Prayer and Fasting, Palm Sunday, disappearing vehicles and freedom

Apr 10, 2022 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Encouraging Events, Disturbing Developments…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – The call from President Ali, was for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. I like that, and agree with it; that’s the encouraging part. What would encourage more is a leadership call and commitment to a Season of National Healing and Reconciling. It should be noticed that what I urge goes beyond a 24-hour day, in that a whole, undefined, season is what I recommend. Prayer and Fasting at the national level is a wonderful thought, grand exercise. Given our individual, communal, and collective hurts, I think that we are overdue a lengthy interval of internal reflection and examination, then making a start at ironing out a beginning towards national healing. There is too much anger in this country, too much pent-up resentments in this society, and we need to find a way beyond postures, banners, and gimmicks that assist us in seeing how we are, and who we are, and that something must be done about where we are, if only for our national survival. It is more than a day, a time; it must become our way of life.
Today, April 10, is Palm Sunday. In the Christian belief system, a man named Jesus, a poor carpenter’s son from Nazareth, went forward to face his fate. It was and is of a man who made the supreme sacrifice so that those who believe (and live the life) could have a chance at redemption and salvation. What I wish to focus on is of this man, whether one is a believer and follower or not, laying down his life for others. It disturbs no end that in this country, we have those who have more than enough already, and by countless multiples, who seek not to give of themselves in cleanliness, but to squeeze the life out of others, mostly the less fortunate. There are those who have so much, and it is as if they have nothing, so covetous they are, so insatiably greedy they have become. They don’t lay down or layout anything; they layout others, who depend on them, trust in them. It is why, despite all the riches we have, we remain poor in material things, and in the spirit.
Then came that news article in KN earlier in the week, about vehicles coming across our borders, and then vanishing without a trace. They can’t be found, there is no accounting for them, no reconciling the detailed records of their entry, with what is on the roadways. I use the instance of disappearing vehicles, a physically bulky piece of machinery that has fallen off the local map, and by the hundreds, to go into more sinister places. If these hundreds of vehicles can be gone so easily, I wonder about the number of guns that flows across our borders, and remain out of sight. Unlike vehicles, small arms can be concealed, and elude detection, without any official eyes knowing any better. The question is how many, with an eye cast on our lengthy and almost wide-open borders. The second thought is what kind of weaponry makes their way here. And the last is what does this mean for security and peace in this crime-ridden and harshly divided land. As should be obvious, this is disturbing to the extreme. If items like vehicles could be ‘lost’ and not found, what about guns that lose themselves in plain everyday sight? I have great difficulty even thinking about this.
Last, there was a Blunt page (pg. 7 daily in KN) that spoke of freedom in Guyana; indeed, lamented the quality and depth of the freedom that Guyanese have experienced in their three score minus four years of Independence. It seems that, 1966 Independence accounted for, we have exchanged ancient colonial masters for modern local ones. Then to add to our freedom woes, we attached to those political wastrels the yoke of foreign corporate masters, under which we live. In terms of true freedom, it appears that all Guyanese have succeeded in doing, endured along the way since 1966, is to live with layer upon layer of leprous tyrannies, some local, some foreign. Disturbing is not the word; try totally enraging.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

Prayer and Fasting, Palm Sunday, disappearing vehicles and freedom

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 6th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI Cricket West Indies suspends Alzarri Joseph for two matches

ExxonMobil Futsal Championship heats up in Linden

Harpy Eagles left frustrated by weather once...

Lennox Blackmore National Intermediate C/ship...

All-round Jaguars clinch 3-wicket win over...

GSLT20 ticket sales begin tomorrow at the local...

Features/Columnists

A lesson from the bread lines of America

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Democrat, autocrat, despot

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Prayer and Fasting, Palm Sunday, disappearing vehicles and freedom

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 6th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]