Dear Editor,
Today, like many other days, I sit alone contemplating the situation that is Guyana. As I pan through the news my fears mingle with the desperation I feel for every parent who outlives a child fallen to the ignorance of crime. I am only consoled by hope, a vision, and a prayer.
My hope is in the revival of interest in our youth. My hope is in programmes that seek to keep our youths out of harms way; teaching them the virtues of protecting and serving each other and our country.
I will not romanticize the issues that plagued the Guyana National Service (GNS), the only such programme to date. However, it was a way to cultivate that mindset of responsibility, respect, pride and nationalism missing in some of our youths today. Necessary life and nation-building skills were taught. Recruits were taught the important correlations that exist between self, community and cooperation. Sadly, the government of the day in an act lacking foresight and rife with hatred for all things not of themselves decided that Guyanese youths who gravitated to the GNS (mostly those from less than wealthy households) were undeserving of these basic lessons. Our youths were left out to wonder around our society without an alternative. To those who rejoiced at the dismantling of the GNS, take a look around and see the worst case scenario of a bad decision unfolding. The GNS may not have been the absolute best, but what have we now?
By the same token, the dismantling of mass games left a void in our nation’s cooperative spirit. In awe-inspiring unity, young children from all across Guyana learnt to build teams and display national pride while enjoying the competition and camaraderie that was the games.
How the adults complained! Their children were starved; the sun was too hot; the practices were too long; the venue was too far away; their children were missing school etc, etc. Then those very parents marvelled at the spectacle of the production and the coordination and discipline the children exercised. Again the government of the day with their usual lack of foresight (and again that ever present condemnation) completely scrapped the games instead of re-engineering it and seeking to assess its true value to our children and its uniqueness to our little corner of the world. Further, they did not consider that in our racially diverse society the element of unity through cooperation, so crucial to the development of Guyana, would be abandoned. We like our government, failed our children. We did not invest in our youth and now it has all come home to roost.
My hope is that Guyanese people awaken from their slumber of selfishness and instant gratification and see that once again we can be more than individuals. My hope is that we will take into consideration our long-term survival as a nation. My hope is that we will take our children and our youths beyond the boundaries of the classroom and encourage them to exercise the ideas of team dynamics, decision-making, leadership and nationhood. My hope is that Guyanese return to the idea of shared responsibility in raising upright and conscientious citizens. We cannot throw our children to the wolves and expect them to grow up like lambs. We need out children! We need our youth! They are our future!
As a people, we must admit that Forbes Burnham, though considered a tyrant by many, in many arenas had a vision for the youth of Guyana: A vision of grooming our children to be independent thinkers and leaders unafraid of effecting positive change even in the face of oppression. That vision has lain mostly dormant while our youths have languished in the malaise of missed or unavailable opportunities.
My challenge to Guyanese is to seize that vision as our lives depend on it.
I pray that Guyanese will abandon the killing fields. I pray that Guyanese (especially those in positions of leadership) will exercise foresight and recognize that in their old age the youth if left neglected will neglect them in turn. I pray that Guyanese will set aside forced differences, stereotypes and false pride and take stock and hold of our youth. This is the answer to a great many of our ills.
Only by the survival of our youth will our country survive. Save the youth and we shall save ourselves!
Yours faithfully,
H Cato
