Dear Editor,
I read ‘There is more that unites us as a people than we take credit for’ by Comrade Hydar Ally (SN, December 28). I was drawn to the encouragement to, “Let us think big. Let us think Guyana.” It sounds nice, but there is news for Mr Ally. A handful of examples should assist.
Some of us have lived thinking big; it is why we are where we are. The single or impoverished parents struggling to send a child (or two more) to school are thinking big when they muster the courage to confront the impenetrable gloom of their despair day after day. Life is a perpetual pincer punishing their very resolve; such parents overcome by thinking big. And all the unemployed (none more so than the youths), the fleeing emigrants, and underpaid workers make it to another day because they think big; they refuse to give in; and surrender is not an option. We have thought big by first living not on the backs of others, or from their sweat.
There is a difference, though, in this big thinking: it is focused full tilt on personal survival and individual progress. Stated otherwise, the thinking big is not national in scope, or of country first.
How can it be when the days are a relentless drumbeat of pulverizing greyness? How can it be societal in reach when we see our political neighbours lying and tricking and stealing? How can it be when the cheaters parade their opulence? How can it be when the liars and political artists are protected?
The record books are secret? And our leaders are jokes with gargantuan appetites and equally massive failures? Yes, it does dilute the internal resolve and dedication to think big on a national scale, to think Guyana, though some of us do try.
Thinking big and thinking Guyana are wonderful. It might be “don’t worry, be happy.” Or don’t worry, things gon change. These exhortations neither operate in a vacuum nor are closeted in silos. When sacrifices are made by all, and truth and integrity become our immovable standards, then think big and think Guyana can be experienced, and the journey to a shared destiny realizable. Until such occurrences, we stand as seven hundred thousand plus silhouettes; some large, some tiny, some rich. And some almost non-existent.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall