Dear Editor,
My favourite theme and thesis is that human history has a puckish way of repeating itself. However, the tragedy of phenomena is how little we mortals learn from these long-winded lessons of history.
I recall the book March of Folly, which showed how leaders of great nations, because they failed or refused to learn from the lessons of history sometimes just one generation before, made mistakes which caused pain and haunted the present.
One would be hard put not to sympathize with the concerns of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association as expressed in their two-page statement. We as citizens need to support them.
My take, however, is this: when many small pork-knockers – the earliest gold and diamond miners – who braved the vagaries of our waterfalls, rapids and wild animals in the bush, were squeezed out, not much was said because they had no media or other friends to speak up on their behalf.
Let us press the powers that be to sit and really talk, so that history does not repeat itself at the altar of the ‘big ones.’ Remember the old saying, ‘Today for me, tomorrow for you.’
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
