What will this New Year bring for the outcasts in Guyanese society? What can the Guyanese left out of the opulent oil equation hope for, expect that may come their way? What sort of formula will be tried, if any, to make space for those who have been largely neglected, left to manage by their own devices?
These are not the kind of questions that anyone should be asking in an oil rich society, one on the doorstep of producing over 600,000 barrels of oil a day. None of those questions from above that is put on the table should have any relevance, any traction, in a country poised where Guyana is. But they do have more than relevance. They have resonance. Some are the picture of revelry, an endless series of days with the celebratory now the standing norm. Then, there are the others. Yes, there are those others, those people that nobody wants to have an honest conversation about, a thoughtful plan of how to integrate them into the circle of the haves. To be in that square, they first have to get.
What will be in the budget that will be read in fine detail tomorrow? Who is in? Who is left out? Yes, again. I shall not jump the gun, but will give the benefit of the doubt. A word of caution should be timely: at this time some of us have run out of benefits, and all there is left, is an abundance of doubt. A cup that overfloweth with emptiness. That’s a crime in any place at any time. It is an unpardonable capital crime in this place at this time, with all of these sparkling jewels coming out from deep below the seabed.
A wide net was cast for Guyana to tap into, and then capture that richness. There is the need for a net of some kind to hold many in this impoverished population in one piece. The leading people in government say that they have studied the situation, heard the cries, and have some plans. In less than 24 hours, all of this will come to some level of fruition. Or it will come to naught. Low hanging, overripe, forced ripe, any kind of fruit will mean something to the demographic of Guyana that has borne the brunt of the pain in this society. The pain could have been braced against and bearable, if there was the knowledge that there was nothing, and the circumstances, as hard as they are, are all that there is, could be. But when there is unchallenged knowledge that there is so much, and that such could make a difference that is distinctive, the cry from deep down inside is: why?
Why the spreading of the wealth is so narrow? Why does it only encircle a special set? What about those in the deep hinterland, who have known nothing but a threadbare existence? How about a hand of lasting value for those dotting the long coastline? Whatever their color, there is one color that has not kept them company. It is the color of money. When Guyana mentions money today, it is in the billions. Rare is the occasion when there is the meagerness of millions making the rounds. We have progressed passed that chicken feed territory. Indeed, we have, but there are still those many of Guyana’s sons and daughters who have been forced into an existence of sawdust and sand.
What to eat, and where to get it from? What will tomorrow bring? A budget with a big bang for the bruised and battered in Guyana? Or more of the same? The same inner circle with the inside track to the vast riches that clog the arteries and nostrils, as well as make the ears ring from the sounds of a nation on the move. A nation on the move should carry not only the fittest and slickest, but it should also sweep along in its passage its forgotten, its left out, its tired and worn and ragged. Now that is governance of an extraordinary kind, taken to high art, to a place of rare elevation! I contend that that is leadership whose arms are open wide, and what a wingspan it is. I insist that it can be done, but first whatever rankles and tears at the insides have to be banished.
Yes, I say, it can be done. But only if the mind and, most of all, the heart is in the right place. If the idea is to squeeze, then there will only be additions to the already swollen list of resentful foes. If, however, there is genuine devotion to the broadest national duty, then there is no limit about what could come to pass. We have squabble on our way into oil. We are wading through little oceans of oil, and still there is the bickering, the biting, and the bringing down. Are we worth these great gifts? We continue how we have been living all along, and some time or the other, we are going to get into each other’s face (and throat)? Then what? To what will we return, and to whom, given how tiny we are? A couple of years have passed us by already, and we can go down the road of Iraq. Or work wisely and carveout a space of which every Guyanese will be proud.
I am thinking of this budget, and of this brand-new year. Will we go somewhere, and get to someplace? Hopefully, it is not the same circular chatter, and going around in the same old circles. My best to one and to all of Guyana.
