Dear Editor,
As we welcome the New Year, it is traditional for us to wish that we all share a prosperous, and may I add, peaceful New Year. A country with less than a million souls and a super abundance of natural resources, prosperity for every citizen ought to be in the offing. A prosperity where every citizen everywhere can enjoy the bounty given to us by the Creator. A country where we experience no extremes of heat or cold, no monsoons, no hurricanes, no earthquakes and occasional floods. Ironically, most of our floods are the result of human carelessness and disregard for Mother Nature. Unfortunately, the major disaster has been the existence of leaders whose lack of humility and genuine patriotism has disallowed them to translate into reality the wisdom of, in unity there is strength.
Speaking over the holidays to a few prominent figures, one for example, argued that we need Constitutional Reform based on an Ethnic Relation Commission to solve our ethnic problem. I disagreed. My view is that no amount of constitutional adjustments can solve our inherited social, ethnic and economic problems. What we need is to teach and share honestly all of our history so that our people recognize that it is possible for us to share this place without conflict, without unnecessary jealousy and inherited prejudices. This requires thorough education and the sharing of authentic facts as imparting knowledge to fully appreciate of our commonality from its imperial past and honour our heroes from Cuffy to the Enmore Martyrs. This education should begin from the cradle in the home through kindergarten, and all of our educational institutions on to university.
A knowledge of our history will tell us that unless an attitudinal metamorphosis occurs, the oil giants and the gold harvesters would continue to feed us with the crumbs from the master’s table. In Guyana, the crumbs may seem plentiful and sweet but listen to the experts and we will soon find out that where we should be getting 99, we get 9.
As we usher in the New Year, I ask every Guyanese to listen to the voices and pleadings of the men and women who daily expose the injustice and the folly existing in our beloved country. To those who are afraid to speak or feel threatened that their right to speak is being throttled, let us abide by the words of Elie Wiesel, Jewish Author, Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Laureate, – “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the Oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green