Dear Editor,
I am emotionally torn as I observe my Guyanese brothers and sisters apparently caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. We must make impossible choices, inhuman compromises and often, fight our battles alone even as our government fails to deliver the services to which we are entitled.
I had cause to be at a pharmacy recently. An elderly woman was also present with her prescription for medication. The pharmacist said to her, “The usual half”? And the elderly customer nodded. From the overheard conversation and my subsequent enquiries, I learned that the customer, a pensioner, always, each month, bought half of her prescribed medication as she could not afford to fill her whole prescription. She then cut each of her pills in half and used half of her prescribed dose.
Editor, should a senior citizen have to do this?
I know of persons who walk miles to get to work so they can save money to put food in their child’s lunchkit. Should Guyanese have to make such choices? Should we have to sell our possessions to pay bills? Should we need to make a choice between food and rent, or between paying the light bill and spending a month without purchasing and reading a newspaper? It seems like we are caught in impossible, hopeless dilemmas.
Public servants should earn a living wage, pensioners should have enough to buy the necessary medication, Guyanese should have enough to eat and be able to pay our bills. The government talks a lot about progress, but progress is not only about the fancy malls built by wealthy friends. Progress is not measured by the mansions in Pradoville. What about the ordinary man, the working poor, the unemployed, the tortured prisoner, the single parent? Why are many Guyanese caught between a rock and a hard, impossible place?
Yours faithfully,
Mark DaCosta