Stuck behind a garbage truck late one morning this week, a driver exclaimed. Giving into his frustrations, expletives followed in a colourful fashion as he questioned the errors in our ways, “Why we can’t do anything right in this country?”
I thought, there are things that we do correctly, right? Guyana is not just a hopeless place where an ounce of morality or advancement does not exist, correct? But where is the evidence of our evolution? Are the children unscathed and therefore pure manifestations of what we are, can and will be?
The driver continued fretting. I am often amused by the raw and valid emotions of our people. Without pause and often without thought we are quick to express ourselves. But when one examines the stories that make the news, how the affairs of our country are managed and our daily interactions with our fellow Guyanese perhaps we are quicker on frivolous matters and many of the more serious ones we turn a blind eye to or quickly forget. Still, I am often amused. Often amused because to not be amused one may be filled with dread and completely immersed in reminders about the massive parts of us that are broken. And with that perhaps I should excuse the turning of the eye for those afraid of the consequences they may face for demanding better.