Dear Editor,
There is a constant flow of tears as I walk around Georgetown and mingle with ordinary Guyanese. I just completed one year since I returned to live in Guyana. I arrived exactly one month before the last general elections. I dropped right into the middle of the hype and purposefulness, which triggered a change of government. In Regions 4 and 10 I know who pushed the coalition over the top. I noticed how early persons went out to vote ‒ by midday it was a done deal.
There was elation. There was no doubt in the minds of supporters of the coalition that there would be a turnaround of their fortunes. Specifically from 1997 they have been through hell. Today, in most parts of Guyana that hope of utopia, that euphoria is replaced by disillusionment. In Georgetown the plight of street vendors reflects a strategy gone grossly wrong. Persons appear shell-shocked and most prefer to remain in a state of silent reserve, biting in the agony with the hope that a little more time is needed. With time we will see where this is going. And the wait, and the deep despair continues.
Since the last elections, what a lot of people knew was revealed in the audits. Corruption, billions stolen ‒ few departments seem to have escaped the pilfering. Since the Good and Green Guyana took over the management of the city, street vending slipped out of control. Single parents and desperate others blatantly broke city by-laws to support their families in a harsh environment that did not care for the likes of city people. Yes, city by-laws were broken, but it was necessary in order to earn an ‘honest’ living. It was the survival of the fittest. Now juxtapose this. Two sets of lawlessness operating simultaneously. One set fighting for their daily bread. The other set engaged in misappropriation. Yes, we have just one year to get Georgetown ready for our 50th year of independence. But whose idea was it to penalize your own before making an example of quite a few guilty parties? How do we think the street vendors must be feeling? “We get you in deh and is we yuh going after? This is extremely poor optics. Why is it the poor always have to face the brunt of all societal laws. They cannot hire attorneys so they must pay. Who is looking out for the poor and needy? Something really wrong has happened and is happening here. Deadly crime will not cease until there is a perception of fairness in society. Lots of youths have come to a conclusion and have made up their minds. It is worse when better times were anticipated but the opposite seems forthcoming. Yes, they can see a cleaner city, but nothing has happened recently to make them feel that better days are coming in their lives.
Yes, tears flow every time I see the gloom on the faces of the people who made it happen. The silent tongue that is too heavy to express feeling. Tears flow every time I walk past Merriman Mall and notice vendors trapped in those newly built two by two stalls. Oh man, it’s painful to … Tears again.
Yours faithfully,
F Skinner
