Hurting mothers

May 14, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It should be a day of rejoicing for the mothers of Guyana, on this Mother’s Day. The reality is that it is not for many mothers across the length and breadth of this land blessed with rich gifts. In an era when the hope of prosperity should be an early visitor at the doorstep of Guyanese mothers, that visit has been all but cancelled. What many of our mothers live with is the daily worry, the lengthy tragedy, of how to cope when there is so much meagerness of hope; what to do when there is so much paltriness that they know not what to do.

It would the easiest thing to do in this place of plentiful oil to curse national leaders who have fooled our mothers, then failed them, and do almost nothing for them. But cursing them would insult their mothers, so decency comes to let that pass today. Too many thousands of our women and mothers in Guyana have been hurt before, are hurting now, so it is better, wiser, more dignified to leave leaders alone, the sons of mothers; and let the work of their own hands curse them for their endless callousness. The fact is that this should not be, not when the circumstances of Guyana are so brimming with milk and cream, the honey and jam of what lies beneath our feet, below our waters.

The grand, mouth-watering reality of this matchless country is that abundant oil has been found by the billions of barrels, with more billions likely out there waiting to be discovered. Yet many of our mothers in this country are pulling their hair out of their heads. Our mothers wring their hands at the cruelties of political leaders, who rule with a savage heart, a mind made cruel by selfish, crooked agendas. It is heinous when our suffering mothers are forced to beat their breasts, due to the emptiness that weighs them down. Theirs is the plight of having nothing to give to their children, not enough to feed their toiling partners.

On this Mother’s Day of 2023 in Guyana, our mothers are weeping streams of tears. Our mothers quietly bear their pain, while our leaders and their cabals of criminally minded chosen ones flaunt the richness of their fancy attire, their expensive toys, their lavish lifestyles. There is the glaring irony of these swaggering men in high places, and powerful offices, surrounding themselves with women of near identical selfishness.

There are many on the fairer side, who see no wrong in how their political brothers dash the hopes of weak and neglected mothers outside the favoured circles, how they abuse the trust placed in them. It is now an accepted element of the anguish of Guyana that the women who are on the inside tend to forget their less fortunate, less equipped, sisters left behind. They are falling still farther behind.

The reports are of climbing, punishing prices, of the rising cost of living. Both represent the fate that mothers have to face, deal with, and somehow survive in an endless roundtrip that repeats itself day after day. Which leaders care? Which leader can do the things that are urgently necessary, that are meaningful, but does nothing? And who are the leaders who look the other way, ignores the cries coming from countless parts of this country? They are the ones in Government, who can make a difference embodying significance, but they don’t. They are only powerfully consumed by their own sense of self-importance, their first commitments, which is to their own self-serving interests.

Like the tribal chiefs of ancient Africa, and the Maharajahs of British India, Guyanese leaders frolic and have fun with outsiders, while selling out their own. Foreigners come here and prey upon our oil prospects, rob our people. Our leaders in different governments have helped them every way that they can by making their pathways easy.

Meanwhile, our women, our mothers, wonder how they will make ends meet, what will become of them, and their families. Though it sounds like a pittance, we still say “Happy Mother’s Day”. Something of substance from leaders could provide some succor in this time of creeping intensifying distress.