Dear Editor,
I will be so bold as to suggest respectfully to Guyana’s President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali that on his return from addressing the UN General Assembly, he does a little stopover, like Paul Anka did in 1960: “I took a little trip to my hometown.” While at it, the humble suggestion to Excellency Ali is that considering he is so busy: “I only stopped to take a look around.” Daytime will be alright; nighttime will remind him of Black Country & Western legend Charley Pride’s discovery: “when snakes crawl at night.” Prezzy: what has Leonora come to, and under whose majestic watch? Majestic and inaction don’t go well together; nor does it rhyme so smoothly with impotence. “And so the music keeps going on and on. And through the night until the break of dawn.” That is Leonora, Mr. President, Mr. AG, isn’t it? And so, it may also be in Mahaica and Johanna Cecilia and as far away as Roraima. Instead of the ecstasy of Paul Anka’s “ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya”, I am hearing ow-ow-ow, Neighbour Ali, Villager Ali, how about a little relief from the beat, the booze, the brass bands, and the noise brawls?
There is no joy in taking Paul Anka’s top ten classic and transplanting it to the nightmarish, ghoulish, set of circumstances that bedevil the residents in Leonora, then farther up Carifesta along the Kitty area, and to other parts known and unknown. Some Guyanese have raised the economics of the noise pestilence menace (the quality of man hours drained and drugged by noise), the civics lesson from it (children negatively impacted), and the medical consequences of it (the elderly and the already stressed driven to the brink of insanity). There is knowledge that both President Ali and AG Nandlall are very keen of hearing. Not one whispered criticism from a conscientious citizen eludes their auditory senses. The same sharpness of interest, the identical energetic response, must be manifested with the national noise nightmare. Somebody should form a political party to contest the 2025 horse race on that plank alone. The temptation stirs. It could be the jingle that further jangles the nerves of a frightened and error plagued PPP Government.
The question is why are situations like these allowed to get so out of hand? The Guyana Police Force is not on strike and, according to the leader and his brigade of pleaders, the law enforcement line is good at what it does. Now, mischief cannot let that pass: what is it that the GPF really does, makes among its higher priorities? Would clear up the mystery, be helpful to know. No less important, it is baffling that a government that is fitted in the total control mold of Molotov, Adolf, and Andropov could be so lackadaisical, so inept, in reeling in the reprobates, inebriates, and assorted elements that fall into the category of parasites that torment and taunt the people who are from the president’s own cluster of faithful. If anybody were to advance the argument that the PPP Government is driven to wretchedness by fear of crossing the crucial private sector, that thought should be squashed immediately. What has shackled the PPP Government and its stars, some of which share a bewildering commonness with the scurrilous, is its love for the material support from the private sector, and which rich favours must be paid back tenfold, if not twenty. No wonder the poor attorney general, Mr. Nandlall, a man noted for his furious commitment to action events, is chaffing at the harness wrapped so tightly around his gills.
So, what Paul Anka sang so mesmerizingly in 1960 is what now hurries Guyanese across this country to seek shelter in their homes that had to be converted to bunkers. Though Guyana doesn’t have an air force of which to speak, citizens have been subject to one deafening air raid after another at all hours, and they are not of the American Hornets variety. It is a brutal sound of volume unlimited and a rum drinking playground that is uninhibited. President Ali should be congratulated for sleeping through all of this like a baby. The presidency does have its pluses, offers its own types of insulation. How AG Nandlall lives with himself, could still say that he loves the law so much, should be a matter for national debate. To keep things calm, he should not be allowed to participate. Indeed, an unwarranted constitutional restriction some may howl, but every now and then a speck of lawlessness slips into even the best in the midst. Of this, let there be no misunderstanding: the PPP Government has made a nice (but checkered) living in insisting that it is the best where accountability is concerned. Whoever was responsible for that, er, patented exaggeration and political repugnance, really ought to be put away in a safe place. That way, Guyanese children are groomed from today in what true honesty and accuracy are all about.
In Guyana, noise has been the nectar of local political gods, godfathers, and gods of a hellish disposition. It suits the culture. It is the civilization of the barbaric, and those the Iranians smear as Satanic. For many Guyanese, Paul Anka has become an anchor on their heads, one that’s stuffed into their ears.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
