Guyana’s political impasse has been brought to an abrupt end thankfully, but unfortunately at the expense of loss of life in Bath Settlement earlier on in year and the psychological scarring of young schoolchildren making their way from school.
I felt scared watching the elections from miles away. I took it upon myself to drop the statement “I am not playing into the narratives,” every time I felt as if I was being baited into developing stereotyped viewpoints. I did it to preserve my mental health and so I could be rational in my thinking and judgement. It is easy for the lines to get blurred.
Election periods have been historically deeply intertwined with race and ethnic tension as opposed to policy so for many reasons they are always difficult times for us regardless of what we might like to convince ourselves. The wounds will not be easy to heal. A lot of coded racism has been thrown around carelessly under the cloak of democracy.
Nevertheless, as we embark on the road to recovery both hesitantly and hopefully, I implore you to keep policy making at the forefront, and equal treatment for everyone in our shared space. My personal requests remain equitably the same as they were in 2015.
Dress code migration
There needs to be a divorce from colonial dress codes in public offices. We must seek to exterminate colonial standardization in our outlook as it panders to elitism and classism. The rules must also work across the board for everyone despite race, colour, or creed. These seemingly small sentiments play an integral role in shaping people’s perception of how and if they can reason with the ordinary man.
Mental health and social services
As many of you know through my writings in this publication I have been diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) for which I started to receive treatment and care in 2016. Mental health had been relatively ignored prior to 2015. The Granger administration has made considerable strides in access, though not enough it should still be noted. In particular, it has been mobilised and has been made available for children through the Ministry of Education in 2018. It is my hope that these services could reach all ten regions in a much more aggressive manner in order to build and protect communities especially now after an emotionally wounding election period and in a global pandemic where mental health problems tend to multiply tenfold.
Eco-friendly manufacturing
My calls for Guyana to develop its own eco fashion manufacturing industry still remain. However, this needs to be revisited now that consumer behaviour is changing with the pandemic. Nevertheless, venturing into manufacturing in any industry where consumer demand is growing is undeniably necessary. We must seek not to fall into patterns like other oil-producing nations who have chosen to see oil and oil alone as their saving glory.
