Wishing for the best this time around
Editorial
Kaieteur News
January 3, 2005
A new year has dawned. Many people are hoping that it will be markedly better than the last one, not that this has been any different over the past years. Each year people find that something was not entirely right with the present one and they wish for it to speed along so that the new one could bring them the desired peace and comfort.
We have had very few good years within recent times. In 1999 there was the strike that shut down the various sectors of the country. The issue was only resolved by arbitration. For a while, everyone smiled (meaning those public sector workers) but those smiles quickly disappeared when inflation ate up whatever they collected within a few short months.
Of course, we had the disturbances that followed the elections of 1997 and 2001. Fires flared up in the city and ethnic tension was rife. On one occasion, things got so bad that the Christmas was probably the worst in the history of the country. No one shopped and the business community groaned.
In 2002, there was the jailbreak that saw people shutting up their homes as soon as darkness descended. Even the various night clubs were hard pressed to meet their operating expenses. Crime was the order of the day.
Brazen daylight attacks on large business establishments became the order of the day and not even the police seemed capable of halting what seemed to be the descent into anarchy. No one was safe. People began to die in what appeared to be random shootings. Kidnapping became the new criminal activity. People became scared. Not even officials of the United States embassy were exempt. Before long people were wishing for an end to the year and, as sure as night follows day, the New Year came but the killing never ended.
The year 2003 was the year of the Death Squads. Bodies turned up all over the coast and again the police were stymied. Names of the perpetrators surfaced but there were no arrests. Instead, the police placed the killings in the simple realm of drug dealers exacting their revenge on those who ran foul of them.
As that year drew to a close, people once more wished for the New Year. Again they expected it to be better than the one in which they were living. That was not to be. By December, various editorials in the newspapers longed to be rid of 2004 - a leap year to boot.
We are in another New Year. We have made our resolutions. There are some of us who will renew the resolution to leave this country at the first opportunity we get. One letter writer in these pages actually warned Guyanese about trying to leave illegally. He wrote of the stories that emanated from the prisons in which many now languish, of the near certainty that people with phony documents would be busted. And it matters not that they would have invested millions of dollars.
One benefit of a new year is that people always make an effort to be better people. They even make a bold start although some fall by the wayside before long. It is this effort that we need to encourage throughout the year, because the country really needs people who could make a difference, people who would effect change for the better.
During one television programme, the panelists were hard pressed to identify two positive developments in the country. They declined to count those things that represent an upgrade of the infrastructure. If indeed people cannot point to two developmental projects, then a lot needs to be done this year.
We, however, note that there is an expanded road network at the approaches to the city, the construction of the new CARICOM Secretariat headquarters, which some say is the result of a grant from the Japanese, and the Ogle airport expansion programme. We have also seen the upgrading of playing facilities for those young people, many of whom seem to become disillusioned too early and branch off into a life of crime since that seems to be the easiest of economic activities.
But for all this, one thing is certain. Many who longed for the approach of this year will not be around to say goodbye to it. Some will succumb to road accidents and other disasters. A few will be killed, either by criminals or by jealous lovers or warring neighbours, and there will be the few who will succumb to natural causes.
Nevertheless, it is up to us to ensure that this year is indeed better than the past one.