Dear Editor,
In 1997, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bartica. I ate the labba, and drank the water from the river. I endured a lot there, and made some friends. I worked hard alongside folks, and limed hard at the Cool Breeze.
I cannot believe what I have read over the last two days about Bartica. Since leaving Guyana, I have been working for my government in the field of physical security. I am not sure that under the conditions existing in Guyana today there would have been a way to prevent this unfortunate event, but there must be a way to mitigate it.
For several years now I have read about the increasing violence throughout Guy-ana. What is it going to take to get folks to wake up to the fact that things in Guyana will not change until they come together like they never have before and resolve the political issues that have been around since the “bread basket of the Caribbean” was flourishing. Is it always going to be Just Now? I used to always hear that this is Bartica, and this is Guyana, well is Georgetown going to work with Bartica?
I know that my country has its own problems, but the solutions go beyond Region 7 and go beyond race. It’s got to be Guyanese working with Guyanese for the benefit of Guyanese. My heart goes out to the victims and families in Bartica, maybe it will take a tragedy to start to resolve these issues but I sure hope it is Right Now instead of Just Now.
Yours faithfully,
Jason Rosen
