I would appreciate the opportunity to share something from history with my fellow citizens. I do this to bring closure to ‘Guyana bloggers should return home’ (SN, November 11).
The year was 1973, and the state of Israel was locked in mortal combat with its Arab neighbours. The situation was so grim that Moshe Dayan was talking of “closing the third temple.” This was code for triggering the nuclear option. The situation was that desperate in the power bunkers of Tel Aviv.
Yet thousands of miles away, there was an incredible scene. It was one of chaos with large numbers of Jews fighting and begging to get on a plane.
To get on any plane at JFK Airport that would take them to the war front where danger and death waited. They were from all walks of life and backgrounds. Many were successful and well established; many were professionals; many had families; many were secularists; and many had serious issues with the political players in Israel. Yet there they were at JFK scrambling and pushing and screaming to get in the middle of a hell totally alien to their comfortable existences.
Yes, I know that it was a time of war; that their history is different; and that there were huge swathes of the mystical in their actions. But all I can see is a group of people willing to give up all for the conviction of their identification, and to do so almost without thinking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. That they were ready to do so in the face of overwhelming odds – and the gravest of risks – for no apparent reward is another story altogether.
Perhaps, for some Guyana is an impossible dream and the foes are indeed unbeatable. But there are some others who will always run where the brave dare not go. I thought that we all had this wired into our DNA. I am willing to be considered wrong on this, but the thought just will not go away.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
