Dear Editor,
No rational person can fail to observe the solid steps of sheer stupidity taking place in our beloved country. A country blessed with enormous natural resources, no natural disasters, our brethren in Jamaica, Cuba and else where must endure the horrors and hardships of hurricanes, flooding, and earthquakes. Guyana have never had to endure such punishment from nature. But perhaps because of this good fortune, nature, or perhaps the creator has not bestowed upon us men and women with the wisdom and perspicacity to make Guyana and Guyanese the riches, healthiest, and therefore happiest people on this planet earth, and I ask the question, why?
I avoid the tedium of details but make reference to a small sample of the burdens this and future generation must carry. One; we are blissfully allowing our pristine eco-system to be despoiled, our rivers, waterways, flora, fauna and treasured wildlife, all for temporary aggrandisement and gratification of some set of rulers in charge of our country.
Referring to one project I quote from a letter written by Lancelot Hyman: “Progress, mass excavation, site clearing”. “These are sterile terms for the violent reality: the wholesale bulldozing of hundreds of hectares of pristine rainforest. This is not “clearing”; it is the eradication of a complex, living ecosystem—a biodiversity hotspot that has been millennia in the making, now being flattened in a matter of months. Every “km of external road” is a scar that fragments wildlife corridors and opens previously inaccessible areas to further exploitation.” Here exploitation is used in its progerative term.
I recall again my visit to Mahdia, three generations ago, touring the community with the likes of Cyril Francis, better known as “Gasso”, Eardly F. Gravesande, poke-knockers, and Eugene Francis Correia, I stopped at a stream in Mahdia to quench my thirst, clear, clean, cool water, that stream is now polluted and I will not even walk through it with boots on. The early poke-knockers had a healthy respect for mother nature, as they pursued their fortunes from the earth.
What we see happening today under they stewardship of those who proclaim to the world that they are champions of the earth, is unacceptable and points to a gross dereliction of duty. When the birds, the bees, and our animals, and aquatic life have been destroyed future generations will not judge us kindly. In an effort avoid this impending tragedy, the independent media, patriots, and our intellectuals must fearlessly and fiercely speak up in the hope that we can arrest this irreparable destruction and desecration of the creator’s bounty and kindness bestowed upon the citizens of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
As I speak to family members in Jamaica and as I recall the hurricanes and other disasters that our brothers and sisters in Caricom states and beyond must face, I again pose the question: why? Why in a country with oil and gas alone, forget for the time, gold, diamonds, timber and rich productive soil, there is sufficient to make Guyanese the happiest people on this planet, but why not?
Second; there is the debate with reference to the massive US military build-up in the Caribbean and our nemesis to the west Venezuela claiming our patrimony, and the real threat of a large number of Venezuelans piercing our fragile borders, and likely disrupting our normal peaceful existence. I should deal with this matter later. Safe to say that if the present administration could only study and put in place proposals contained in the document; “Defence in depth” prepared at the instance of Forbes Burnham, we will be in a much better position to secure our 83,000sq miles.
Alexander Pope once noted that; “hope springs eternal in the human breast”, let us hope, let us pray, that wiser counsels will prevail, to secure all of this land civilized by the sweat, blood and tears of our slave ancestors, and cared for by the indentured labours who came after 1838, and our Amerindian brothers who first walked this land we know as El Dorado.
Yours truly,
Hamilton Green
Elder
