Dear Editor,
I learnt today that for the first time in my memory, we will be having simultaneously two Emancipation Day events in Georgetown. From all I heard I deliberately avoided using the word celebration. There is one hosted by ACDA at the National Park, which for many years, has become traditional and is always well attended. This year, a parallel event was planned for the Malteenoes Sports Club ground but has now been shifted to the National Exhibition Site in Sophia. Enquiries revealed that this latter event is being co-sponsored by the PPP. Further, admission is free, and two hundred and fifty food hampers will be distributed. Again, free of charge.
Editor and Guyanese, let us look at the broader picture. We are the fastest growing economy in the world with billions daily coming from oil, gas, gold, etc. With the cost of living and poverty present and visible, I have no doubt that there will be a rush to collect hampers. We can imagine the needy and the greedy jumping over shoulders and back to collect. The Government is employing a well-known imperialist and colonial system of divide and rule plus just like the Roman Emperors providing entertainment as the Gladiators battle to their death.
Emancipation Day should be used to remind all of us of the sacrifice and humiliation of those who were enslaved, beaten and using crude implements, dug hundreds of miles of canals, roads and dams to civilise our entire coastal belt.
The Portuguese, Chinese and Indians who came after Emancipation 1838, should be reminded of this part of our history and that we, Guyanese should disrespect no group but recognise that in different ways, we have contributed to this Dear Land of Guyana. The sponsorship of a parallel event shows a disregard and disrespect for the Descendants of freed Africans. This condition is not helpful, if we are to make a reality of the words on our Motto of One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
I call on the leaders of this Government, who have one drop of African blood in their veins to speak up and stand up, to be men and women, not mice and crapauds.
Sincerely,
Nigel Bacchus
