Dear Editor,
In this time of globalization and with the use of technology, it’s very common to say that the world is a village, but should we not rather say that it is a garden? This is the audacious proposal of Gilles Clément, one of the greatest French landscape designers, when he spoke of the “global garden” to describe the biosphere.
What a wonderful way to describe our world by persons who love and care for the environment, but for us in Guyana there is a worrying problem as we see our pristine forest being destroyed by logging and mining. This is in contrast to the ecological concept of a ‘global garden’ of which the forest in Guyana is a part. The term we should use in Guyana instead is an ‘exploited garden’ which is prone to senseless destruction by persons who most times seek to make their fortune.
Guyana is endowed with natural wealth in the form of minerals and the rainforest, etc. But because the country doesn’t have the required expertise to make proper use of these, we rely on outsiders and even locals to exploit them for us.
When these people come they create some job opportunities for a few, but eventually take most of the resources away, thus ripping off the country big-time for the few in the name of development. I am not against material development for the country, but when it is being carried out at the price of the destruction of the forest it’s a disturbing issue.
If we improperly or disproportionately destroy the forests of Guyana, we not only dishonour God but we ultimately endanger the livelihoods of our poor and marginalized siblings most of whom depend on it for survival. As such we cannot sit back and see the vulnerable forest be destroyed, for that would be to do exactly what Albert Einstein says – “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
Pope Francis also reminded us that the destruction of South America’s rain forest along with other forms of environmental exploitation is a sin of modern times.
“When I look at my own homeland [South America], so many forests, all cut that have become land that can no longer give life. This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to give us what she has within her,” said the Pontiff.
If we in Guyana continue to destroy the forest at the rate it is going without acknowledging it is God’s special gift to us, then we will be putting future generations at risk. We should remember that when the last tree is cut, the last river is poisoned, and the last fish is dead, we will discover that we can’t eat money.
Finally, if we broaden our horizons the forest can lead us to understand the Earth as a “global garden” of which beautiful Guyana is a part, except that ours is very vulnerable to exploitation by destructive humans. Faced with this challenge and modern sin we are called to care for the forest and be compassionate to it and not destroy it too much, but show respect so that it continues to be part of the global garden and not a paradise lost.
Yours faithfully,
Medino Abraham
