Only the worst cynics in the world do not look forward to the New Year as a time when there will be change for the better. As every year ends, we have a predisposition to examine our personal lives; to try to trim excesses; eschew bad habits; inculcate a spirit of generosity and be willing to turn the other cheek.
This is the stuff resolutions are made of – the pledges to lose weight, eat healthy or healthier, fight addictions and forgive – which we somehow feel cannot be made at any other time of the year.
Some of us have already made our personal resolutions; others are waiting to make them on New Year’s Eve as tradition demands. What we need to be conscious of, however, is that even if we make them on the stroke of midnight while wishing upon a star, they will remain part of the even ineffectual conjecture of our minds unless we complete the necessary actions – and keep working at them every day for the rest of our lives.
There is something to be said for the school of thought that the time to change is right now and that the day we choose change is the first day of the rest of our lives. For those of us who subscribe to this, New Year’s Day could have been yesterday or it could be tomorrow.
Externally, we also look for changes that will impact positively on our lives. No matter how bad things have been all year, there is always the hope that there will be a move to improvement; that we can somehow step forward leaving the old year behind.
The issues that have had the greatest impact on the lives of all Guyanese in 2007 include Value-Added Tax (VAT), which was implemented at the beginning of the year; the increase in incest, paedophilia and other sexual violence; fatal road accidents, owing mainly to speeding and drunk driving; armed robberies and murders; and the increase in food prices. On the periphery, but inextricably linked were the escalating price of oil on the world market; poverty and the illegal trade in drugs and arms.
Most of these issues are ones that we as individuals have no control over. Or do we? Strong and sustained lobbying have resulted in what seems to be a concerted effort to reform the law as it relates to sexual violence. Might not the same energy be employed with regard to VAT relief, traffic offences and other crimes? What would happen, do you suppose, if we resolved to shed our apathy and really hold our government to the contract it has made with the people? In fact, is this not our role, which we have let slip?
Guyana is due for a renewal. But this cannot be a rehash of the old ideas. There is need for the kind of rejuvenation that can only come about with a new dispensation. Just like the personal resolutions we make to lose weight, everything will depend on us staying the course.
