There was a time when news spread, but not as fast as it does today. Some would readily say that technology has improved the speed at which information travels. Whatever the case, bad news always seems to travel faster than good news. Technology has not yet been able to determine the ratio.
At first there were drums, then smoke signals, then newspapers or leaflets. In between there were the bell criers. I pause here to recall the days when a man walked through the villages ringing a bell and announcing whatever news he had to deliver.
Of course, people stopped what they were doing to hear the news. To this day, people still seek the news. Radio brought it faster than newspapers. The medium became so popular that, as a boy in rural Guyana, I remember people huddling around the radio to hear death announcements.
Then came television. Many people in Guyana no longer bothered with reading. They got the news visually. Television news, like radio, is transient. Then came social media, which is visual but not transient. In fact, today it is among the most popular mediums for disseminating news.
One social media post screamed, “Congress Place is being sold.” I jumped. I was there when Forbes Burnham declared the present facility at Sophia open in 1982.
It is a clay-brick structure. Two previous Congress Places—the headquarters of the People’s National Congress—were destroyed by fire.
It is said that when Burnham opted for clay brick, he said that he wanted to see who would burn this one down.
The news of the sale spread like wildfire. There is a joke about the telephone and telegraph being quick, but the fastest is tell-a-woman.
Someone on the inside at Congress Place heard a little nibble and rushed to tell a woman. This woman is a popular social commentator. She is also credited with knowing a lot about happenings within political circles.
So the news was readily believed. No one could remember seeing a notice, but since it was a political party, some claimed that such a transaction could be secret. It took one phone call to clarify the situation.
Congress Place is situated on a large plot of land. The party, through its economic arm, decided to monetise a portion of the land.
The news then shifted. An entrepreneur had been granted a 99-year lease. This too was not true.
Of course, the conversation then shifted to the issue of secrecy. That story about the sale of Congress Place seems to be dead at this time.
There was another piece of news that had a national impact. It affected the livelihood of some people. It also caused many to change their dietary habits. There is no recollection of this piece of news appearing on social media.
What is known is that across the length and breadth of Guyana, the news was on every lip. People stopped buying fish.
The news was that after the MV Barima sank in the Atlantic on July 18, 2026, and many people died, fish were having a feast. They were said to be eating the victims of the MV Barima.
How this started is anybody’s guess. It cannot be credited to any individual. What is known is that people stopped buying fish.
Salted-fish sales also plummeted. Fish shops, the places where people go to buy fried fish, took a beating. Some closed their doors. Fishermen cried.
It is not known whether a delegation of fishermen has gone to President Irfaan Ali. But some people are still eating fried shark, a delicacy.
When the half-yearly report came out, there was the report that fish exports had declined. The man in the street proclaimed that they were right not to buy fish. The Minister of Agriculture is silent.
The Good Book condemns the eating of pork. Pigs back then scavenged the earth. There were many dead human beings in the streets on which they fed once they got the chance. And back then, the chances were numerous.
Plagues roamed the land and people succumbed in large numbers.
It is said that to this day, people get rid of their victims by feeding them to pigs.
The reality is that today’s marketed pigs are reared in enclosures and are therefore not the scavenging animals that once roamed the land. Of course, in many rural communities, pigs do roam. They have been known to eat anything. But they are devoured nonetheless.
How long the fish taboo will last is anyone’s guess. Some say that when the MV Barima is raised, the situation will change. This is a pressing task for President Irfaan Ali. Tenders have gone out and, according to reports, people have been shortlisted.
One more recent bit of news centred on a High Court judge. Justice Gino Persaud was scheduled to travel to Jamaica for a judges’ conference.
At the airport, when he was preparing to leave, according to a social media post, he was told that he could not transit through Miami. His United States visa was being reviewed, the post said.
Since then, there has been another post. This one suggests that the judge’s United States visa has been revoked.
News does travel fast, and bad news faster still.
