Bourda fallout
Editorial
THE shame over the Bourda disgrace hung heavier yesterday and the letters from readers today mirror the sad reality. The predictable shellacking from the Caribbean began almost immediately and many distressed Guyanese said they quickly switched channels or turned off their television sets Wednesday night when callers on the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) post-game programme broadcast from Barbados slammed into Guyanese. They did not mince words, openly calling for international cricket matches to be banned from being played here. Outraged caller after outraged caller heaped scorn on Guyana and Guyanese because of the `dotishness' and asininity of those who swarmed the field of play to parade their mindless antics for all the world to see. And all Guyana will be paying the price. One caller on the CBU programme referred to those `foolish' Guyanese and it did not need much imagination to picture how those who were phoning into Barbados viewed the collective Guyanese nation. It's not a pretty picture. Some folks here were yesterday predicting more hard times for Guyanese travelling to the Caribbean because of the disgrace those bands dragged the nation into during their sorties on the Bourda sward Wednesday afternoon. We reiterate - Guyana and Guyanese do not deserve this kind of ugly behaviour and decent Guyanese have to begin to collectively deal with this kind of outrage. Law-abiding citizens cannot be much longer held hostage by hooligans and hooliganism and they have to start calling a spade a spade and taking firm action to end this foolishness. There was one period in this country's recent history when most Guyanese used to try to hide their nationality when travelling in the Caribbean to escape undue attention from immigration and other officials. This was because of several reasons, including the feeling then among overseas officials that every Guyanese wanted to flee the hard times here or that all Guyanese were into smuggling stuff like wheat flour, bread and toilet paper. Guyanese were locked up at the smallest excuse and suffered all kinds of indignities in several Caribbean and other neighbouring countries because of the political excesses of those in power here at the time. Thankfully, that period changed in recent years with the restoration of democracy. But given the anti-government street demonstrations in Georgetown that started last year and now this further disgrace at the world-famous Bourda, Caribbean people, who love their cricket, would again be looking at Guyanese `funny'. All because of the ugliness of a few. We think the Government should consider some kind of public relations offensive to get home the message, especially in the Caribbean, that what happened Wednesday was not typical of Guyanese, most of whom are law-abiding citizens. It would be a tough case but a start could be made by using the television footage and photographs of the disgrace to arrest and charge some of those who swarmed the pitch, especially those trying to steal Mr. Steve Waugh's bat, and ensuring maximum publicity for the cases. It would be hard to tackle this Bourda fallout, but a start has to be made somewhere in dealing with a problem that is fast getting out of proportion.
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