Dear Editor,
Our society has suddenly become a place where curse words or ‘cuss words’ are the order of the day, and it seems as if we have no law to charge those using them from day to day. From the educated highly respected lawyers, doctors, police officers, parliamentarians and teachers to the illiterates, all have become victims of using profane language.
In more than 80% of our homes today curse words are used by parents to their children, husbands to wives, wives to husbands, brothers to sisters, students to teachers, employers to employees, police officers to citizens, citizens to police officers and workers to other workers. Publicly swear words can be heard at the car and bus parks, while travelling in buses or taxis, and there is an unending list.
We have fallen morally, spiritually and intellectually as a nation. Our sense of decency and morality has become something of the past. We have deteriorated seriously over the past generation since our laws are violated by citizens and those who make the laws. If you are driving and police officers stop your car they will curse you to get out of the vehicle if they wish to search it. They themselves set a very bad example to our society. Many years ago, people used to be charged for using indecent language and even jailed, but today it seems as if our laws are flouted and we are just living in cowboy country like the wild West; killing each other with our tongues.
It is something global, since most movies are loaded with ‘cuss’ words, vulgarity and immorality. The songs we listen to, from dance-hall to reggae, soca, pop, are loaded with curse words; the songs of Alkaline, Kartel, Movado and others are loaded with ‘cuss’ words and sexually explicit lyrics. Not very long ago I was listening to British singer Adele singing at a concert. Before she started to sing she was talking to the audience. After listening to her accented speech very carefully by using my computer headphone, this great singer used more than ten curse words while addressing her audience.
I deleted her video and stopped listening to her. Even in the buses they will play dancehall songs that are full of ‘cuss’ words. Lady Gaga will sing practically naked and even ‘cuss’ her audience and ‘cuss’ at interviews, yet our educated TV personalities are promoting her filth in our country. I can safely say musical pornography has invaded almost every area of our society, compounded with ‘cuss’ words.
‘Cuss’ words have permeated the printed pages of books, and I mean books that have won the Guyana Prize for Literature. Our government and university give away US$5000 to writers of fiction, poetry and drama – for books written in profane and immoral language.
Yet many of these writers are clamouring for their books of literature to be used into our schools. It’s no wonder literature has become a dead subject in our schools today. We haven’t produced much quality literature as a nation. Literature and books should build up our children’s psyche and morality; literature should inspire our students to write greater works. How are we going to educate our children with books written in ‘cuss’ words? If our President and Minister of Education should really read the books that have won the Guyana Prize for Literature, I believe they would obliterate the Prize.
Our writers should read the classics and write clean literature like Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Byron, Keats, to name just a few classical writers. But how many of our writers would like to read the classics? Our greatest writers are Wilson Harris, Martin Carter, AJ Seymour and Edgar Mittelholzer.
What we write today and publish will define the intellect and morals of the writer, since literature is about the historical foundation of a nation. The greatest Greek poet, Homer, and Roman poet, Virgil, wrote epic poetry of great historical significance. Their poetry in the original Greek and Latin languages contained no sentence or paragraph of profanity. Why can’t our writers do the same?
Almost every day, I read of domestic violence in our country – men killing and hurting their wives or girlfriends and women killing their husbands and boyfriends. The news in our media makes one sick. As I travel to different parts of Guyana, ‘cuss’ words ring out like showers of rain in our communities. There is no respect for one another, even in the churches people can curse. It’s about time we implemented laws related to indecent language and indecent behaviour. The future of this nation lies in the hands of our next generation, but we are just a few years away from becoming a nation of illiterates and profoundly ignorant people with no future if we don’t change our way of speaking, our attitudes and character.
Guyana is a nation too young to die; we need to raise our standards higher, and our leaders need to set the moral example to our citizens. They need to stop fighting and ‘cussing’ each other and work with love and unity to build Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
