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The experts among us
(Kaieteur News) – There is an old Guyanese tradition that comes alive whenever the nation is struck by tragedy. Before the investigators arrive, before the experts examine the evidence, before the ink on the first official report has even dried, there are already hundreds of self-appointed authorities who somehow know exactly what happened.
They know because they have “inside information.” Or so they say.
Recently an influencer had social media abuzz with claims that relative was involved in murdering a young child. And the source of the influencer’s information: some police officer. As it turned out, the person charged for the offence was not a relative at all.
The M.V. Barima disaster has sadly become the latest illustration of this familiar national pastime of people claiming to have the inside scoop. Since the tragedy unfolded, stories have spread through minibuses, barber shops, markets, social media, workplaces and village corners with astonishing speed. One version contradicts another, yet every storyteller speaks with supreme confidence. It is never “I heard” or “I wonder.” It is invariably, “I know.”
The other day, on a minibus, one gentleman confidently informed another passenger that he knew someone within the Transport and Harbours Department. According to this mysterious insider, the vessel had carried a massive hole in its bottom for years and workers had supposedly been plugging it with cotton wool.
Cotton wool.
The poor fellow listening to him looked genuinely puzzled. He was not quite prepared to accept that a vessel transporting hundreds of passengers had somehow remained afloat for years because of a handful of absorbent fibres. Yet the storyteller pressed on with increasing certainty, embellishing the tale with every sentence.
One suspects that if the journey had lasted another fifteen minutes, chewing gum and duct tape would have entered the narrative as well. It would be amusing were the circumstances not so tragic.
The phenomenon itself is neither new nor uniquely Guyanese. Psychologists have long studied what is sometimes called the “illusion of explanatory depth.” Human beings routinely believe they understand complicated events far better than they actually do. Add uncertainty, fear and national anxiety to the mix, and the appetite for certainty becomes almost irresistible.
People dislike unanswered questions. When facts are unavailable, the mind often manufactures a satisfying story.
There is another psychological force at work. Social psychologists have observed that people derive status from appearing knowledgeable. Being the person who “knows what really happened” confers a temporary sense of importance. Possessing an alleged insider source elevates one’s standing in the conversation. Suddenly, the ordinary commuter becomes an intelligence operative. The neighbour becomes an engineering expert. The Facebook commentator transforms overnight into a marine surveyor, naval architect and accident investigator—all before breakfast.
There is also what behavioural scientists call confirmation bias. Once people adopt a particular explanation, they eagerly collect every rumour that appears to support it while dismissing anything that contradicts it. Before long, speculation hardens into certainty. Fiction acquires the authority of fact simply because it has been repeated often enough. Social media has multiplied this tendency a thousandfold.
A rumour once travelled at the speed of a village conversation. Today because of the internet, it circles the country before lunchtime. Every repost gives it an air of legitimacy. Every forwarded voice note acquires the mystique of confidential intelligence. The phrase “my friend works there” has become the modern equivalent of citing peer-reviewed evidence.
The danger, however, extends beyond harmless gossip. False narratives can unfairly destroy reputations. They can prejudice public opinion long before evidence is gathered. They can distract investigators from genuine lines of inquiry. Worst of all, they deepen public confusion at precisely the moment when clarity is needed most. This is why national tragedies demand patience as much as they demand compassion.
There are legitimate questions surrounding the M.V. Barima disaster. These questions deserve serious answers. They cannot be resolved through minibus folklore or WhatsApp mythology.
They require evidence. They require testimony. They require forensic examination. They require independent analysis. Most importantly, they require a process that commands public confidence.
That is precisely why the Government should move with deliberate speed to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry.
Such a Commission would provide a structured and transparent mechanism for gathering documents, hearing witnesses under oath, examining technical evidence and producing findings grounded in fact rather than conjecture. It would allow genuine experts—not self-appointed ones—to determine what occurred and why.
Equally important, it would help disabuse both those who thrive on bluff and bluster and those who are too readily persuaded by confident assertions unsupported by evidence.
Until the facts are established through an independent inquiry, the wisest words any of us can utter are perhaps the simplest. “I do not know.”
There is no shame in waiting for the truth. There is far greater danger in pretending that we already possess it.
(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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Sir. Ronald Sanders
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I have been reading GHK Lall’s columns in both the Kaieteur News & Demerara Waves and he spoke about these disasters like having some premonition of these events indirectly based on the blight of the nation or curse of the nation by according to him the PPP/C regime which is unfit to govern the country!!!
He said he is proud to be an outsider , illegal migrant so he doesn’t have to suffer or perish with the iniquities cursed on the land and people!!!
It is my belief GHK Lall has a clear idea of the tragedy before , the neglect, maladministration from top to bottom and would be a an asset to be a member of the COI or a main witness of the sordid events!!!