It was not surprising to hear about a journalist being shot at in Guyana. What have we become or what have we always been when such news is not surprising?
On Tuesday night it was reported that journalist Travis Chase’s car was shot at several times by someone who rode away on a motorcycle. Every reason we can conceive that resulted in that occurrence is terrifying. Whether it was an attack because Chase is a part of the media or a personal vendetta, the veil of darkness on Guyana grew heavier and I am sure many felt less safe. Let us acknowledge our sins.
Behind the veil here many truths remain suppressed. Little ones in grown bodies believe themselves to be all powerful and think that they can kill the will and the spirit of others to bury the truth. The bribes from being bought and sold are conspicuous here. There are those who begin their walk with good intents, but the puppet masters summon them, and they relinquish their power sometimes for selfish gains, for the protection and wellbeing of their families or to preserve their lives.
We must talk about our sins. Like when sometimes we see efforts to pervert the course of justice and the rule of law is not always respected. For example, attorney Tamieka Clarke’s case. She was arrested and her phone seized last year by officers of Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), for advising her client to remain silent. The High Court ruled that her arrest and detention was unlawful. With even lawyers being unlawfully arrested and journalists being shot at, who is safe in Guyana? Can we trust our police? Can we trust that we will never again see victims being treated like the suspects?
Sadly, there are some members of the Guyana Police Force who unashamedly victimize Guyanese. Whether they are instructed to or not, we can deduce that the rule of law only applies for some.
We must not be afraid to tackle our sins. The hands of the puppet masters are never tired or free here. This is who we are and there is little evidence that we are willing to change.
For too long we have been swimming in this cesspool pretending to be a country that always upholds truth, justice, and righteousness. Maybe we are also pretending to be a country. Pretending that those who direct and feed the corruption are good people. Pretending that the good of this country is priority or that the preservation of ourselves also is. We can be honest about ourselves. We revel on a path of death and destruction. Our sins are constantly exposed showing that we are in a constant decline. Depravation rules. Some Guyanese depending sometimes on social class, ethnicity or political affiliation are second class citizens. But this is what we have accepted and little ones in grown bodies with big egos and often low intelligence, believe this to be a normal well-functioning country.
We must face the results of our sins. This year, we watched the sins of the nation unfold in too many painful instances. At the start of the year, it was Guyanese families being bulldozed from ancestral lands in Mocha and being called squatters in their own country. Places where children studied and slept were destroyed forever and their cries will forever be heard where the road will run. Animals were buried in what was nefarious and to bring more chaos on the land. Our ancestors whose blood and tears went into Mocha were disrespected and disregarded while the majority were silent.
But it was not the end of our tragedies. The screams of children are constant around Guyana. Abused and neglected children’s tears pour like raindrops. In May the screams of children sounded loudly in Mahdia and will probably haunt the communities forever. Twenty children died because of negligence in a fire at the dormitory of Mahdia Secondary School and the hesitance to repent for our sins saw efforts to solely blame a fifteen-year-old girl for this tragedy. Our sins tell us that only some of us will be held accountable. They try to erase the truth like the Guyana Fire Service warning twice that the building was a fire hazard. We must ask if Indigenous children’s lives matter when we hear horror stories of what occurs within those populations. Like a minister being accused of raping an Indigenous girl, which led to protests for justice, which led to his resignation, and which seemed to have culminated in the child retracting her story with rumours about why and how. Our sins do not hide.
And still here we are. Some of us basking in the evils of this nation. Some pretending that this nation does not house a large portion of people under psychological, social, and spiritual attacks. The outside enemies linger at our doors. But the inside enemies are us, by us and for us. We will shout not a blade of grass to the outside enemies but have some of our citizens waiting years for a blade of grass because of the actions of the inside enemies. Some having to pay bribes for a blade of grass; poor people’s tears running like a river for a blade of grass. But quickly pleasing outsiders, the rich, investors, overseas based with how many acres they desire.
Our sins show that we do not love ourselves as a collective. This pretense about being a nation of one people, one nation and one destiny, weakens us but we still refuse to learn and change from how horrible we have become.
We lost five servicemen last week when their helicopter crashed and burst into flames. They were standing for our nation in this time of threats from Venezuela. The occasions for mourning have continued throughout the year but some of us will never wake. It is not only in this time that we must mourn together and call for unity as we defend our country against Venezuela, but this should be what we live by. Whether it is that a journalist is shot at, people are unlawfully arrested, bulldozed, or children are killed or raped, our voices must sound together to condemn and demand truth, justice, and righteousness. Our hands must link together in a chain that cannot be broken. You must see the spilling of your neighbour’s blood as your own blood and an attack on one of us as an attack on all of us. If we do not learn these lessons now, our sins will eventually obliterate us, and the Guyanese people will be another name and another face in time to come.
