– the birth of executive banditry
Just another short ‘lecture’ from the University of the Streets today.
The first account, as they say, is based on a true story. The location is the depressed south Georgetown community of Albouystown and the year was 1990. Tam was born to his unwed mother, abandoned by a father then in prison, in January of 1990. He grew up rather quickly it seemed to his mother, four older brothers and sisters and schoolmates, to be a tall full-bodied lad by the time he turned sixteen in 2006.
But he had also barely, missed being sent to correctional New Opportunity Corps on the Essequibo Coast. The legal attorney was able to convince the court that he, Tam, did not actually steal the car parts his other gang-member friends did. Tam’s life was, however, that of a seemingly born loser. The ghetto stereotype does not necessarily have to conform to what the others do or what the wider better-off society perceives him to be. But when there are no clothes, far from enough food leading to dropping out of school by eleven and a mother frequently ill when not entertaining varied companions for a fee to supplement her vendor’s wage; when bad company cajoles then threaten you to break the law, the inevitable happens to you; especially if the society did not provide any juvenile safety-nets and the church is characterized by cosmetic money-oriented ‘pastors’ – that serve combination produce another gangsta from the Born Loser.
The kleptocracy – and Tam
Tam did little reading in Albouystown but he knew the Vice-President, prominent politicians and boxers ‘all-man-town’ produced. The television presented daily doses of stories about murder, theft and other man-made tragedies.
The post jailbreak crime wave thrilled Tam who by eighteen was living in a tenement room along with a female obeah practitioner and her son, the latter an ex-con who specialized in breaking – and entering. Tam was not certain who or what impressed his thievery orientation more – that ex-con mentor or the daily newspaper reports of corruption throughout the corridors of political and governmental power.
Throughout this Guyana land, it was then manifestly – obvious to eighteen-year-old Tam, the crooks and the crooked enjoyed a better quality of life, albeit sometimes just briefly and aborted by bullets. Jamaican dancehall music made his portion of Albouystown sound like the typical Jamaican gully side. The cocaine crooks, the politically-correct sports promoters in their dazzling rides with captive girlfriends and the small-time couriers, all told one story to the ready-and-ripe under-privileged Tam: that Guyana’s society life had its full share of respected thieves, bandits and corruption successful citizens.
He never knew the term, but Tam and all the thousands of impressionable minds were witnessing the beginnings of a kleptocracy, wherein the rulers and the rich plunder the country’s resources which should really be shared by all levels of the working-class who are still upright and law-abiding. Poor Tam, he didn’t stand a chance when the circumstances engulfed him.
Tam actually landed a job as a baker’s assistant in Charlestown. He was 19 last year and that birthday was coming up when he saw where the baker/owner stashed away a few thousand dollars. He wanted a pair of Nikes for the Thirst Park show on his birthday night. He told his ex-con friend. They planned a break-in for the day before his birthday. Luck wasn’t with them that night. The baker’s son thwarted their attempt. Shots were fired. Tam was dead hours before his nineteenth birthday. It had to happen?
I’m not sure about that.
The birth of national banditry
Okay, the European colonists exploited our natural and human resources for centuries. Historians and today’s nationalists will record that the ravaging of colonial Guyana was thievery at the highest possible level, even if the European rulers viewed that exploitation as necessary for the development of ‘world civilization.’
Frankly speaking, I find the following a bit ironic! Just before and during election campaigns of the past (’80, ’85, ’92) I used to assist in preparing speakers’ manuals or briefs for those who would speak at People’s National Congress (PNC) meetings believe it or not, dealt with issues relevant to corrupt practices. The late Vic Forsythe and I directed PNC speakers’ attention to how little, seemingly trivial, pilfering blossomed out into more serious irregular procedures, then institutionalized and illegal acts of executive and corporate theft. Corruption was then (’80-’85) viewed as a burgeoning social problem that the PNC had to honestly address before and during general elections.
But why did I write “ironic”? Because, to me, the cancerous, institutionalized corruption and national thievery started when the PNC began stealing the electorate’s will at every election between 1968 and 1985. We sure had to address corruption in our campaign literature for election, but the seeds were sown. And if the cancer of corruption was to be excised the Guyana patient would have died.
That’s why corruption in Guyana lives on today. The incumbents now, I agree, tend to make Burnham and Hoyte look like angels!
Count me among those over fifty, who have never seen so much widespread stealing in government agencies, private sector banks, other companies and even from churches! ‘Contract-corruption’ is a whole new specialized, unprecedented field. But I tire. You discuss…
Until…
♠ 1. Thanks to those who found last Friday’s piece on presidential candidates… interesting
♠ 2. Could current President Jagdeo be prevented from being running mate (prime minister) to his party’s eventual presidential candidate? Any rules against that? (Bet he isn’t interested).
♠ 3. Yes it’s time for a female president or prime minister. Gail? Faith? Sheila? Ha!
♠ 4. Will tap water have enough pressure for my top flat by next month’s Independence Day?
♠ 5. Brace yourself for dozens of immigration/Arrival Day events.
Till next week!
(Comments? allanfenty@yahoo.com)
