Dear Editor,
It is bad, but there has hardly been a word ventured on what is boiling the blood of Guyanese. Nah! It’s not the usual race disputes or the political ones. It is the heat. Sweltering. Suffocating. Over-whelming. Some of this is expected at 09:00hrs, but at 9 p.m., the same should not be prevailing. I could be wrong, but this current heat index is unprecedented. It has been hot before, but not this hot. Even with August considered. Please don’t tell me about how long it is to December, and the possible chilliness waiting. I hope that the system upstairs will still hold, and everything spins and tilts accordingly.
But what about this unbelievable and unheard-of heat? Yeah, the same heat that causes stifling, and sweating, even for those who rarely break a bead. It would be interesting to compare the temperature charts from last year to this year; 2022 was frying pan bad, but this is a blast furnace unleashed. Yes, we all know about global warming and climate change, and the litany of accompanying woes that are part of the new reality. But what is going on today in Guyana is not some form of slow temperature creep, but an unannounced overnight boiler room in the red zone. It is drenching first, then draining. I mean this is standing still, and not as if I am manually unloading a ship on the wharf.
I am trying to figure out if there is a correlation between offshore oil activity, the half to seven-eighths of which we don’t know about, including how much is really flared into the atmosphere. For sure, there is a whole world of atmosphere for the emissions to be dispersed, but what about those northeast trades that they used to teach us in school? Have they now turned against Guyana and are heading southwest? Sending up some trial spit bubbles confirmed that there is no wind. Absolutely the ground zero of the doldrums, and the utter stillness of the Dead Sea.
What is going to happen to Guyana? I think it is better (looks smarter) to ask where will Georgetown end up? At the bottom of somebody’s callous calculations (no politics, please); or a victim of this whirl and world of breakneck activity and developments surrounding fossils? If I recall well, those beasts were here, and then they were not around. With this heat as a primer, I think a new piece of real estate has to be a priority. Since the existing Pradoville is out of the question, then the next one will have to suffice. Silica City, that is. I admit that the heat is getting to me. I could use some wintering. Ah, that’s the ticket.
Meanwhile, the issue is not going away, and that sun overhead looks like it is stuck right there in cruel disregard for Guyana’s great heaving mass of humanity. Of course, the man who is proud to call himself an economist could talk about textbook stuff from his airconditioned confines, while the bustling mass of bus park and market citizens have to make do with a Chinese parasol and folded up newspaper. When people can’t buy basic food items, please let’s not talk about air conditioner units, or even a $12,000 fan. Where will they get the money from, folks? Or what are they going to do with the light bill, if they do have an ac? That is enough to heat the blood a few degrees more, and the paradox is that it is a result of cooling the system. I will have Guyanese know that I have been authorized by the government to release this timeless counsel from the top: bear yuh chafe? Instead of band yuh belly, it is better to yank off shirt. As to what the ladies in Guyana propose to do, I don’t want to know. Look here, look there, it is the same story: the heat is on. An ice cold one sounds mighty tempting right now.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
