This week during the third session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in Geneva, Switzerland, is when journalist and media personality Wanita Huburn was attacked for sharing her opinion on Facebook about the government taking accountability for the incompetence of the Guyana Power and Light. It is also when there was a voice note circulating about names being removed from a cash grant list and when the Stabroek Market Wharf collapsed. One can wonder if the collapse is an omen; a warning for us to pay attention to the decaying parts of ourselves. Are we not dilapidated at our core and under threat of collapsing?
In this oil rich place where widened eyes, drooling mouths and greedy hands are ready to grab, the Stabroek Market Wharf collapsed. Horrendous. It was condemned for occupation, yet people still occupied it. We do not have to question why, for survival is often the goal even if people must put themselves in danger. People who were trapped. People who have suffered losses. People who have been injured. People who had to jump into the river to save themselves.
The surroundings of Stabroek Market are of hope and desperation. It is a place where garbage gathers. Putrid are the odours, loud are the people, desperate are some and hopeful.
We can ask, why was it left to years of neglect? Our whys never end here.
The market was constructed in 1880. In this place where we try to put on a show for the world that we are standing strong though the roofs and walls may be crumbling around us, history stands though some may try to erase parts of it. In Geneva, Switzerland, at the 3rd session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent some may have tried to sell dreams about a land where we hold hands and sing and tell tales about the farm that all animals have always been equal and still are.
At that third session of the Permanent Forum on People of African descent, the theme was “The Second International Decade for the people of African Descent: Addressing Systemic Racism, Reparatory Justice, and Sustainable Development”.
There were conflicting reports about where the people of African descent in Guyana stand. Still, some will deny that these are shaky grounds. One where some may say it was selling dreams about fairness and equality, pointing fingers, and accusing organisations like IDPADA-G of corruption. Accusations that have since been denied by the organisation. There were accounts at this forum about discrimination. The racism that some pretend does not exist, it is mostly those who feel it that will not deny it. The grounds shake but still there are those who seem not to be afraid of a collapse. They seem to believe that their steel feet will grow them into giants undefeatable and immortal and they with their hate and evil will hold the walls together.
Will we take the collapse of the wharf as a lesson for how we move forward? Will we address these allegations of cash grants being given to selected groups that support the ruling political party? I heard the voice note of a man threatening people that if they did not support a hotdog sale, their names would be removed from a cash grant list. This kind of ridiculousness is what we have become accustomed to. Hilarious? Worrying? Sad? Still some delude themselves that the grounds are not shaky. Hotdog sales and barbecues is how some of our desperate show their loyalty.
The wharf collapsed in this place where we boast about being the strongest growing economy but still encounter blackouts every day. There are no excuses for what the Guyana Power and Light has put the Guyanese people through. There is no excuse for attacking people who voice their opinions in this “freedom of speech” land. Wanita Huburn made comments on her Facebook page about the government’s culpability in the mess that is the Guyana Power Light and was attacked by what is alleged to be a page run by people connected to the government called ‘Live in Guyana’.
The Vile in Guyana have no limits. They do not care about respecting women. They do not condemn attacks on women. They do not care how crass they are. They continue to do this because they have gotten away with it and have been emboldened by those, we can call the less advanced, the indolent, the irresponsible and the idiotic. Still, there are those who believe they are living in the clouds and will not be affected by the threat of collapse in this land where there are too many people who do not think for themselves and hold those, they should hold accountable.
What is the reality of those already collapsed under the weight of hopelessness and desperation in this country? The bonds that should hold us together are fragile and the truths that should wake us, there are often efforts to erase, distort or ignore them. Surely the wharf collapsing is an example of how we can collapse under the weight of incompetence we see across this country. Surely, we should look at the deeper messages of a wharf collapsing.
The president and ministers made their way to the collapsed wharf. I wonder if the sight of the debris stirred something in them. As they stood there observing, where on a regular day their feet perhaps would not touch, was there a collective epiphany? Lives could have been lost. The injured I am sure are happy that they still have life.
I saw reports that they are making significant progress with the cleanup of the collapsed wharf. Must we wait for our struggles to cause a great collapse before we clean up? There would be no need to clean up the results of our incompetence if we never let them be. If we were to catch ourselves now before a great fall and realise as a collective that the bonds that should hold us together must be strengthened, we can save ourselves. We do not want to collapse into a mess that we will not be able to clean.
