OPINION: A funny country, or a dirty one

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 May 2025, 18:38 by Writer

by GHK Lall

On lazy days, self-declared holidays, when there’s the luxury of deeper-than-normal reflection, I find myself thinking that Guyana is a funny country. Usually, that touches some nerve, and reality returns. A funny country, or a dirty one? That’s the question before Guyanese who watch in dismay how their motherland goes from hallucinations to delusions. I resist tainting this offering by mentioning the p word, but stronger resolves have crumbled before. The issue is related to those suspicious explosions, mystery ones. One at a police outpost, another at a GPL substation. Other than the suspicion and mystery surrounding them in a cloud of silence, that was it.

The first thing to be said in this funny country is that silence doesn’t mean that Guyana has been blanketed by a bag of snow, with that eerie quiet that comes in the aftermath. Silence in this country, especially in the places of power and prominence, is a forerunner of the sinister. Did I not say dirty country, earlier? So, what is an indicator of the sinister more than the dirty? Not dirty laundry, fellow Guyanese, but of laws broken by the orchestrations of dirty men and women. The explosives went off and Guyanese bracing themselves for reports of ‘channa’ bombs, got a shock. For the first time, if memory holds, there were reports of IED, as in improvised explosive device. Forgive me for introducing the scary, but suddenly I was transported to Iraq, where those baby horrors inflicted some big damage. What the hell is going on? IEDs in Guyana? And in this year of all the years in the last five?

Guyanese perps were the thought. But which ones from which side? Not a peep was heard, none claiming responsibility. When official circles go dumb as a doorknob, I sense that there’s more in the bucket than sand and mud. Long experience has taught so. That didn’t last too long. For there is an irrepressible young fellow name Travis Chase. On the morning following Guyana’s National Freedom Day, Mr. Chase broadcast to the world that “crime sleuths are well aware that the explosions on May 17…were acts of terrorism. Police are now hunting for two illegal immigrants from Venezuela and a Brazilian. In the short span of a few shorter hours, out came the Guyana Police Force with its own late breaking news bulletin. Guess what and who? Two Venezuelans and a man from the land of Pelé and Socrates and Jairzinho, complete with photos. Is that efficiency or what? Is that a kneejerk reaction or something more ominous? Like playing with the heads of the Guyanese people? They are always on the edge of their chairs, and in the season of local elections frequently feel it’s safer to stand on their heads. In that way, the world of anxiety, bigotry, and calumny passes them by.

My concern is why would the Guyana Police Force sit on something of that sensitivity? From where came the orders for that decision? That is, sit on it, and keep a lid on it. I think that there is enough wisdom in the GPF to know that broadcasting those three photos helps to put some heat on the foreign perps, even possibly assists to close in on them. I shrink from thinking that the big idea behind what looks like a clever maneuver was to make Guyanese stew and guide them to pointing a finger in the direction of unnamed thugs and hooligans, from a particular corner. Should anyone be anticipating that the p word will be now heard or read, they are better off getting their heads examined. Like the man said or sang, ‘ah aint ridin pun dah.’ Too uncontrollable; a little too much above my mental capabilities. As much as I try to, there are problems encountered with shaking off the sense that the blame for those explosions were being laid on the heads of unnamed locals. In a time of elections, what gives every indication of being the most roiling ever, it is advantageous to make one’s competition look fast and nasty and treacherous. A police outpost and a GPL substation do have the potential to inflict tremendous psychological uneasiness.

The question is whether that was in motion with those explosions. If not, then somebody needs to tell Guyanese, the basis for police sleepiness, with foreign terrorists now on the lam. They were given a good head start while Guyanese studied one another from the corners of their eyes. Those three could have made it to Karachi and the Himalayas, and not merely Caracas or Brasilia. Good going, Mr. Travis, for rocking the airwaves. A word for the police also for taking 10 days to clear the air. Funny country, or dirty one, is what I leave Guyanese to ponder.