The screams of Guyana’s children, trapped in a conflagration prolong our moments of silence. We are exposed. The seeds of ‘Guyana runs on incompetence’ have become trees and their fruit are bitter and poisonous. We continue to pick and eat deluding ourselves that the poisonous fruit would nourish and not kill us. But here we are.
A week that started with the chilling news of Indigenous children trapped in a fire in a dormitory in Mahdia Region 8 screaming as they were injured and burned to death. This is where we have been led – where eighteen girls and one boy are lost forever because we accept incompetence as our standard. We have accepted that Guyana’s children do not need to be protected at all costs. We have accepted that raising our children in disorder is our norm. We have accepted these prisons we have built for ourselves in which our children can burn. We continue to put their future in jeopardy.
Every day there are reasons to mourn in Guyana. Some are asking if God has abandoned us. Many are calling for more prayers. But what good can the worship of God and sore knees do when the people refuse to act and demand change? What good do our blood and sacrifices do when the people are in a stupor? Many are like lost ones wandering in the wilderness – afraid of their power and afraid to be brave while they allow the continued ruin of this country.
How do we continue to live in a country with such a small population where the lives of our people are being snuffed out at any moment in unfortunate circumstances and all we do is cry, be constantly outraged, and wait for the next one, but do nothing significant to change the course of our country?
Nineteen children. The blood of nineteen children is on the hands of this nation. The horror to awaken from your sleep to be engulfed in smoke and flames most of us will never know, but the spirits of the ones who are now with the ancestors and those who are recovering but traumatized know it. How did this happen many are questioning? Why are the places where our children are supposed to be safe and protected too often facing destruction? We are asking about fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, fire drills, fire escapes and building codes where Indigenous people live, and we know that they are a largely neglected part of the population. We are asking why the building was grilled and locked so that it was difficult for many of the children to escape. This newspaper carried a report on Thursday that in November last year and February of this year the fire service flagged the grilled windows at the dormitory as a fire hazard. Yet months were allowed to go by, and the danger remained to cost nineteen lives.
Many are asking about the culpability of the dorm mother. This is one woman who was there to look over almost sixty children. We want one woman to bear the brunt of our incompetence. This one woman who also lost a child in the fire.
We pretend to be shocked that the one fire truck did not have water. Just look at some of us pretending that we do not see or know the truth about ourselves. Pretending that we care. Pretending that safety, care and consideration is our standard. Incompetence is our standard and we relish it.
Why have so many schools burned within the last few years? St. George’s High School, Christ Church Secondary, North West Secondary, North Ruimveldt Secondary and now a fire at Mahdia Secondary dormitory. How do we expect for our schools to burn, dormitories to burn, our children to be burned and injured and expect that the future of Guyana is great?
Our 57th Independence has come with this dark cloud hovering over our country, but fifty-seven years has not us taught to be kind to each other, to build together and to protect our country together. A tragedy of this magnitude does not only require a few days of mourning, but a nation of wise people would use it to really examine us and begin the long process of becoming better and healing. Examine how our incompetence has led to the loss of the lives of our children and do the work to change. Examine how we continue to widen the divide that keeps us imprisoned in this country and do the work to erase it. Examine how we allow politics to be the foundation on which many decisions are made to our detriment and work to put country first and not people who are destroying us.
Region 8 children’s bodies have been laid to rest and are waiting to be laid to rest, but the show simply goes on for many. In our ‘stink and dutty’ stupor all some of us care about is money and entertainment whether the country is burning or not.
Even within this tragedy we have seen the pettiness and insensitivity in some of our leaders. We have seen the pictures of politicians with injured children who need to be counseled and loved and be reassured that they can heal. I suppose these politicians want to show us that they care when their actions often tell us that they do not. There were photo-ops with children just discharged from hospital at a national vigil at Umana Yana that many were not aware of. Are we serious in this country? The people of Guyana’s pain should not be used for publicity stunts so that those who continue to fail us can feel good about themselves. The people’s pain is not for politicians to score points.
What can we tell the people of Region 8? There is no appropriate compensation for the lives lost. The sound of their pain will echo for decades, and the people will remember how incompetence led to the loss of nineteen of their children.
One of the most disturbing and unfortunate parts of this tragedy is that a student has been accused of starting the fire and many are seeking to lay all the blame at her feet. A child cannot bear the brunt of the consequences of a nation’s failures. Her picture has been shared across social media and she is being condemned because this is what we do. We are quick to judge the actions of our hurt people without doing the work it requires to address their hurt so that they can begin to find healing. We are putting another child to the flame when the true cause of that fire is a society that continues to fail our children.
