guyana. It is as black and white, as that, with the black on its last legs, a faded presence in an era of energy, prosperity, and the celebratory. A ball with a highball or two, anyone? How about a huge land concession, as compensation for missing out on the liquid fun? It is that sacred time on the calendar that originated in that sand-soaked, sun scorched desert, isn’t it?

Five years ago, the exciting story was of about a quarter million buckets of the good stuff. Guyanese were asked to be patient. More MASH up the road, more coming. Five years later, and the bigger, better story is of a million casks of unblended light, sweet, pumped up from beneath the sea. Yet, in 2026, it is the same stale narratives. Tighten belts. Charity cash can’t be continuous. Old models to be refined; new ones developed. Meanwhile, those who had their hands in the cashbox go on drawing down and drawing out. But the outsiders and outcasts in Guyana are now fed a line of bull by master bull-s—-ers, about changed environment and the need to recalibrate. Those having the power carry on at faster and richer rates, but telling the Guyanese people pushed to the margins to recalibrate their expectations.

This is a mere snapshot of MASH 2026. It is those MASHING and those who get mashed under the feet of the mashers. Oil Guyana. One Guyana. O beautiful Guyana. How dilapidated and defeated great parts of Guyana look!

(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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American TV, complexions, Democracy, energy, Guyanese, Jamaican tint, Mash, Prosperity

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Mash 2026

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