Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 01, 2016 Editorial
Another year has come to an end; a new one has begun and the cycle continues. Many can be heard saying that they could not understand the pace at which the year went. It seemed as though it was yesterday that many welcomed the new year either in a church, or at home or at a place of entertainment.
In keeping with tradition, there were the loud explosions as people detonated firecrackers and those bombs that pass for firecrackers. People made resolutions that they broke within hours of making them but for the greater part, people expected the new year to be better than the past.
Now, when we take stock, some of us did not get better than we expected. Many lost loved ones, some were victims of criminal attacks and some became embroiled in disputes that could have been resolved without the extreme measures that were adopted.
On Wednesday, the police announced that there were more murders in the year just concluded than in the previous year; more violent crimes and more armed robberies. On the plus side, the police took more illegal firearms off the streets, had to respond to fewer suicides and fewer road traffic fatalities.
In retrospect, there was nothing preventing 2015 from being one of the better years in local history. For one, the people managed to secure a change in administration. No sooner had the new government taken office than ExxonMobil reported a significant oil find, something that had been elusive for decades.
There was the immediate attack on the garbage that had drowned the city to the extent that the pseudonym for Georgetown was the Garbage City.
The year ended with people being proud to show off their city to the rest of the world. It was a Georgetown that two generations had not seen. If only for that, 2015 was a good year. But there were things that threatened to overshadow the good. For example, there was the preponderance of young gunmen—people who should have been pursuing gainful employment.
With the report on each crime, people suddenly came to realize that the criminals were becoming younger. Some of them were killed and they in turn killed each other. At one time the people of Guyana who had raced to welcome 2015 began to talk about leaving the country that in their eyes was being overrun by young criminals.
The country had more to worry about than the young criminals. It had to worry whether it would retain its shape and size. Neighbouring Venezuela renewed its claim to Guyana’s territory and was at its most bellicose in decades. The action of the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, forced Guyana to seek international support. The newly elected Guyana President, David Granger reached out to the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Caricom Summit and Mercosur.
The pressure has eased somewhat, but the deed has been done. Guyana enters the new year knowing that it would earn less for its export commodities. Gold that was the flagship produce a few short years ago, while reaching even higher export volumes, would earn the country less. It is the same with rice—huge increases in volume, but not that much by way of foreign earnings.
Yet 2016 should be the dream year that people seem to be pursuing every year. Oil will not be coming on stream, but the preparations will see even more people coming to Guyana with a promise of increased employment. At the same time, the government is developing the institutions that would fashion people to take up meaningful roles in the society. One such is the development of the Public Service Training Centre.
Yet for all the promise, there are those who will opt to bring with them into the new year, their irresponsibilities and their disregard for change. These will be the people who through their carelessness would fuel the road accidents and the subsequent fatalities.
And so it is that some of us welcome the new year—most with hope, but a few with trepidation.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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