Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 24, 2019 Countryman, Features / Columnists
By Dennis Nichols
March 21 has come and gone, and the sky hasn’t fallen. Our world evidently doesn’t revolve around politics. On Friday morning, after an upbeat day of Phagwah celebrations, the sun rose brilliantly, and like the previous day, shone on everyone – the collective rainbow tapestry of Guyanese from all social strata, ethnic and religious groups. No one seemed to care what race or party anyone belonged to, at least not in the capital city.
The festival of Holi is a religious event. But like cricket, it is also a national ‘sport’ and all races play the game. You don’t need to know too much about its central characters (Hiranyakashipu, Holika, and Prahalad) to join in the observance of Phagwah. And its more serious messages – the triumph of good over evil, along with the heralding of spring, are recurring and well-known ‘Holy Day’ themes across several cultures.
As this year’s Phagwah spectacle fades into history, kites will shortly take to the skies, and colour will once more profusely permeate the landscape. Again, all races and all religious denominations will take part in both the sacred and the secular aspects of the Easter holiday weekend next month.
Phagwah, cricket, and kite-flying have little to do with race or politics, but they do have a common theme – that of unity, despite the discordant dissent that occurs locally when national elections loom, or when the ‘big two’ parties quarrel. They’ve been doing a lot of that lately.
But on Friday morning, Georgetown was in normal mode, except for what appeared to be heightened police visibility. I took a spin around the city, and the Parliament Buildings (the people’s representative) were still standing as were the people’s High Court, the people’s City Hall, and the people’s Stabroek Market. Across the way vendors and mini-bus conductors haggled with, and harassed, their clients as they are wont to do. Georgetown was as only Georgetown can be.
As our country’s constitutional intrigue deepens, and our political/legislative knot gets knottier, the newspapers and my FB page tell me that Guyana’s old race rogue is trying to spread its nastiness around, again. The words ‘black’ and ‘coolie’ which can be used endearingly at times, once again take on subtle negative nuances or even blatant pejorative tones. But because we generally feel constrained to speak and act civilly in public, it isn’t always as obvious as it could be. That’s a good thing.
Race-peddling can be personified as a curmudgeon – a stubborn, mean-tempered, and opinionated old demon who, in Guyana, has possessed and poisoned the hearts and minds of political and other leaders over the years; whose spawn has passed on its venom to generations down the line. But there’s hope – the kind that ‘springs eternal in the human breast’ and mocks the sentiments of those who litanize the dire consequences of human error.
I am by no means belittling the current impasse between government and opposition. Its potential negatives can overwhelm our shaky democracy, throwing rule-of-law into a tailspin. That would be a disaster. I’m saying that in my opinion (a) there is still room for reconciliation, and (b)race is becoming less of a destabilizing factor among Guyanese, so that we’re now much more concerned with economic stability, and if oil brings that, then race and party politics will matter less to voters. Think people.
And room for reconciliation? Of course. Humans are imperfect and fallible, and it is humans, people, who draft constitutions, make laws, interpret and uphold them. Therefore people in these various spheres of governance can get together and, as the British High Commissioner recently implored, ‘agree on a constitutional way forward’ even though it is interpretation of the very constitution that has been brought into question. Or wait for the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice – if it is taken to that level.
(Constitutionally or otherwise, I cannot wrap my mind around the notion of a government becoming illegal, or being declared illegal by an opposition leader, after what appears to be a largely opportunistic ploy to unseat it by the vote of an individual implicitly pledged to that government and sitting comfortably therewith prior to his ‘turnaround’.)
But back to the race thing. Guyana is such a paradox of a nation that we can safely say race is both an issue and a non-issue here. Many of us would have seen and heard the most uncouth, racially-charged remarks Guyanese throw at one another, often in ribald jest, but at other times with evident malice. Amazingly you can see the same people laughing and hobnobbing with each other days or even hours later. We are like that.
Cricket is a metaphor for life, from coconut branch and sponge ball pasture games to Lloyd and Kanhai blasting the Australian bowlers at Lords. Did it matter that they looked very different in race, colour, and physical appearance? What about the Chanderpaul-Hooper partnership when both Guyanese hammered centuries against Sri Lanka in 2008? And did anyone care that it was East Indian Narsingh Deonarine who, with one ball to spare, struck that unforgettable six to hand Guyana the inaugural Stanford T-20 championship in 2006?
Those are rhetorical questions to which all Guyanese should know the answers instantly. Look at our young children, in school, on the streets, in parks and other open spaces. Of every race and shade, they talk and laugh uninhibitedly; they hold hands, and often they show genuine compassion for each other.
Look at our teenagers and young men and women. Increasingly the races are intermixing, inter-dating, intermarrying, and not giving a damn what older folk think. Some of the most arrestingly-attractive, highly-moral, and emotionally-stable young people I’ve known are of mixed ethnicity. And I should know. Members of my immediate and extended family are a mixture of black, white, Amerindian and East Indian. And it’s all good!
What I can implore all nation-minded Guyanese to do is, “Send that old race curmudgeon packing … whenever and wherever he and his dogsbodies try to sell you their poison.”
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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