Break the chain of mental slavery

Aug 18, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

As August draws to a close, it is useful for us leaders and those led to reflect on the significance of this month in Guyanese and international history since there are useful lessons to be learnt. The older folk will remember that it was on 6^th and 9^th August, 1945 that for the first time the destructive nuclear weapon was used by humans against fellow human beings. I refer to the use of the atomic bomb.

At home, supporters of the PNC still painfully remember the loss of their guide on 6th August 1985.

It was around this same time in 1942 that the Germans threw their military might in an effort to capture the Russian city of Stalingrad. This military assault lasted until February of 1943 and has been described as the most vicious and horrible battle in recent history, taking the lives of young and old, over a million lives in a few short months. The Russians prevailed and Stalingrad remained under Russian control.

15^th August also marked the dismantling of British India part of the great British Empire over which as youngsters we were told the sun never sets and so British India became Hindu dominated India and Muslim dominated Pakistan. Later, we had Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as separate nation states. These events were preceded by communal strife and the loss of life.

There is also clear evidence that we can no longer take lightly the ill effects of climate change and mankind’s mistreatment of the environment. Forest fires, the destruction to communities, houses and farmlands in the developed world should compel the rich and powerful to take seriously the declarations in the Glasgow Summit.

Of course, all Guyanese are conditioned and affected by the end of slavery in the British Empire 1838.

But dear editor, I bring to notice the above events to remind all of us first that the attitude of domination and the underlying philosophy of some of us believing we are superior are alive and well today. Methods have changed but those beliefs are deep and extant.

Second that to overcome this, the exploited must know that they have got to agitate and make their voices heard if they are to end exploitation and make a change.

And finally, as we see today in Guyana that the exploiters always maintain an effective PR machinery including the use of the selected few who have been described in some quarters of having the house slave mentality.

Those in receipt of the handouts from the ruling class are blinded, ignore reality and wittingly or unwittingly support the new ‘massa’.

The above condition requires us the masses and those truly interested in sharing the bounty available not to be fooled.

Current events and the shenanigans in the oil and gas industry and our gold industry suggest that this spiritual awareness and consciousness is a matter of urgency if we are to close this month hopeful that we can come together to face the conglomerates and negotiate a fair deal so that this and succeeding generations would avoid the embarrassment of being recolonised, and escape the well known imperial technique of divide and rule.

Let us work within our religious bodies, business enterprises and political parties to break the chain of mental slavery. Let us pay attention to editorials, to the crusaders who daily expose the inequalities noticeable in our present arrangement with the giant conglomerates.

In this way, we honour those who struggled for India’s independence and emancipation of the slave.

Hamilton Green

Elder

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