Dear Editor,
Episode 29 of SN’s cost of living serial touched down on residents of Kitty (SN, June 19, 2023), and there was something peculiar that caught my attention. I could be wrong, guilty of overreacting, possibly seeing what is thought to be there, but with nothing other than my imagination taking hold. It may be any or all of these things, but this is Guyana, and I also know what it is really like behind the kimono. There were 10 residents of the Kitty, Georgetown area interviewed for this week’s chapter in the cost-of-living volume. Six of the ten residents were not looking straight into the camera from the pictures presented, as in full frontal images. Instead, all six citizens were sideways profile at best, or actually angling away from the probing, revealing eye of the camera. The first question is why was this so? Was this a matter of individual choice? Or was it a situation prompted by circumstances, whatever those may be? Even if such was the case, 6 out of 10 Guyanese averting the gaze (so to speak) registers on the funny side with me. This is funny, but without the laffs.
I am aware from my conversations with Guyanese who feel free to converse on an undisclosed basis, a confidential understanding, that there is palpable and considerable fear in this land to say anything that has a higher than lower probability of enraging the powers that stride over this country like Caesars of yore. By powers that be, I mean the President, the Vice President, and to a lesser extent the Opposition Leader. Nobody wants to draw attention to themselves, prefer a nonexistent existence, which is the passport to survival in this oil nirvana. Fear is the key, and it is a destroyer of thinking, of expressing, and of being too fronting in the public space. If and when we are frightened to speak our mind, share our pain openly, about the ravages of cost-of-living, then there is a whole world of items and issues-all considerable problems-that is just swept under the carpet, and allowed to fester unattended, but safely. For the people close to the governing junta, cost-of-living is not a serious concern, for they have taken care of themselves, and they will take aim at any whose comments and postures incorporates some element that could upset their hold on the financial applecart. On the other hand, for the mass of Guyanese who cannot feed themselves as they should, who have to ignore certain items in the shopping plazas, and rather shamefacedly check the price of this or that basic item, it is both painful insult and ongoing torture.
Pretty speeches from the political brass, sparkling from their collections, do nothing to lower the acid levels in the stomachs of Guyanese living without. Those hollow, self-serving pontifications do not help in making it easier to pay a single bill (also going up), or buy one bundle more of butterfish or a parcel of greens. Anybody tried to buy oranges recently? Better pony up $200 to get one that comes from Brazil, or it is down with the vitamin C. The last post is this: cost-of-living is killing us, but now it appears that we must hide our faces, so as not to offend our heroes with our smelly sores.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
