The amount of brilliance that this country has, it is surprising that it doesn’t have a stable of Nobel Prize winners. Not even one. Pick one area of expertise, in which Guyanese stand above all others, it is bull. Shooting the bull. Being full of bull. With that generous intro as context, I now share something that was heard on the day before Phagwah in an official setting. It was close to this.
‘This is a time when differences are put aside and we celebrate as one. There is the joy of participation. We are one.’ I loved it then when first heard, and I still love it now on recollection. If only it were so, I would be one happy Guyana. There would be genuine serenity in the crests and valleys of Guyana. One has been elusive. The lack of oneness is Guyana’s chronic sickness. When dishonest politicians divide the peoples of this country for the objectives of their cheap power games, then claims about being as one and any resemblance to oneness are nothing but the handiworks of consummate con artists. How it would please to endorse that ‘at this time, differences are put aside, and we’re all one. Who is fooling whom? Who is making a fool of themselves, and doing a really good job of it?
For the first time in Guyana’s history, there is a natural resource development, one with the greatest financial returns close at hand, with some already in hand, but those returns are hogged, devoured, by a small set of Guyanese. How is that conducive to oneness? The good, honorable, Guyanese standing as stewards of the fair and reasonable distribution of the income from this largest of national resource bonanzas prioritize, as a matter of policies and budgets, their own swallowing up huge fractions of that wealth. And there is still the audacity, through outrageous exaggerations (and political productions) that speak about one and oneness, and force the celebration of those.
Guyanese are being cheated, lied to, and swindled to their faces, and they are still being sold this farce about ‘on this day, in this season, aal ah wee ah waan.’ Like hell Guyana is! And damn any man or woman in Guyana, who is such a barefaced deceiver as to insist that ‘aal ah wee ah waan.’ The children of audiences in those compulsory sessions go to bed with their stomachs half-empty, due to callous neglect, due to open and contemptuous disregard, and there is this high pile of bull of Guyanese being one.
There is enough wealth from one natural resource, so that the old political story of the sharing concentrated in political strongholds should be of the past, no longer possessing any tightrope walking. Even with half a brain working, and with one eye open, that much is obvious. Again, there is enough of an income stream coming from the one natural resource for every Guyanese man, woman, and child (and legit residents) to get a decent share of their patrimony. Has it been so? I say no. A cash grant and some paltry increases for various subsets in Guyana’s population when taken together are a poor joke. Those don’t even come close. Not when multiples of budget billions are awarded and circulated among insiders and cabals that are a part of the winner’s enclosure in Guyana’s political sweepstakes.
Who in his or her right frame of mind could ever agree that such an enormous imbalance fosters oneness? Spread the national wealth more equitably, and then there is sound foundation to say that Guyana has finally found its Holy Grail: the oneness that has never been in its grasp. Any political figure in this country that says Guyanese are one must qualify as deviousness personified. It would be one of my great pleasures to agree and to say that ‘aal ah wee ah waan today’. Because the tough spadework has been done, and honest intentions are embedded. Thus, the stage is set for oneness not just tomorrow, but oneness in the tomorrows beyond.
The choice is clear. Continue with the busloads of bull that thrill so much, but doesn’t foster true oneness. Or cut the bull, and begin with honest efforts to achieve oneness. Start with the economic pie, and ensure that its slices represent fairness and balance.
