Dear Editor,
“The moral fabric of the community has gone to the gutter. It hurts me so much to hear how young persons speak to one another and more so senior ones in this area. They have no respect at all. They seem not to care who is around and what they say, when.” Those were the words of Linden farmer Baljit, in responding to Stabroek News ‘What the people say’ on problems affecting the Linden community (Monday, June 22). But this alarming negative development that we are saddled with, ripping apart the moral fabric of our society is not confined to Linden, but sadly has spread throughout the entire length and breadth of this land. And though this obnoxious brutality of the spoken word appears to be a thing that has suddenly infected us like a thief in the night, the truth is, it has been long in the making.
There were signs and symptoms of various forms of undesirable happenings conditioning behaviour patterns, such as the invasion of foreign cultural smut, mainly through the performing arts, and other small ills that gradually filled the gap created by unemployment/ underemployment, poor wages, poverty, etc.
Four years ago I was walking behind a bunch of school girls in Georgetown; they all looked cute in their plaid blue/green like uniform, with hair well done and neat footwear. My assessment was that none was beyond 14-15 years of age. Their conversation was gleefully carried on at full volume, totally oblivious to anyone, least of all me, who was no more than a hand-reach behind them. They were at ease, carefree, very expressive and emphatic. Boy!
I concluded that these young girls were definitely too experienced for their own good. Obviously the conversation was about sexual encounters. Please believe me, dear readers, these girls were very bold and graphic in narrating their encounters, using the most coarse language, and all this I heard just between one corner and the next! It struck me that they were not just young women but schoolgirls – beginners. Well I have heard young men (boys) time and time again and you have got to give it to them, when you hear them then you know that the English language is inadequate! But it matters not what the discussion is really about, this vulgarized behaviour has become standard practice across race, class and age, and is done with comfort and ease, as if it commands authority and gives self assurance. No more does one have to be provoked to anger or pestered beyond tolerance, because of the use of coarse expression. No! This development is now the manner of speaking.
Why is it that this new obnoxious way of speaking has become our ‘national tongue’? Why do our children not speak cleanly and properly as children ought to? Try walking behind a bunch of youngsters in or out of school, boys, girls or both and I’ll bet that your ears will bleed, except if they are going to or from church.
They do it so well, with precision, it is as if they are being taught at home and school to behave this way. Listen to taxi drivers, especially the youngsters, and walk around any mini-bus park, one will immediately get the impression that the blue ribbon event for this competition is on.
The touts will give you a ‘cussing’ of the highest order that will leave you dizzy – that is if you have not grown accustomed to it by now. Walk into any police station, or listen to those young policemen sitting in those open-backed vehicles on patrol, who seem to say: ‘We are the police, we do as we like,’ or one of them making an arrest or issuing a caution to someone, then you will know that ‘boat done gaan a fall.’ Like the Amerindian woman from the mines said to me. “George Potato days gane lang now, this is a different time.”
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
