Movements involving Social Protection Ministry, floodwaters, West Berbice murder and COVID-19

Jul 04, 2021 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I start with the worst first.
Yesterday, Guyanese learned that 1,567 children tested positive for COVID-19 (KN July 3). Why did the PPP Government expose and endanger children like this? What justification could there be for withholding such information? PPP leaders are not about protecting Guyanese but about protecting their hidden agendas, even when children’s lives are at stake. This is a hanging offence. This doesn’t disturb, it horrifies. I damn them all to hell, from the head down. As for the Minister of Education, what is going to be done now with school reopening?
I quiet down and start earlier. On Monday, the disturbing came early: one of every two females locally had some negative experience with domestic violence. That disturbs first; frightens, too. Clearly, we have an enduring national scourge present. Publicity has meant that some of it has gone underground, and then in frequency and degree only. It is not gone, as in really gone, most likely never will. In this darkness, I am encouraged that Social Protection Minister, Dr. Vindya Persaud, announced moving forward to reach many homes and communities and women under the Spotlight Initiative. It can only help, when battered, fearful females are aware that there are those who care, who want to hear their story, offer some hope, maybe a way out. I think that Minister Persaud represents the encouraging, so lacking in Guyana. I point to what she and her ministry launched to lookout for our elderly in homes. They are vulnerable, need people to protect them. Thank you, Minister Persaud and team.
On Tuesday, I read that Region Seven floodwaters were on the move, receding. That encouraged, after a long watery nightmare for Guyanese in those places. Though pictures of this national flood disaster registered, they are nothing compared to the actual plights of those waterlogged in those faraway locations, where Guyanese live. One side of grandparents were from Essequibo, so there is connection; a departed spouse from Berbice, had a farming parent, so there is that personal association with devastated brethren in that county, too. But amidst the encouragement of floodwaters moving downward, it is disturbing that, even at this hour like this, our racial and political passions, political prejudices, social divisions crest ever upward without letup. I refuse to accept that we are out of our depth; I prefer to believe that we have allowed the waters of our bigotries and hatreds to creep into, even to soak, our consciences during a time of national calamity. In medical terms, as a nation, we have too much water in our lungs, around hearts.
On Wednesday, the encouraging came over events that definitely disturbed – those West Berbice murders, with four charged for the revenge murder of Haresh Singh. These charges are encouraging, amid the surrounding negatives of the first gruesome murders of the two Henrys, and the related murder of pensioner Deochand. The police did some extensive work on these interrelated murders, and should be complimented, but only if they hold under alibi integrity and intense judicial scrutiny. Progress reported will only be embraced, when justice is done for all the fallen, and with broad understandings that the real perpetrators have been charged. What is deeply disturbing in the midst of this encouraging law enforcement development (the charging of Singh’s alleged murderers) is how neighbouring village communities have been wracked by the first two murders that led to the other two, and with relatives in the middle of blood shedding.
On Wednesday also, KN reported on social distancing protocols lapsing in nearby Trinidad; fatigue and indiscipline have stepped in, as now shared. Sunday midmorning found me standing in a restaurant, but when I turned, a near collision almost occurred. There was a young lady in my ‘back’ pocket. If we were cars, severe bodily harm is imagined. Returning to youngsters, I read of children infected in India from variants of the virus, and I froze. Don’t reopen schools come September. The alarming supporting basis is present.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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