Dear Editor,
The recent commemoration of our 44th Mashramani anniversary depicted lots of scenes of immorality and vulgarity. Many years ago it used to be a cultural and historical event but it has now grown into an event of lots of nude dancing, gyrating, backballing, drinking, nudity and the long list of immorality goes on.
As I watched this event on television thousands of people flocked the streets of Georgetown to dance and wine to the vulgar music that was played. Most young women were dancing in their underwear and young men were climbing on top of their backs wining and gyrating; they even wined down and gyrated in long lines. Many of these young people are kids going to school and university, but they think that’s the life to live – displaying vulgarity and immorality in the streets.
As I watched the kids Mash competition I was amazed to see little children gyrating to the rhythms of vulgar music. Mashramani can no longer be called a cultural event, but an event that is destroying the moral fabric of our society. It seemed to me that our political leaders have failed to notice the vulgarity that has invaded the Mash celebrations and they could not care less about it because they themselves are mashing. Vulgarity and immorality have become the order of the day. Anything today in Guyana can become our culture. Most of the songs our Guyanese men and women sing are loaded with obscene lyrics and tons of nude young ladies are dancing in their music videos.
These singers who even sing terrible things about the government and the President are given lucrative awards for their vulgar songs. Even many books that have won the Guyana Prize for Literature are loaded with ‘cuss’ words and immorality. Where are we heading as a nation? We dance naked at Mash and put up warning signs about ‘safe sex’ and how to protect ourselves from AIDS. We promote sexually explicit music that is leading our young generation astray, then we spend millions to protect them from AIDS.
The older folks who promote this vulgar dancehall music have one aim, and that is to deceive our young generation in order to make money and get rich quick, even at the risk of their own lives. Most of the music videos many of our TV personalities promote are videos of nude men and women dancing. Our young generation today is being destroyed by the poor vision of the older folks because they are exploited to sing immoral songs for money. Today people sing songs about drinking rum – they glorify rum – they sing about wife abuse, they sing about
murder, they sing about backballing and all sorts of vulgar songs against women.
The amount of money our government wastes on Mashramani I believe could be used to build old people and children’s homes for young and old beggars in our streets. The opposition loves to cut the budget, and it’s time we the people of Guyana cut the Mashrmani budget because it is destroying the moral fabric of our nation. Mash can be good if we promote the good parts of it like the poetry, drama, floats and good singing. We must take back this nation from immorality and vulgarity.
But how can we do it if we ourselves are setting bad examples for our younger generation?
What have we produced as a nation after 47 years of independence? I now see more crime, more street beggars, more school drop-outs, more single mothers, poor family values, more corruption and drug dealing, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and the PPP and opposition fighting every day. VS Naipaul wrote: ‘’Nothing was produced in the Caribbean.’’ I fully agree with him if we compare our economic achievements with those of our Latin American neighbours. It’s time we bring back morality into our homes and schools.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
