A country where the scales are balanced, and therefore all are treated with respect – can we say that we live there? A place where there are no reasons for claims about racial discrimination or conversations about apartheid – is it here?
The image of a woman handcuffed and covered in mud was disconcerting; homes flattened by bulldozers where children dreamed of what their futures would be – while those same children watched in tears – imagine how long their trauma will last. Businesses were destroyed where hardworking Guyanese made an honest living. These were violations of human rights. How can we see Guyanese being treated like 1/10th of a person and not be disturbed? But I suppose we like it that way. The silence is deafening from many who claim to stand for all Guyanese. The selective outrage is glaring.
The area known as Mocha-Arcadia was once a coffee plantation and just like many other lands around this country, former enslaved Africans purchased the area after the abolition of slavery. Enslaved Africans who had endured years of humiliation and torture saved monies they worked for during the apprenticeship period and purchased these lands from former slave masters. I am quite sure that they would not have envisioned that in 2023, their descendants would be bulldozed from these same lands.
There is no shortage of lands in Guyana. Guyanese should not be squatters in their own country. One set of squatters should not be treated with respect while another set are bulldozed or flooded.
Is it here where the morally bankrupt laugh at the suffering of their fellow Guyanese? Is it here where in the name of infrastructural development people shout that the Mocha squatters were given time to move – some of the people were living there for decades. While we understand that negotiations were made and places were provided and most of the people moved, for the people who remained most of them had livestock that no place was provided for. They claim that they wrote letters and were trying to meet with officials, but their efforts were futile. There are those who are shouting that they would be compensated even though the compensation according to some of the squatters was just a percentage of what their assets were worth. After a stand-off, was the only solution to bulldoze people’s homes and businesses? In a barbaric society it would be. Livestock were killed and some were buried alive. People were forced to sell those that remained. I still can’t believe that they buried animals alive. Is that anything but sinister? These nefarious activities will only result in more tribulations in this country. And again, I ask, to bulldoze and ruin people’s lives was the only resolution?
The political circus where government claims they were trying to be fair, and opposition encouraged the people to make unreasonable demands continues. After 56 years of Independence, we are still dealing with these two major political forces, the fingers are still pointing at each other while the people suffer.
When the road through Mocha in the name of progress is completed, demonstrating that we are oil rich, beginning to look like Dubai and Florida like we can’t be an original country with all our natural beauty, what will the value of the land be? Will we see another hotel along the road in the name of progress, American fast food, more fancy restaurants, or something else that is shallow but perceived grand? And will we still be waiting for justice and equality for all Guyanese?
The fact that we still must have these conversations about who has right to what in Guyana, who is being oppressed and who is progressing, who must be silent because they are kissing the rear end of those who they believe can chart their way to glory, is sad. When did some of us become so cold and heartless?
Is it this Guyana where we are “One People, One Nation, One Destiny?”
Is it here where homes were built for a grandmother in Herstelling and for a single mother in Linden but when comparing the homes many concluded that the grandmother got the bigger and better home? Is it here where the home in Herstelling was furnished but all the mother in Linden received were the keys with a promise to furnish the home? It is commendable to build homes for people in need, but why should accusations of inequity surround even that?
Is it here where it was not until a young man made a video pointing out the disparities and how the two women were treated differently because of their ethnicities, that the Linden home is now furnished? Where is the shame?
Is it here where oil resources have created Guyanese vultures who are ready to eat their fellow citizens in the name of becoming wealthy while the big vultures from foreign continue to do what has been done in this world since the genesis of colonialism – create, encourage, or stay silent while there is havoc in the societies they steal from? Is it here where the resources are supposed to enrich all Guyanese, but are they? Is it here where it is estimated that less than one percent of the population is benefiting from oil and the rest of the people must wait?
“Be patient, it is coming,” they say to the people while the bellies of the poorest are grumbling and poverty is rising.
Is it here where we sit and allow a small group of people to control us, and we do not resist no matter how outrageous and unjust their actions are? Is it here where many act like they are robots? Is it here where many Guyanese do not love their fellow citizens but are consumed with hatred that will kill them if they do not change? I suppose some would rather die standing proudly divided, intellectually dwarfed and dishonest. Sad, but it is here.
