Dear Editor,
I have been away from Guyana for a very long time. And I hear from friends there that the economic situation is improving, albeit not for the average working person. But everyone laments the astonishing decline of social values, moral behaviour and ethical conduct in public life. Nearly everyone I speak to about Guyana laments the decline of the country’s humaneness.
When I was there I was robbed 14 times by young boys in the Charlestown and Werk-en-Rust area, where I went to school and worked. One time as I was biking home from work at Stabroek News I was robbed of my bike, watch, full salary and wallet right in front of Camp Street jail. I wrote a feature then about street crime in Guyana. This was in the early 1990s. And it shocks me that the same situation exists today, but even worse. What’s the use having huge lavish houses and fancy cars and brand-name clothes, but fostering a nation of corrupt souls?
One thing always struck me: since I migrated from Guyana there is now a new generation that has grown up – those little boys and girls have grown up into adulthood. And we have failed this new generation.
I know the service Fr Rodrigues has rendered with tireless effort for years and years and years to the nation. But at the end of the day, we are all the cause of why our nation has descended to such animal-like social behaviour. And if we are cause of it, then those who care, those of good conscience and tender hearts, must have a plan of action to make a difference, or the next generation would end up being naked and alone on the streets, too hungry to care for society, and the mighty and powerful will buy guns to shoot them.
When a nation does not care about its at-risk and vulnerable young, and the young have to turn to violence to escape hunger, homelessness and poverty, that nation stands at the door of self-loathing. Social breakdowns of larger magnitude are just around the corner.
The purpose of this letter is to reinforce my view that every individual is powerful, and responsible for the whole. Just as many individuals fought the dictatorship for political freedom and won, we can fight for socio-cultural backwardness to end in our nation. I hope respected leaders like Fr Rodrigues can lead others into taking responsibility to transform the communities of the land, starting with Georgetown.
Maybe what we need is a community-by-community, grassroots effort to implement a programme for the transformation of social behaviour, with municipal and village leaders enrolled in such an effort, starting with the mayors of the city and towns, who should be of impeccable character and good conscience.
Yours faithfully,
Shaun Michael Samaroo
