Dear Editor,
For the last week or so I have observed small groups of women gathered on the Atlantic shore behind the wall near the sluice at Plaisance beach. These women who number around ten seem to represent a wide age range from the Afro-Guyanese communities nearby. Facing the ocean they chant in soft plaintive tones what sounds like a form of supplication to a greater power asking for help to ease the grinding poverty and economic pressure they have to face daily. This is a new phenomenon on the stretch of wall I am most familiar with from my early morning exercises. Not only are their numbers growing but so too is the pain and gusto in their high-pitched, disconsolate voices.
What we have here is a new dimension and depth to the abject poverty many families are forced to face. Ends are just not meeting and the situation seems to be getting worse. Yesterday VAT alone on a few supermarket items I brought was $1,260. At some stage it will become cheaper to keel over. At least there seems to be no VAT on pharmaceuticals and medicines.
I try hard to understand the lyrics of the seawall singers but these seem to be evolving. One matronly soprano obviously lead the group giving voice to a pain and powerlessness that is almost palpable. As she warbles her version of hell on earth caused mainly by man’s inhumanity to man, I recognize words that paint a vivid picture of man’s uncaring and selfish attitude towards poor people as she rises to the challenges of fitting words to the music and adding rhyme.
I commend her as a superb lyricist. Her repetition is forgivable as she can find only one word that rhymes with VAT – Bharrat.
Yours faithfully,
F. Hamley Case
