Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 22, 2018 Letters
Dear Editor,
I was motivated to share some thoughts on the nature of our (Guyanese) people after reading of the unpleasant experience of one Guyanese on a flight to Toronto via Jamaica. In the letter, the writer mentioned a Jamaican complaining about how docile we Guyanese are and that is so true. I’ve spent a few years living in Jamaica and had noted that difference between Guyanese and Jamaicans.
A friend (Guyanese) who also went to Jamaica (and still lives there) had told me of an incident that happened in Kingston. Someone stole something in Parade (similar to Stabroek Market square) and ran. The mistake he made was to do so when school had just dismissed. People chased after him and so did the tireless school children.
The poor fellow got tired after a mile and resorted to sliding under a low building to hide. The relentless children pointed him out and adults hauled him out of his hiding place. They beat him bloody, chopped him up then necklaced him (the then popular practice in apartheid South Africa where they placed a car tyre around your neck and lit it afire).
They brought him back to Parade in a wheelbarrow. My friend said he looked like chopped up meat from a slaughterhouse. And this, just for stealing.
Now contrast this with an incident I witnessed a few years prior while standing in front of Demico in Stabroek Square in the midst of rush hour. A fellow snatched a lady’s gold chain and dashed through the crowd, which gave way in self-preservation. Except for a man who threw a bicycle at him, no one in the crowd, INCLUDING ME, did a thing but exclaim, “Eh-eh! How he could be so bold face to snatch the lady chain in broad daylight!” The fellow dashed up Brickdam and got away. We full of talk and slow to act.
Then I reflected on those days during food shortages when people would form lines that wrapped around Guyana Stores and ended up on Main Street. I remember a fellow joining the back of one of these anacondas then asking the fellow before him “Is wha selling?” The person didn’t know but was in the line anyway.
I’m sure the store closed before they got up for whatever was selling. That kind of patience and long-suffering seemed to have stayed with Guyanese. I’ve seen people wait in lines for hours, only to be told “Milk finish” when they got to the door. Their reaction? Suck teeth and turn away, only to come join a longer line the following day.
That’s the kind of patience even Job did not have. Do you think Jamaicans would have put up with that? That store would’ve been ashes by night fall. Mind you, I’m not proposing Guyanese to get rambunctious and violent.
Contrast that kind of patience with another incident I personally experienced in Jamaica. Gas price was raised by the government one day and it was announced that afternoon. Keep in mind the raising of gas price meant farmers would have to pay more to get their produce to the markets, which means increase in price in the produce also. Everything rises (except salaries) when gasoline price goes up.
Guyanese would’ve fretted and fussed and go pay it anyway. Not so in JA. The very night people began cutting down trees to block roads. My sister was due to return to Jamaica from Guyana the following day so I had to travel down to Kingston to get her. I saw first-hand what the streets looked like. It would take a few pages for me to recount that experience to say.
In short, nothing moved for three days. Of course, the people had to pay the raised price but they did not take it sitting down.
I’ve seen Guyanese at Piarco Airport (most of them hucksters) sleeping at the airport as if they’re homeless or refugees while they had paid their good money and were in possession of genuine tickets to travel home. Some said they were there for four days. One fellow was in transit from England and was there for two days. And they sat and took it. We Guyanese need to realize we have rights and we need to step up and claim them.
Of course, being quick to action has its draw-backs. Another Guyanese friend who was with me in Jamaica (yes, we are scattered all over) told me of an experience he had. He was with four others in a hire car going to the north coast. The car sped through one village and down a valley. At the bottom of a valley was a smoldering garbage heap in which some children were playing. There was a loud explosion of something in the garbage and a child was tossed unconscious on his back.
The villagers, being aware that the car had just blazed through the village, looked down in the valley, saw the stopped car and prostrate child and drew their conclusions. Down the valley, they charged with machetes (cutlasses) and pitchforks. The driver drove off and stopped a few hundred yards away. When they reached down in the valley and to the child, the villagers realized the car had nothing to do with it. Only then did the driver come back to the scene. My friend said, had they been there when the villagers came down, it would have been “chop first, ask questions later.”
Being docile has its advantages but it paves the way for being taken advantage of. Guyanese, we need to assert ourselves and clamber out of the “long-line” mentality. Protest sensibly when we are taken advantage of and speak up. We tend too much to be all mouth and no action.
Malcolm Alves
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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