Dear Editor,
I hate to disagree with a focused and determined patriot. But I disagree with one of Guyana’s most provocative current writers and thinkers, my friend GHK Lall, who said that Guyana is far gone in his letter to this newspaper (‘Guyana is far gone,’ SN, November 17).
Here is why I disagree with GHK: I believe as long as there are people like GHK, and newspapers like Stabroek and Kaieteur speaking out, Guyana isn’t gone.
While I believe it is true that Guyana is going, I also believe that as long as GHK’s hands don’t stop writing; his mouth doesn’t stop speaking; his mind doesn’t stop thinking; his heart doesn’t stop beating; and his soul doesn’t stop caring, Guyana can never be too far gone.
Moreover, not long ago, many believed that countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were too far gone. Then, one day a young uneducated man said enough is enough, and he stood up, and he started a revolution which toppled the government and changed the trajectory of history in the form of the Arab Spring. In addition, many believed South Africa was too far gone, but then Nelson Mandela stepped in and saved that country. Many believed that America was too far gone, but at different times Abraham Lincoln and Dr Martin Luther King stepped in and saved their country. Guyana is going, going but not gone.
But I understand and empathize with GHK’s experiences and insights, which led to his sharp, stormy analysis, and which made him feel the country is too far gone. I felt and experienced that frustration, and I came to that conclusion myself. If anyone reads some of my previous letters, they will see I wrote that Guyana is helpless, hopeless and that I had lost hope in it. But that was until I met GHK. My hope was restored, and my hopelessness became a thing of the past.
I no longer have room for hopelessness, only the extreme opposite and all the mental and spiritual triumphs that it brings. Guyana is currently coming up the rough side of a mountain. It will make it to the top of the mountain. As long as there are Stabroek, Kaieteur News and others who care deeply, Guyana will succeed.
Guyana will be gone when Stabroek, Kaieteur and men and women of a special calibre are gone. Until then, Guyana isn’t going anywhere. In the meantime, giving up is not an option; the struggle continues.
Not long ago while I was in Guyana, I felt discouraged and disappointed with the country and with the ways things were going. Then I read Moses: A Servant of God by FB Meyer, which encouraged me.
I close with the words from that book:
“When we see our hopes blasted, our plans miscarry, our efforts do more harm than good, while we are discredited and blamed, pursued with the taunts and hate of those for whom we were willing to lay down our lives, we must remain calm.”
It’s a lesson for us all.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz
