Dear Editor,
Occasionally we are reminded of the folly of seeing only the trees and not the forest. There are two issues in relation to that saying that citizens and our leaders could do well to ponder on, and act to deal with the deeper conditions.
First, there is the statement by the former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ralph Ramkarran, about police brutality, and then a complaint by Mahdia residents in relation to poor services – roads and water. In the first instance policemen, who on patrol, behave in a brutal, uncivilized manner are merely doing what they understand to be the way of at least one of their commanders, by behaving with total disrespect and disregard for the sensitivities of people they are expected to protect.
Some years ago it was proposed that police recruits be subjected to a longer period of training so as to include teaching them to be firm, yet human, and to treat every citizen with some degree of decency and respect. Policemen see several state functionaries and some of their seniors behaving like bullies, so they copy this. The good news is that within the Police Force we still have a number of senior officers and ranks who are examples of rectitude, decency and efficiency. A recent visit to the Immigration Department by a relative suggested that the Immigration Section continues to maintain a high level of professionalism. There are other sections of the force which remain a credit to our society.
In so far as Mahdia is concerned, I remember visiting this community in the late ’60s and ’70s. There you had a vibrant community with leaders such as Cyril Francis aka ‘Gasso,’ a solid patriot who as we traversed the area would stop at any of the streams, to quench our thirst by drinking refreshing clear creek water. Not so today; that area now brings tears to your eyes, as we see those very streams and waterways turned into ugly polluted opaque things, thanks to the wanton mining methods employed mostly by aliens, who do little for Guyana’s well-being.
Most countries would do well to have outsiders help in development. However, what is happening today is unfortunate. Every one of us irrespective of political or religious belief, young or old, should stand up and demand that this rape of our non-renewable resources and destruction of the environment should be put to an immediate halt. Every ounce of gold taken in this brutal manner from our El Dorado, unlike sugar, rice, plantains and cassava, will not grow back in our lifetime, nor in the foreseeable future.
Every government has an obligation to preserve our non-renewable resources, but if citizens see this as ‘no big thing,’ then uncaring mercenaries will continue a merciless destruction of our environment. How much do we benefit from their operations? In some areas food and fuel comes in from outside.
If we are to avoid our descendants cursing us, not only presidents but all of us, as they look at an ugly, unhealthy environment with gaping holes all over the interior, as well as the jagged riverbanks, rivers where no fish can live, and where we no longer hear the sweet melodies of the birds in the trees because they are no more, then when we talk of Guyana being a land of many waters it must not be the polluted dirty streams, compliments of those who do not care because their heart is not of this soil which our ancestors toiled and made sacred (the port-knockers). I plead for us to protect our environment so that our children can inherit a great land of Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
