Dear Editor,
A good friend and prominent Guyanese banker who has lived in Canada and the USA and worked extensively in the Caribbean and who currently works here recently remarked that “Nothing can prepare you for Guyana.” That statement resonated with me for days and while I myself had many times thought likewise, coming from his vast experiences and travel it sank deeper than it ever did before. In political circles, in business places, on the street, in fact everywhere in Guyana one must agree that “Nothing can prepare you for Guyana”. Here we appear numb as well as dumb to right and wrong even when it stares us in the face.
Our President and Vice President along with their ministers are expert spin doctors who will find ways to get out of or avoid the difficult situations. They react to situations often negatively and will always find a way to compare themselves to the opposition and previous administrations. They do not admit to wrongs or accept any other position but their own mentally hardened ones. When in a corner they talk their way out by comparing what pertained before rather than give good reasonable answers and taking the responsibility as they should. They rely totally on the unswerving support they get from their mass support base which like Donald Trump’s is mostly misinformed or not at all informed or who will go blindly along with what they have been told.
Those who know better know that all is not well on the frontlines but are not prepared to rock the boat lest their rations be cut or taken away altogether. The Minister who is embroiled in a nasty scandal of alleged teenager abuse, gets his knuckles rapped and now awaits his next opportunity. The Party will have to decide by vote if he remains or goes. Any bets on that outcome? We know and have known for a long time that we are losing nurses and have to take drastic measures to deal with this critical situation which the President describes as a “tremendous shortage” but no, the scale must tip dangerously before we move into action and while some action has been taken and 1,160 students will undergo or have undergone three years of training as registered nurses they are hardly sufficient to take care of the constant drain and it will only be a matter of time before we lose most.
What we do next, we engage Cuba in efforts to send Spanish speaking nurses to deal with English speaking patients. It is bad enough when patients have to converse with non-English doctors now, they will have greater problems at their sickbeds. The motto of the GPHC is ‘We Care”. Editor, we must not be afraid to be thorns in the side of any government elected to govern our country that’s not providing quality leadership at all levels, and which uses the authority it is given to “Tell us”, rather than “Listen to us” through national consultation on the matters which are really affecting everyone. This is what I understand to be inclusiveness.
Ministers and high officials drive big SUV’s and live in fancy communities with fully air-conditioned homes supported by many other personal services and expenses so they cannot full grasp or care too much about the plight of the masses who pay those bills. We tolerate the worst situations allowing laid down laws to be trampled and ignored. How could we as a nation be proud of such behaviour and what is our current generation taking away from all this? Ministers of government conduct themselves as masters who know it all. When they step out of line, they get a little tap on their knuckles.
Guyanese must assert themselves as one people with the authority to
demand changes and speak out when they see wrong or improper decisions which will affect them and their wellbeing. Being loyal to your party to a fault is ignorance at the highest level. We need to advance to a position where our voices will be heard and not continue to be spineless jellyfish. The government does not know it all and at best they will try to let you believe they do. To be a better Guyana, we have to demand better governance and standards which will uplift our moral and make Guyana a real place where the real people will be all the people and only then will better conditions and standards prevail for all.
Sincerely,
B.A Ramsay