Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 18, 2018 Countryman, Features / Columnists
By Dennis Nichols
Read the news. It seems Guyana and Guyanese are being decimated by the day, and that there’s precious little anyone can do about it. The perception is real. We are forced to keep convincing ourselves that the condition is just temporary; that we still live in a beautiful place filled with good people who lack only the will to fight for what really matters – our survival as a nation of decent human beings.
We hope that collective good will outwit and outlast malice, that soon oil will soothe the rough, raw wounds of our psyche, and that the prophets of doom are simply pontificating pessimists. Yet many of us wonder if it will not take some huge natural or manufactured disaster to bring our people to their senses. Divine intercession?
Obviously this isn’t the only country in the world with the daily little horrors that jump out from media headlines; in fact I often make that point. But here, when they swell to the point of overwhelming, I imagine something like a tsunami sweeping in from the Atlantic and washing away everything that is filthy and corrupted from our land. Sometimes you have to go for the impractical or the impossible. (‘Kick ‘em Jenny’ has been acting up again though.)
It’s more than the individual robberies, burglaries, and murders, the sexual and relationship abuses, the bullyings and suicides; the carnage and destruction from fires, traffic accidents and river mishaps; it’s the seemingly little things too – ingrained habits of littering, incivility, verbal threats, cuss-outs, crammed minibuses, and ‘music’ blasting to the decibel max. It’s the indifference to suffering and neglect of the homeless, and of animals.
A week ago, I saw a cartman whiplash a horse across its head with such ferocity that I cringed. The creature almost levitated off the road before increasing its pace. I wanted to stop my motorcycle and confront the abuser, but I didn’t. So, I know what I’m talking about.
We have governments and authorities; we have lawmakers and law enforcers; medical and emergency personnel – whom we assume are good and just people wanting the best for our country, and us yet they seem able to do only so much to stanch the misery. Think of the people who have been killed, maimed, dispossessed, and traumatized over the past few weeks in the litany of woes mentioned earlier. And we have an ever-swelling pool of advisors, counsellors, and pastors for emotional and psychological support; in short we have a lot of people with good credentials and intentions for social upliftment, yet our society appears to be disintegrating.
Maybe the churches have the solution; they certainly have a plethora of prophecies regarding the direction in which our country is heading.
I’ve lived for decades next to the Pentecostal Full Gospel Church at the corner of South Road and Albert Streets, and for decades I’ve heard both dire warnings and inspiring predictions for our beleaguered nation. On one hand there are prophecies of grandeur with a Holy Spirit revival sweeping the land and, among other things, culminating in a God-ordained manifestation of prestige and prosperity, including of course, oil wealth.
Guyana will fulfil its potential as the region’s breadbasket and Georgetown revert to its Garden City glory. On the other, we are doomed because of non-Christian leadership, the legalization of obeah and abortion, and more recently the trend toward embracing the LGBT community and same-sex relationships. Take your pick.
Some time ago, a representative of World Ministries International visited Guyana. He held discussions with then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Mayor Hamilton Green. He had this to say about our country. “There is a spirit of control and conspiracy that has cursed the people of Guyana … I see ethnic fighting in Guyana because the church is not sanctified, matured enough to stop deep carnal prejudices and biases … I see a church in Guyana that likes to sing, shout, bind, and loose, but they have no spiritual authority from God to turn the tide of evil or stop the devil, because too much of the devil reigns in themselves.”
What an indictment! But there’s the other side of that prophesy coin. Here’s what some foreign ‘prophets’ said in 2013 and 2015.
Prophet A: “The world is getting ready to see the good that is getting ready to come out of Guyana.” Prophet B, relaying what God said to him: “Let them (Guyanese) know that this land is their land – the nation, I give it to you. Begin to command the oil; begin to command the gold; begin to command the silver; begin to command the minerals … I’m raising up the wealth of this nation.” Great news! And it’s nothing more than a coincidence that this revelation came in May 2015, the month of general elections and ExxonMobil’s big announcement.
Churches across the country have been anticipating a spiritual and transformative explosion for some time, and some say it’s almost here.
But words often tend to ring hollow in the ears of the oppressed and the victimized. Many are weary, and wary, of such utterances, and believe that they simply have to ‘do what we have to do’ to succeed or simply survive. It’s a statement, that embodies promise and peril. Some will continue to risk life and limb in achieving material wealth. Some will have no qualms about trampling anyone perceived to be in their way. Some will break laws, egregious or innocuous, and make their own. Some will struggle diligently and live upstanding lives. Others will resign themselves to fate.
And some, like me, will continue to dream whilst picking through the rubble, searching for hidden treasures or holding on to transient ones. Last Monday I watched Sachia Vickery beat World #3 Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open Tennis Tournament at Indian Wells, California.
At a set down and trailing 3-0 in the second set, Vickery fought back fiercely, with energy-sapping rallies and stunning winners to force a third set which she won 6-1. She went on to lose her 3rd round match, but that to me was ‘no big ting’.
Our little tsunami of woes may be displaced by the real thing. Improbable, but who knows? In the meantime, you can pay heed to pessimistic portents or to prophetic visions of Guyana’s grand ascendancy. I’ll keep them in mind too, but for now I’m still basking in the vicarious buzz of Sachia Vickery’s improbable victory. Her parents are Guyanese you know!
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
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