Dear Editor,
In a span of less than two months, whirlwinds sadistic and grisly-and unmatched in intensity-scythed through two Guyanese communities. But even before the pitiless fusillades of fire had receded, some had already made a remarkable psychological readjustment. Initially, there was a recoiling in horror, a running for cover, but a returning to discuss and dissect. Then there was a departure. All-or most-departed as if nothing had happened that scorched the conscience and questioned our very existence.
There was a departure towards frolicking in less sanguinary playgrounds on the merits of visible institutions and a less visible divinity. Then, there is a continuing, and repetitive, crossing of paper scimitars on who has what credentials; who has been where; and who has manifested a more infallible history of protest and resistance. There is glorification in the petty and puerile, even as less fortunate, less literate, lesser positioned compatriots shrivel in fear and despair.
When there should a pounding tsunami of voices energized towards responsibility and results, there is but shallow posturing on the invisible and the individualistic. When crime and security should be constantly in the corridors and columns and tabletops of discourse and agitation, they are hustled away to a silent and abrupt burial on the distant outskirts of our consciousness. Perhaps the wounds of Lusignan and Bartica were so superficial that they healed without the passage of time; or they matter not in the grander clashes of egos and Microsoft militancy. Have we become this sophisticated? Uncaring? Jaded? A dozen butchered becomes an inconvenient and forgettable commercial interrupting the larger soap opera of who we are and what we know; and what we would like a suffering public to know. Just look at me!
But with every divergent, distracting essay, rulers and leaders exult in the comfort of one more free pass. When the power peacocks needed to be pressed –some seek to impress; when there should be unrelenting calls for redress –some are content to digress; and when real guns are loaded for real war-some revel in being lost in combat at once phony and futile. Rather than be catalysts for change, there are those enamored in fulsome displays of the egotistical and irrelevant.
It could be that I have lost touch on what is the vital issue of the day, and should give way in silence to those who know better. Others may be kind enough to let me know the error of my ways.
Yours faithfully,
G.H.K. Lall
