Dear Editor,
It is said that the hour is darkest before dawn. For the tortured residents of President Ali’s hometown in Region Three Leonora, it has also been the loudest, most lawless, interval. Behind every thunderhead of a cloud, there is a silver lining: broad, reassuring for men of quiet dignity and faith. Mr. Jailall of Leonora should be able to attest to that, too, amid the tribulations and traumas that bombarded his existence. It shouldn’t have happened to a dog, but to Mr. Jailall it did. Attorney General Anil Nandlall expressed the government’s concern over the proliferation of an irresponsible, irrepressible, and seemingly, insoluble, noise pollution presence that had morphed into a calamitous national pestilence. Something had to be done. Something had to give, so that the law-abiding in communities across Guyana can enjoy the peace that is due to them. It is my understanding that Leonora is at the top of the list for remedial noise pollution attention, with some key first moves already accomplished. Good! Now let better, the rest, follow in swift order: the whole corrective works.
Taking a short step back, in one of his more recent epistles broadcasting his travails, Mr. Jailall spoke of ‘Dons’ and the ‘godfathers’ that facilitate their thriving. He was on to something, maybe more than he even knew. There are times when the line of the law must be drawn in stone, and Leonora represented such an instance. After all, it is President Ali’s birthplace, which must be a place treasured, one treated with commensurate dignity. At least, its residents that are law-abiding should not be held hostage by the lawless. For then that would not look too glowing with what is healthy on the president’s face. The longer that the test case that was Leonora stood unaddressed, an abomination of all that is decent and dignified, the more that Excellency Ali himself got some stains attached to himself. It is to my regret that former president Jagdeo spoke of ‘culture’ and the ’10 o’clock’ at night syndrome that seemed to leave him sputtering and the PPP Government half-heartedly searching for a way out of the noise roaring impasse. But all was not lost, and to the rescue ran Attorney General Nandlall himself. With the attorney general’s permission, I use my own words. Noise pollution is so bad that the complaints come swift and steady. What self-respecting government could pretend ignorance, feign impotence, however embedded cultural mores may or may not be? Thanks, Mr. Nandlall. For Dr. Jagdeo, I am sure that I will find a suitable word at the proper time to do him justice for his half-frivolous, three quarter facetious, and what was fully fractious in his outlay on noise pollution.
Whether it is through the intervention of AG Nandlall or from the heights of the president himself contributing the auspices of his office directly, Mr. Jailall and his neighbours in the Leonora community now know of some movements and development that brook well for a decimation of the decibel rowdiness and lawlessness. Thanks, my good political brothers on behalf of some simple citizens in a besieged community held to ransom for too long. It should not have required an attorney general or a president to intervene for relief to be forthcoming. Reports are that one official godfather has been rearranged on the ladder of oversight, and that the dons are going to have to develop new standards of civility. Whether Mr. Jailall is a man of God or faith is neither my business nor my interest. But he does seem to have been visited by that guardian angel he longed for in good ole Leonora. The peace of relative silence should now reign supreme. Citizens get to coexist, each to his priorities and duties. Ever so often, all’s well that ends well.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall