Dear Editor,

On September 12, 1988, the Open Word, a small newspaper then published by WPA, carried an article with the caption ‘The Dark Time.’ The article’s opening sentence stated, “Nationwide blackouts are back with a vengeance. With power failures and cuts lasting on occasions for as long as sixteen hours at a time, citizens are again being bombarded with ‘explanations.’”

The final sentence declared, “With no end in sight to blackouts, water shortages, transportation agonies and general breakdown in services, the lines at the US and Canadian embassies are lengthening as more and more Guyanese abandon the ‘carnival of misery.’”

It is more than a tragedy that twenty plus years after this report blackouts continue to plague the country.

Add blackouts to the repeated epidemics of rat-infested garbage, courtesy of political game-playing between the central government and the city council and we are in the walkway of insanity.

Meanwhile the ‘explanations’ from various governmental spokespersons that we witnessed in 1988 continue.  It is déjà vu all over again.

Yours faithfully,
Nigel Westmaas