Dear Editor,
A quiet Thursday afternoon in some parts of Guyana, with rain ‘set up’ and then the loud noise over our heads, which the Guyana Chronicle says was ‘friendly’ “US SOUTHCOM conducts ‘flyover’ exercise in Guyana’s airspace”, GC 10 May, 2024. Some people might have seen the news item that two, not thousands, but only two fighter jets were flying over as part of the United States show of its military prowess and friendliness to us. So this is a glimpse of what war must be like, when friends, who could become enemies in this strange world, fly over. This is what Ukraine and Palestine, and the other places where the jets of friendliness flyover to destroy.
Same day the Ministry of Education withdrew the essay competition about the school feeding programme, where it seems Ministry of Education duty bearers do not understand their relationship with citizens as duty, rather than doling out charity for which citizens must be grateful. Are there people in the Ministry of Education who would like to ask children to write about the importance of beating children as a form of discipline in Guyana’s schools? Rather than say, write about a world where friendliness is not about fighter jets and they do not have to be grateful for food and teachers and parents are not using violence to discipline them?
Sincerely,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
