Commendable team spirit
THE enthusiasm with which citizens in Georgetown responded to helping firemen and other officials at the fire at the Education Ministry buildings Sunday afternoon shows, thankfully, that Guyanese still care and are willing to go the extra mile to help others in trouble. Instead of the sad incidents of looting that have accompanied fires at other scenes in the city in the past, swarms of people chipped in Sunday to help save valuable equipment and documents from the endangered buildings. Newspaper photographs and television footage show the extent to which people helped. From all accounts, Police deployed there had little to do against would be looters as almost everyone wanted to see how they could help contain the flames from spreading. They helped firemen block holes in leaking hoses, tried to locate better sources of water, helped soak nearby buildings threatened by the fire when high winds took a hand in the proceedings, hauled valuable equipment and documents to safety and generally gave a helping hand all around. The Fire Chief has been full of praise for the help from civilians and we join in commending this welcome reassurance of `civilised' behaviour from Guyanese of all walks of life. Georgetown Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green, who was also quickly on the scene, helped to improve the water supply for the fire fighters by ordering all sluices and kokers closed. This society has had far too many displays of ugly behaviour in recent times and some were beginning to wonder whether Guyanese had lost their sense of caring and belonging. We think Sunday's response showed that the majority of Guyanese are still decent to the core and are willing to go to the limit to avoid further damage to the economy and putting more strains on an already difficult situation. Any loss of precious office space and buildings at this crucial time when every dollar counts, especially in the State sector, would have an impact on the budget of the departments affected. The Education Ministry was yesterday still counting the losses while firemen and other investigators probed the cause of the fire. It is still too early for answers to what caused the Sunday fire but the rest of society, we think, can take comfort from knowing that many really do care about events that can damage the country and threaten the future of its young people. We understand that the impact of the fire on the ministry may not be as adverse as was first thought but the damage to property would be a hard blow to sustain. This would put further incursions into an already tight budget and at a time when teachers and other public servants are demanding better pay. The Government has commendably been allocating a lot of resources to education over the years, as part of the emphasis on rebuilding the dilapidated social infrastructure in the country. And when buildings, records and equipment go up in flames at a time like this, it becomes so much more difficult for those in charge to find solutions towards overcoming already difficult hurdles. And at times like these when people of all walks of life link hands in a battle against common adversities, the hurt and damage become a little easier to bear. We again salute all those unsung faithful who demonstrated Sunday, in no uncertain way, that Guyanese can still stand together - in good time and in bad times. And that's the way it should be. 
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