Latest update October 6th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 03, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column
Kaieteur News – ‘Not a blade of grass’ never seems to lose its sparkling national resonance. With each new rendition in response to an old state of mind in Venezuela, ‘not a blade of grass’ is given a fresh sprinkle of water, and reset in a prominently placed national flowerpot. Now there is another stirring phrase hauled out of the haze and put into the public arena. It is ‘not a stone left unturned’ in efforts to defend Guyana from Venezuela’s naked war of words and escalation of tensions.
I hope that Guyanese will not be called upon, not be put to the test, to deliver on either of those two electrifying statements. But should the circumstances be unavoidable, then all the little Davids in Guyana must be ready with a hand raised in self-defense, and a belly full of fire, to stand up to the Venezuelan Goliaths. I can go on about how the smallest axe could cut down the biggest tree; or that other one about which it is said that it is not the size of the dog, but the fight in the dog that counts in a junkyard scrap, but the point should have sunk in by now.
If Venezuela wants Guyana’s forests to serve as a final resting place, an early graveyard, for its sons and daughters, we must be ready to give them a hand in that direction. I would prefer that matters do not reach such an irreversible stage, but Guyana has not asked for this fight. In fact, Guyana has not uttered a single untoward word against the Venezuelan people, though the temptation has been ever-present, ever insistent. The entirety of the sharp words, the fevered pitches, the rhetoric and actions intended to drive fear across Guyana have all been from the higher elevations and bigger people in Caracas.
I have no quarrel with the Venezuelan people. But my father and his parents were from Essequibo, so there is this umbilical connection for me. Though I have lost touch with the remnants of that side of kith and kin over the decades, there are still a few of them living in the coveted and disputed Essequibo region. To make matters tighter, I understand that a few of them have Venezuelan spouses. Matters get a little messy, all things considered, but there is no choice, only one loyalty that ever counts. As the Americans like to say, it is God, country, and applesauce. It is where I am, other than for any creole combination that could take the place of that last condiment.
It is now time for a hard reality check. All of this-not a blade of grass, not one stone left unturned-is easy to say from the safety of the distant shores of Georgetown. But we are all going to have to be fully ready to make good on these fulsome patriotic words. I have to, if push comes to shove, and in whatever way this country could use an ancient duffer like me. I would be pretty exercised to be given nothing to do. Our resolve must be more than in words that sing. Our resolve must be made of steel and sting, and the willingness to lay all on the line. Some may call it patriotism, but it has to be proved in spades. The words of Sir Winston Churchill should come to mind, and strike Guyanese where they count. I favour a single word that says all that has to be said: self-sacrifice. I will be so bold as to recommend that that same call to self-sacrifice be made the commanding tenet of the individual religion that is embraced with question, and without condition. With a mindset like that, and a conversion of that nature, a much-needed national religion could be in the making.
We need an element with the strength of cement to bind us together in this country. Whether recklessly or unthinkingly, Venezuela’s President Maduro has given us this gift as part of his referendum, his Christmas greetings. I will refrain from insulting anyone, but for every word said and each line written, the blood racing in our veins should get hotter, our heads clearer. Enough has been mentioned and penned about ‘existential threat’ emanating from Venezuelan jingoism, saber-rattling, and its relentless ratcheting up of tensions on its lost cause. We have no control over what goes on across the western border. But we can do our best regarding the kind of existence that we seek to live. It must be of the desire and passion that surpass those of anyone else, including whatever is coming out of Venezuela. We, the sum of the Guyanese people, have a sacred duty to rise up and face the enemy lurking at the gates with this Trojan Horse referendum of his. International help is welcome, but at the end of the day, Guyanese have to step up.
Whatever the results of the Venezuelan referendum, Guyanese must tighten their belts, as they are in for the long haul. No matter how the temperature cools in Caracas (if it does at all), every Guyanese must stand for the motherland, and make any interloper pay dearly for their monstrous ambitions, their deformed mentalities, and all of their unneighbourly treacheries harboured.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)
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