Dear Editor,
I happened upon a scene that is the ominous core of Guyana. It is, also, of the individual, street-level adjudicators of local traffic statutes, the unending saga of what is the reality of our roads; our monstrously bizarre existence. It is a snapshot-indeed, the sum of this nation’s tragedies.
It is 06:45hrs last Saturday morn. From the top of Lamaha Street, I spied a white car stopped in the centre of East Street, immediately outside the entrance to the GPHC. As my taxi drew closer, I noticed that there was one other car (a yellow taxi) on the shoulder of the road facing south; only this solitary vehicle along the entirety of the street. Meaning that there is an abundance of open spaces nearby; or anywhere else for a whole block. But the middle of the road it is. Damn everyone else. A conversation was going on between the driver in the white car from the middle of the road and a man standing next to the same yellow vehicle.
The driver of my car sounded his horn. He shouldn’t have had to, since any caring, civilized user of the road could not fail to notice an oncoming object. There was no movement. The horn was sounded some more from the stationary position now compelled. There was hesitation and then grudging, slow motion movement from the white vehicle. The conversationalist standing on the road said, “Yuh gah fuh wait.”
My response was automatic. “Sir, it is the middle of the road.” Back came the instantaneous answer, “Ah hair yuh big bass, but he gah fuh wait.” And that was that. Low-keyed, low volume, low intensity. I am glad it was. But I am thinking of the myriad other daily traffic encounters that unfold drastically differently daily. And to restate my position from before, it is the story of not just traffic, but of clueless, classless, brainless, useless Guyanese in the greatest majority possible.
It is not merely about discipline, because those same men and women-loud, boisterous, hostile, ignorant-find reserve, haste, and patience when dealing with the white man. I didn’t have to go so far. Simply observe Guyanese when operating in Caricom locales, especially Grantley Adams Airport. There they are the epitome of humility, subservience almost. No! it is not simply about upbringing (maybe lacking), or culture (definitely embedded), or decency (now totally foreign). It is, to some degree, a scarcity of all of those elements, and then so much more.
It is about listening -most don’t, other than to self. It is about caring for others and respecting of self. In this country, every man, woman, and child is a full panel CCJ. All only know-and care-about what means something to them, and only them in the democracy that recognizes only one’s rights. It is that absolute. Because, if what I am sharing is about stopping in the middle of the road, the surrounding circumstances, and the reactions that followed, then what can be said about speeding and killing people, other than get out of the way? What can be taught about traffic signs and lights and road rules? Or of criminality? Integrity? No more the sounds of distant thunder; simply the routine of daily overhead lightning flashes that strike here all the time.
Almost similarly, a senior police trainer did articulate what is now a local content truism: train them for months and there is: yessir! No sir. And then listen to them and watch them several days later, and there are these shabby wretches (a careful phrase), who now embody the mangled unrecognizable. In speech. In attitude. In carriage. What can be done with such? What is to be expected of citizens of this calibre, if not carnage, and the wanton disregards for the civilities that hold society together? There are multitudes of them.
In answer to my inquiries, I offer these final observations. The man in the white car slowed close to Middle Street and parked. He is black. His conversing partner (the one responding to me is IndianBut the last is still worse. For the Indian man was about 50 years old, and the black one no less than 60. After all those years, I expected that maturity and responsibility and some level of comportment should be present. If so uncaring for traffic, then what else? If so in public, then what in private? If so unwise after so long, then what about the younger? The thinner and hotter of blood?
Many times, I wonder where this country is heading, if not farther downward. I reach a most terrible place: the peoples-almost all of them-in this country are unable to rise to the demanding obligations of nuanced democracy. Guyana, therefore, would be much better off with the heavy hands of hard governance.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall