-retired judge tells GRC Florida’s 6th gala
Retired Guyana-born judge Vibert Lampkin recently told attendees at the Guyana Relief Council (GRC) of Florida’s Sixth Annual Gala that despite the terrible situation the country is in, they could take pride in the its ranking ahead of all other Caribbean states and many large nations in generosity.
“Let us also take pride in our place on that world generosity scale. Let us continue to give not only our money, but also our time and caring ways to those less fortunate than ourselves,” Lampkin, who sat on the bench in Canada for 25 years, said in his keynote address at the Gala, where he also emphasised that at both the group and individual levels even small gestures can have an impact.
“Just remember however, never make the mistake of giving your money to the government of any stripe,” Lampkin, however, added, according to the text of his speech.
Guyana, he declared, is “in serious trouble.” He pointed to it being the third poorest country in the western hemisphere—behind Haiti and Nicaragua—and noted the poor state of the capital—known as the Garden City of the Caribbean when he was growing up in the 1940s.
“There are causes for this terrible situation; this terrible fall from grace. There are causes for everything that happens in this world. We need not go into what happened in the intervening 60 years because this is not a political speech—suffice it to say that mismanagement of the country’s assets is part of it; corruption is part of it; even bad weather, be it drought or too much rainfall, each of which plays havoc on the country’s ability to feed itself and export its produce, plays a part. No one country has a lock on mismanagement of its assets,” Lampkin observed.
Despite the gloomy picture of the country, he said, Guyana rates “unbelievably high” in charity, in which “we can all take some pride and comfort.”
“The World Giving Index, commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation, is the biggest study to take a global snapshot of how people give their time to organizations, donate money to charities and extend a helping hand to a stranger in need,” he said. In 2010, the Index ranked 153 countries representing about 95% world’s population where its authors found that “when ‘generosity’ is assessed in broader terms than money alone, the countries to come to the fore are not necessarily the same ones who are most commonly thought to be the most ‘philanthropic.’”
Guyana, along with Qatar, was assessed at having a giving index of 45%. Guyana was the only Caribbean nation to make the top 20 and it was rated the 18th most charitable country globally; making it more charitable than China, the richest country in the world today which placed 151 out of the 153 countries rated; India, arguably the second or third richest country in the world, European industrial giant Germany and well developed countries such as France and Russia. It also outranked neighbouring oil rich countries Venezuela and Brazil.
According to Lampkin, that is perhaps not surprising as a 2011 University of Illinois study had found that less privileged individuals are more compassionate.
The Guyana Relief Council was first established here 18 years ago this year. A branch was started in the USA – The Guyana Relief Council Florida – and operated by a team of volunteers. In 2006, the charity became incorporated in the USA as a tax-exempt, non-profit organisation that would allow overseas Guyanese and friends of Guyana to contribute financially to assist persons here affected by natural and other disasters.
The same occurs in Toronto, Canada. Lampkin said there are currently about 47 active organisations registered with the Guyana Consulate of Toronto, Canada that assist Guyanese there, particularly the elderly, and those here. Several of these organisations may have stemmed from the Guyanese tradition throughout the Diaspora of sending barrels of foodstuff and other items home to needy relatives and friends.
Lampkin also noted that almost every Guyanese high school has an alumnus association in Toronto that hosts galas, dances cultural evenings and other functions to raise funds for their alma maters.
‘Moral obligation’
At the same time, Lampkin told the gala’s attendees that at the individual level there is also a moral obligation to help their homeland. “Each of us has at least a moral obligation to help the land that gave us birth – for the simple reason that after we have passed through the door and enjoyed a certain measure of success, we must not close the door behind us – there are others whom we could help pass through the same door. We must seek to provide hope where there is despair. As we all know, the poor are always with us,” he said.
A St Stanislaus College ‘old boy’ himself, Lampkin posited that the only person he could think of whose generosity ranged from personally financing a school when it received no government subsidy and engaging in a host of other charitable works was fellow Saints ‘old boy’ John Fernandes Sr.
In 1965, ‘Honest John,’ as Fernandes was known, was awarded by royal appointment the CBE – Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – for his public services to the country. “John Fernandes is arguably the greatest Guyanese philanthropist ever. And he did all that while caring for his wife and fourteen children,” Lampkin said.
Further, he submitted that one does not have to be a Lou Rawls, Charles Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman, or a John Fernandes to give charity.
He recalled that before law reports were available online in Canada, every lawyer in Ontario received—in parts—a hard copy of important recently-decided cases each week. A bound volume of all the cases was later issued to each lawyer, who would usually discard the various parts received earlier. Lampkin said he embarked on a project to collect and bound all the “parts” for donation to the law library in Guyana. Later,
When he went on the bench in Canada in 1982, he received not only reports of Ontario cases but also Canadian Criminal Law Reports from across the country, which he sent to Guyana.
He said he had a windfall when the wife of one of his friends, who was the librarian of the Bora Laskin Law Library and who had learnt of his project, donated “a whole library of law books and law reports, both English and Canadian, that had been donated by retired lawyers.”
Lampkin recalled that he spent the entire August of 1986 packing hundreds of cartons of law books and reports and transporting them to the Consulate for shipment to Guyana. “I was subsequently informed that those Law Reports stocked the entire Law Library in New Amsterdam,” he said, adding that he continued to send law books and reports to Guyana until his retirement in 2008.
He also recalled that during his 25 years on the bench, he on average attended three conferences or continuing education courses annually. He said he would send the courses to Guyana and also obtain consent of the conference chairman to collect all the pencils and/or ball-point pens already paid for by the Judges’ Association left lying around at the end of the day. They would be sent to Guyana’s schools. He said, “Do the math – about 100 judges attending a three-day conference and at the end of every day, they leave their pencils and ball-point pens lying around to be collected by me!”
Lampkin also shared with the audience an encounter he had at a party with a Guyanese woman, who was collecting all the plastic knives, forks and spoons. She told him that she had once visited an orphanage in Guyana and found that the children ate in a “relay fashion” because there was not enough available cutlery for them to eat at the same time. As a result, she said she would collect plastic cutlery, sterilise it and shipped it to Guyana.
“I throw out these ideas… just look around, you might be surprised at the impact a small gesture might have on your school in Guyana or any organisation of your choice, without waiting on the relief funds to purchase all of the stuff,” Lampkin declared.
Lampkin said he hoped the generosity of the persons and organisations he cited would inspire the public to donate to worthy causes. He acknowledged too that criticisms abound that such charitable works may make persons dependent and governments apathetic in providing for their people but urged donors to “take courage from the example of people like John Fernandes” and others who continue to give of their time, money and talent.
