Dear Editor,
We are living in an age of advanced technology; an age of cell phones, television, internet, computer, ipods, dvd players and the unending list of modern and contemporary inventions that baffle the intellect and confuse the mind. I can carry thousands of words and documents on my flash drive – actually a whole library in my laptop computer – but I seem to forget to hand write a letter since the invention of the internet and computers.
All these modern inventions I have listed here that have been built by the scientific minds of advanced men are of no use to me now because I am living in a country I call, an area of darkness which is plagued by frequent blackouts every day. In the middle of preaching a sermon in my church with foreign guests, I am hit suddenly by a blackout, with members running helter- skelter for a lamp or candles to light. My foreign guests are lost for words.
In the midst of an emergency our hospitals are hit by a sudden blackout perhaps even at the expense of a patient’s life. While visiting a government office in Georgetown travelling all the way from Berbice for a very important document a sudden blackout changes the day because the Berbician is told he cannot be helped because of a blackout. While driving from Berbice to Georgetown a sudden blackout hits the road that’s already a dark pit of hell, and cars, buses and trucks came to a sudden halt.
As residents like myself depend on GWI for water a few days per week like myself we now have to depend on the mercy of the rains because a sudden power failure can kill the pipelines, yet water bills are climbing higher and higher. In the midst of students studying for their exams, sudden power failures kill their studies, thus creating more failures in our society.
Our roads are darker than hell at nights where lots of stray cows, dogs, donkeys, horses etc roams; no wonder our accident rate is higher than most Caribbean countries. Our roads are filled with potholes and very few street lamps. All because of the modernization of blackouts. Just recently, I knew of an old lady going home from church, when a sudden blackout hit the road and she walked into a deep pothole. She broke her hip and died one week later. She would have been alive today but a blackout stole her life away. In the USA the power company would have received a lawsuit.
In this age of modern technology we have fallen from grace all because of bad administration. Yet many of our ministers of government are advocating tourism in Guyana – a land of thieves and robbers who can benefit now by invading our homes in the dark and who rob us in the streets of Georgetown in broad daylight. While many are suffering in the dark with bottle lamps and cannot even afford kerosene for their lamps, many of our leaders’ homes are very bright all because they are well fortified with their own powerful generators. But the poor man has to suffer. Many selling fish and meat in the markets are suffering thousands of dollars in losses because of Mr Blackout.
The fluctuation of low and high voltage is creating millions of dollars of damage in homes; computers are burned, TV, fridges, washing machines and even homes are burnt down. Who is compensating these people for their losses? Yet GPL bills are climbing a mountain every month and their disconnection teams are very active disconnecting lines even though bills are paid.
What have we really achieved after 43 years of independence?
What we need in this nation is a national front, or an all inclusive government where all members of every party work together along with NGOs and religious organizations to re-build and re-administer this nation. A good government must have love and concern for every citizen in the country. In my travels to different nations, I have not seen blackouts and high crimes like what I see here.
Guyana is a nation too young to die; we have been drifted away like dry leaves into the turbulent ocean, lost in an area of darkness.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
