Have Guyanese gone beyond being heartless?

NOVEMBER 22, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

What is amazing about Guyana is the widespread occurrence of social negatives in a country with such a small population. My time with the Rodneyite grounding group, People’s Parliament, will live in my mind until I die. The People’s Parliament lasted about six months – June to December 2012. All of us who were integral members of that Rodneyite community participated daily. For those not familiar with its location, the People’s Parliament occupied the ground on which once stood the Bureau of Statistics, directly opposite the eastern face of Parliament Building, at the junction of Brickdam and High Street. I learned a lot about my country by being in the People’s Parliament. Although I will not classify the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) society as a social negative, I was simply intrigued by the huge number of members that comprise that society, given our slender population. Each night, the people who belonged to this section of the Guyanese population would pass by the People’s Parliament. I stood and watched as they passed each afternoon, each evening. And I am not talking about ten or twenty. If you add to the numbers those who did not walk by the People’s Parliament, for example, those who live outside of Georgetown, that is, in the ten Regions of Guyana and people who are closet homosexuals, then I would say, per capita, Guyana may have one of the largest societies of LGBT people in the world. We have just about 750,000 residents. I am not passing judgement or even being the least disapproving – I have no critical view of the LGBT section of the Guyanese society. All I am saying is that such a section occupies a sizeable percentage of the population. I sat in the People’s Parliament and watched as the folks passed by, and the number of dirty-dressed people, homeless people, mentally disheveled people who roamed in front of my eyes at that junction was distressingly enormous. It was from looking at those souls, I concluded that poverty is bottomless in this country. How can a nation with such an undersized population produce so many destitute folks? It was a heart-breaking sight to behold. Pick up any of the newspapers on the High Court sessions and you will see that for a land with a small population, we must have one of the highest rates of rape accused, sexual molestation accused and incest accused. In the current High Court session, there are over four hundred such cases. With our tiny population, we have, compared to other countries of the world, one of the highest rates of vehicular accidents. Juxtaposed against other countries with millions of citizens, why does Guyana have so many road fatalities? Just one section of Guyana, Black Bush Polder, puts Guyana on top of the suicide statistics. Guyana, per capita, is referred to as the suicide capital of the world. Isn’t it frightening when you look at the total number of souls that live in this land? I really cannot comment on the statistics in relation to prostitutes, unemployed folks and school drop-outs, because I haven’t researched them for this article, but the statistics must be staggering. Rum shops dot the landscape of this country. There are villages up the East Bank that have at least seven rum shops in one village. Most of them have more than two. Last weekend was the one year death anniversary of my mother-in-law. My wife decided she would donate non-monetary resources to one of Guyana’s orphanages. I regret I was there. This six-year-old girl came to the gate to open the lock. It is truly unbelievable that two parents could part with such a lovely expression of human nature. This girl was a sweet human being. But she didn’t have parents. She was an orphan. Then the moment I feared grabbed me and I lost my psychology. We were invited to meet the orphans. This is not something for the faint-hearted to attempt. By any stretch of the imagination, you were looking at lovely kids. How could a country with such a tiny population produce so many parentless children? Where are the mothers and fathers? Why did they part with such adoring children? Readers should note I am talking about the institution I visited. The Christian, Muslim and Hindu churches all have their own orphan services. Was it poverty that drove the parents to these heartless lengths? Is it the social system in Guyana where the poor and powerless are treated with heartless cruelty? My answer is yes. Only poor people pass through the Magistrates’ Courts and the High Court. Only the poor get mistreated by the NIS, Georgetown Public Hospital and the police.