Dear Editor,
I write to contribute to the current debate regarding the use of mercury in the mining of gold. There are many factors that have contributed to the present impasse. These include irrelevant and dysfunctional school curricula, ignorance, lack of appropriate leadership in the sector, and corruption. I will elaborate only on the first two factors.
Although I offer my qualified support to some miners in their efforts to benefit from the current high price for gold on the world market, I am of the opinion that the use of mercury in the mining of gold should be stringently regulated. If the regulations governing its use are not adhered to, and cannot be enforced, then its use should be prohibited, more particularly in rivers and waterways.
There are four very important things that miners need to understand: 1) our universe is a vast system consisting of multitudes of smaller interacting and interdependent systems in which humans and their actions are assuming increasing significance; 2) mercury is a very poisonous metal that does not break down into non-poisonous substances; 3) our environment is the patrimony of this and all future generations. We must therefore exercise great care in how it is used. This is a duty which we of the present generation owe to all future generations. We can use it, but we must not abuse it. 4) The days of small-scale mining enterprises appear to be over. Miners need to organize and modernize. This includes the formation of cooperatives, corporations, and limited companies. This should make it much easier to access the finance that is necessary to acquire modern equipment, and also, make them less prone to becoming the victims of violent crime.
When mercury is spilt, or carelessly discarded during the mining process, it remains in the environment to pollute and contaminate anything and everything with which it comes into contact. Eventually, the spilt or discarded mercury reaches the ground water and makes its way back up the food chain. Humans are near the top of the food chain. Mercury poisoning affects the central nervous system, and can cause loss of muscular coordination and paralysis.
Inhabitants in the affected areas, including miners themselves, and their future generations are now extremely vulnerable to the effects of mercury poisoning. Since there is really no limit to where ground water can reach, then the threat posed by mercury poisoning can be widespread. Accounts of the catastrophic experiences of Japanese in Minamata, Japan, in the 1960s, and Canadian Native Indians at Grassy Narrows, Ontario, from the 1970s to the present (forty years later), should be widely publicised here. In more recent years, there was a ban on the harvesting and consumption of tuna fish with high concentrations of mercury.
Even the fumes given off by mercury pose a serious threat to the health of the user. If a mercury thermometer is accidentally broken in a laboratory, special safety precautions have to be undertaken before the spilt metal is cleaned up and disposed of.
years ago, the Director, NCERD, trumpeted the introduction of an environmental sciences/studies curriculum in schools. This was great news. I am not sure what progress has taken place since this announcement was made, but until such time as we make the sciences the ‘common core‘ of all school curricula, and until such time as all teachers become capable of using the sciences to educate all students, we shall remain a relatively primitive people in a world in which scientific and environmental literacy form an integral and indispensable part of modern culture and life. Little wonder the frequent flooding of communities, and the disposal of garbage and other solid wastes have become such huge perennial problems. Only heaven knows which pandemic lies in wait.
What is good and desirable for building a nation of one people with a common destiny and the enhancement of our environments and national patrimony must become the paramount concern of every Guyanese at every level of our society. We need to realize that our environment begins with the persons around us – our neighbours. Let us resolve to do unto others, as we would have them do unto us. What better institution is available to us for the development and inculcation of this attitude than our school system – the only institution in which every Guyanese spends years?
should be vividly evident to all reasonable Guyanese that certain attitudes which were inherent in our colonial past, and which foster social divisiveness such as classism (us and them), parochialism (narrowness, selfishness), partisanship (blind allegiance – my party, right or wrong), and ethnocentricism (the feeling that one ethnic group is superior to others), are not sufficiently challenged in our schools and classrooms. On the contrary it is fair comment to say that they are actually being reinforced by the present organization, structures and practices within the Guyanese school system. The behaviours and attitudes that are now being fostered, and nurtured in our classrooms and school system, will most probably continue to be the precursors of the behaviours and attitudes that permeate our adult society, and they will continue to destroy all efforts at building our nation.
When? When will the leaders in the education sector pay due cognizance to the truism: ‘What we want our nation to be, we must first put in our schools‘? When will policy-makers in the education sector re-orient the present narrow academic emphases in order to achieve more encompassing and enduring educational outcomes that will meet the needs of all Guyanese youth, the Guyanese society, and the Guyanese nation? Improved test scores and CSEC passes alone are not sufficient. They fall far short of what is urgently needed.
Yours faithfully
Clarence O Perry
