Dear Editor,
How remote is the day when the daily news will be uplifting, constructive and consisting of hope and joy? If it bleeds it leads but bleeding permeates our media and it is now haemorrhaging. It is confounding to read the letters that appear in this publication and others. One has to reflect on their erudite editorials, articles and letters to remember that one is not reading a tabloid such as the National Enquirer. The following is an extraction of the news which recently appeared in the daily newspapers:
1) Frequent Murders (including spousal).
2) Suicides.
3) Rapes (of minors, infants or the aged in some cases).
4) High powered rifles stolen from a security firm in December 2022. It has been claimed that the weapons had been secured in a strongbox secured with two padlocks and the weapons were secured with chains and three padlocks, all within the firm’s office. Incomprehensible!
5) An Assistant Superintendent of Police “misplaced” his gun while at a gymkhana.
6) Also in December 2022, a guard stationed at President Irfaan Ali’s residence, the State House, was stabbed several times and another police, part of the security detail, was relieved of her firearm by a man who had approached the residence asking for the President. Inappropriate appointments of these guards for such a responsible job.
7) Another inappropriate appointment took the form of an ambassador of Guyana displaying boorish behaviour of verbal assault and profanity on a female, which was captured on social media for the world to see.
8) Mothers dying while pregnant; some while at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
9) Frequent vehicular and pedestrian accidents and deaths.
10) Police brutality and extra judicial killings.
11) Domestic abuse and violence.
12) Inept prosecutions resulting in insufficient convictions.
13) Prisoners escaping from custody.
14) Garbage build-up in the city.
15) Flooding throughout the capital and environs due to relatively light rainfall, negligence of sluice operators and faulty, non-existent infrastructure for drainage.
16) Complaints of severe noise nuisances.
17) Ravaging fires, some resulting in deaths. Many are attributable to poor water supply and some to the tardiness by the fire service in their responses.
18) Partisan warmongering incorporating racism.
19) Clashes between the government and the City Council.
20) Government and the City Council clashing with vendors. To avoid this fiasco, the obstruction to vehicular and pedestrian flow and the detrimental effect to the aesthetics of our city, “the Garden City,” places should be allotted for vendors and their activities regulated.
21) Foreign behemoths are being allowed to take control of our resources and consequently our lives, leaving the crumbs behind for our populace. We are constantly reminded of our humiliating acceptance of such abuse.
22) Lack of adequate provisions in the event of an oil spill.
23) The minimal involvement of the Environmental Protection Agency in providing oversight into oil extraction and ensuring compliance with requirements for a safe environment.
24) Reckless government spending and negligence of contractors in fulfilling contracts.
25) A medium writer speaking of the volume of road accidents, thought it necessary to state that he had been driving since he was thirteen years old. Where in the world was he living at that time to be allowed to drive at that age?
26) Minors left alone at home and while playing with matches, caused a fire which destroyed their home. The media did not state whether this was a contravention of a law.
I regret if I may have omitted other egregious and disquieting occurrences. I also apologize to my readers as it is uncomfortable for me to recount these events and the members of the diaspora who I communicate with, feel the same when reading news of their homeland. However and unfortunately, these are facts. I will move on to deal separately with promises by the government that seem to be mere rhetoric:
1) The renegotiation of the appalling oil contract.
2) Repeated promises of Constitutional reform.
3) The confirmation of the Chancellor and Chief Justice.
4) Significant improvement in living conditions, wages and jobs for the populace.
5) Producing “One Guyana” thereby uniting the races.
This is intended to be a sole indictment on the vital and beautiful machinery of the media in Guyana but sadly that is all the material they have to work with presently. It is hoped that there will be a reformation and less ills to report on in the near future. A ray of sunshine may have shone through the rainy and cloud – filled months of December and January when the Mayor of Georgetown Mr. Ubraj Narine met with the United States (US) Ambassador Her Excellency Sarah Lynch, to discuss the problems facing the City. That meeting is commendable. It was long overdue but must have been seen as a last resort after an inability to succeed at all other options. Whenever there is a natural disaster or crisis in the US, the federal government provides substantial assistance to the relevant state governments. However, America’s history of dealing with the internal affairs of states will reveal that nothing will be done by the US and this meeting has only produced an embarrassment for the Guyanese people and the government, which will continue with business as usual.
Revenues from oil extraction are going into the Natural Resource Fund and we were recently told that part of it will be going into the National Budget. It would be good and is necessary for us to know where each dollar of oil revenues is going. It is incongruous that the government is improving hospitals and medical facilities while allowing the garbage to build up for long periods. Inhaling the toxicity emanating from that garbage can make people ill and cause an epidemic. For a small population like ours with the greater number of the population clustered in Region Four, it creates the breeding ground for catastrophic illnesses. Our environment forms and nurtures us. We are blatantly disregarding it and we are seeing the consequences in extreme weather, flooding, droughts, illnesses and all the devastating effects of climate change. The media would be the instrument of positive change if their letters, articles and editorials could be supplied with material arising from more intelligent, decent, responsible, constructive and humane efforts from our leaders and events.
Sincerely,
Conrad Barrow
