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Phagwah Day
(Kaieteur News) – Phagwah is a festival of colour, of renewal, of triumph. It is a day when joy is meant to displace bitterness, when light is meant to scatter darkness. On this national holiday, we extend greetings to all Guyanese. May this be a day of blessing for every home, every family, every community.
But Phagwah is not only powder and play. It is principle. It is the conquest of good over evil. And that conquest does not begin in temples or on streets stained with abeer; it begins in the human heart. If there is no goodness within us, then no amount of colour can brighten this nation.
For too many decades, Guyana has carried grudges like heirlooms. We have allowed suspicion to harden into hostility. We see enemies where there should be brothers and sisters. We magnify division and minimise common purpose. In doing so, we have made ourselves easy prey. A fractured people cannot stand tall; they can only be pushed, pulled, and plundered.
And plundered we are. Ours is now a land that commands attention from Beijing to New Delhi, from Washington to London. Foreign interests circle eagerly around our oil, our gold, our forests. They see opportunity and abundance. Yet too many Guyanese see only scarcity in their own lives. In a time of proclaimed prosperity, poverty still stalks households. Promises overflow; tangible relief trickles.
Phagwah’s message is larger than ritual. It demands that we look at one another without the poison of politics, race, or resentment. It demands that we refuse to be manipulated by those who profit from our quarrels. There are always those local and foreign who benefit when citizens are divided, distracted, and distrustful. They grow rich while ordinary Guyanese remain hungry and angry.
The light of Phagwah must therefore do more than decorate; it must illuminate. It must expose the forces that thrive on our disunity. It must strengthen our resolve to reject being set against each other for the gain of a cunning few. A people who cannot unite around fairness, justice, and shared prosperity will forever celebrate festivals while forfeiting their future.
There is also the other meaning of Phagwah: anticipation of harvest. Guyanese know well about harvests both from the soil and from the sea. Offshore, vast wealth flows daily. On land, resources abound. Yet the harvest that was promised to citizens remains, for many, more hope than reality. Leadership after leadership has offered explanations; too few have delivered transformation.
So let this Phagwah be more than celebration. Let it be reflection. Let it be resolve. Let it remind us that good must triumph not only in story, but in policy; not only in prayer, but in practice.
When Guyanese begin to see one another as partners in destiny rather than obstacles to advantage, then the true colours of Phagwah will shine. And when the nation’s harvest is shared with justice and integrity, then joy will no longer be seasonal it will be national.
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