Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 01, 2012 Letters
Dear Editor,
Sometimes I cannot help but get the feeling that my fellow Afro-Guyanese have their heads in the sand. But listening to Eric Phillips on TV still offers some hope that a few among the Black Collective can advocate a course different from the plunge my ethnic brothers and sisters seem bent on taking.
Brother Eric’s call for thrift and industry in the Black Collective must be commended and supported. But the voices of Brother Eric and myself and a few others are like drizzles on the Sahara Desert. Nevertheless, while our pleas may bear fruit very sparingly, we must also exhort the Black Leadership to accept that our people, particularly our youths and children, are astray and clueless as to where their salvation lies. They seem destined to be perpetual pawns to some leaders. To enlighten the masses means to free them. Are our leaders enlightening our masses?
Let me assert here that we should stop blaming slavery and marginalization, etc, etc, for our present predicament. Other races had their share of hardships, but not as bad as the slaves, of course. But their focus is not anchored to four centuries ago. They constantly look ahead, while we keep looking back.
The deep concern I wish to express in this contribution is the painfully large numbers of our youths engaged in crime, and the ever growing number of single-mothers.
Our Black Leaders would like us to believe that we are being done in by other races. Is that really so?
Who does us in when we drop out from school and pursue a life of quick money, our tool being the gun? Check the prisons.
Who does us in when a young woman at 25 already has five children for four different child-fathers?
Who does us in when we feed off the spoils of robberies, often resulting in bloodshedding? Who does us in when our yards are overtaken with grass while our not-want-to be-employed lime at the four corner smoking dope?
Now, we are in another mad rush to re-discover our roots and our culture. Do we have the will?
I cannot be silly to suggest that every un-employed Black can make a living off the land, although trying to do so is a better option than stealing. But I do advocate that in our genes we have that connection to God’s earth! Our forefathers were kings and farmers and owners of cattle and industry. Proportionately, what are we today? We are stereotyped as not wanting to work, as filling up the prisons, as dangerous in the streets, as thieves, as unstable.
Do we or do we not deserve these stereotypes? What is our stereotype of ourselves?
I can hear the murmurings of Black Leaders: We are Politicians and Teachers and Policemen, etc.
My question: Can we feed ourselves? That is the most basic of all human capabilities.
Another question: Do you think that the token computer or set of books you give so infrequently can make a change? It cannot because it is not sustained and you do not walk among the people to truly recognize and accept our weakness and failings and be man/woman enough to decry our “slackness”.
A people who are scared to look into themselves are doomed.
Godfrey Skeete
Ex-Soldier
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
Apr 25, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The French Diplomatic Office in Guyana, in collaboration with the Guyana Olympic Association and UNICEF, hosted an exhibition on Tuesday evening at the...Kaieteur News – Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, persists in offering... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]