The sheer daily regularity of reportage, especially in the print media, of all that is nasty and socially undesirable, influenced today’s mini-lecture.
One is acutely aware that just to repeat, to describe and to list society’s ills without offering speedy practical solutions is to indulge in futility. But no! They say the very first step in confronting and/or solving a problem is to identify and acknowledge it. I suppose I’m doing that in my own style. And I categorise these sordid deeds into four sins as corruption, incest, male juvenile abuse and rape. Oh yes, I know it is somewhat negative to repeat the litany but sordid – as in ignoble, mean, gross and base – is too significant to ignore or hide these days.
Corruption…
Whether it can be proven in a court of law or not, corrupt practices are an obvious way of life, a sub-culture for some. And not merely in the court of public opinion but in most sectors of government and commerce in our blighted land today.
Last Friday I presented my own frank view that the genesis of national corruption was spawned when, from 1968, the People’s National Congress (PNC) regimes began to steal the people’s will utilizing their expert electoral engineers’ skills or rigging and polling day theft. Corruption practices at personal, domestic then institutional levels evolved and became cancerous.
Today’s political and commercial bosses have honed the thing into big business. Corruption, with or without ‘evidence,’ fuels a burgeoning kleptocracy. Today 2010, sophisticated corruption – or shrewd ‘business’ (?) – sees local contractors bidding in their overseas relatives’ names. After all those Queens, Bronx NY investors, though born in Guyana are now ‘foreigners,’ ‘Americans!’ I say corruption is here to stay!
Incest…
I recall vividly, during my young adulthood hearing stories of what some fathers told the judge regarding how they treated their daughters, and why.
But it is no laughing matter now – when one reads what evil fathers, especially, are visiting upon their own biological or step children. Look, don’t tell me of some countryside ‘culture’ of yore. Just as I feel that crimes committed with guns should attract penalties of ten years jail or upwards, I feel that incest should attract severe punishment. Okay, alright, along with the counselling.
Abuse of male juveniles….
I’ll not enter into the now public discussion on same-gender sex and related issues. Rather this is to lament the rise in sodomy – adult male to juvenile boys.
What consenting adults do is their business which I could respect, but to violate the youth with today’s reported sickening frequency is reprehensible. Again, I call for extreme punishment for the guilty and convicted – along with the ‘counselling.’ Any suggestions?
Rape…
What would a scientific analysis of the last 150 rape cases, (obviously reported), which made it to our courts reveal?
Over the years I’ve quoted legal sources to define just what rape is; I’ve opined that even in our courts the law seems to favour the accused, as victims feel the brunt of justice’s probing and the defence’s wide-ranging techniques. Just who are the rapists and why is this scourge against females (mainly) ever rising? I’m not about to detain you with my own reason but I invite you to consider that the prevalence of rape is associated with the general moral breakdown and disrespect for human life and rights in this society.
I am no paragon of virtue or role-model myself, but although I don’t hold myself out as exemplary, all of my occasional excesses I keep within our laws. The female modes of dress, the needy yearning for money, even the consent by young victims’ parents are contributory factors, like the movies and the music I am told. Add to that list the behaviour of some members of officialdom whose arrogance and social bullyism allow our deviant youth to think and say: ‘De big ones doing it, covering up – and getting off…’ Discuss.
And Critchlow cried…
Next Friday, on Labour Day Eve, I’m going to re-explore the early contributions of the region’s labour movement pioneer, our late icon Hubert Nathaniel Critichlow.
I suspect that he cried last May Day or on the preceding Sunday, when no one paid the traditional tribute at his statue. Will ‘Skibby’ Critchlow weep on Sunday? The major labour grouping FITUG goes to his monument on Sunday morning. Will the GTUC go in the afternoon? Whether the GTUC goes or not, Critch should shed a tear in the face of labour movement disunity in Guyana. How he would love to see them all reminiscing with his spirit, together!
Until…
*1) it’s good that hundreds of 13-15 year old students have been asked to explore the world of Guyanese calypso, but the Grade 9 assessment project is unfair to these youngsters who have not been given prior guidance and who know nought about our calyposians and their calypsos.
So teach, explain stanza, literary device and even chorus before you send them on the road.
*2) Uranium? Oil? Gold? And we remain poor?
*3) Coming next Friday: ‘Cases/Issues that disappear’
*4) Coming soon too: The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s most modern, up-to-date website.
*5) Guyana’s National Steelband will be the first ever to play the national anthems of the countries coming here to participate in this month’s beginning of the ICC T/20 tournament.
Way to go Culture Ministry – and Andrew T!
Til next week!
