Dear Editor,
I feel compelled to express my disappointment with the quality and focus of the speeches given at Babu John last Sunday.
Rather than address the many problem areas in need of urgent attention and major improvement, the speakers chose to dive into the annals of history in order to inflame old wounds and perceived injustices no one under 35 would have experienced or can recall.
Paradoxically, some 60-62% of the May electorate will be aged between 18 and 35. A more intelligent, politically astute government leadership would have addressed issues that resonate with this age group. This is particularly so as many of this age group have started, or are about to start, families of their own.
Social policy research shows that 52% of Guyanese children live in poverty – and that the growth has been explosive in the last fifteen years.
A cycle of deprivation is at work that will stunt the lives of thousands of youths, incubating crime, suicide, unwholesome lifestyles and poor health. Yet, our political masters past and present had nothing to say about this. To live in an unequal society thus sullies everyone; our political leadership and their cronies have become complicit in a system in which fellow citizens are condemned to conditions we would not wish for ourselves and our families, while we accept economic hardships, instability and a debased public domain as inevitable.
We are all worse off or soon will be. Yet, rather than accept and embrace the argument for more jobs, equality of opportunity, equitable income distribution, safer communities, better health care, education at all levels, better electricity and vital services, our political leaders sing karaoke and stump around to Jamaican dance hall music forgetting to sing a chorus or two from Marley’s ‘Crazy baldheads.’
Yes, Babu John was an insult and disgrace to Dr Cheddi’s memory.
Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case
