OPINION: From the outside to inside Guyana, temperatures overheat

Last Updated on Sunday, 22 June 2025, 10:10 by Writer

By GHK Lall

I was hoping that the U.S. would stay uninvolved, be an inspired peacemaker. There was and is enough bad blood between Israel and Iran. Washington and London, Beijing and Moscow, all had a duty to marshal collective strength and collective wisdom to be honest referees. An honest referee is a neutral one, one that helps to separate combatants. Washington discarded such restraints, pulled a trigger that might now be stuck at that position, most difficult to unlock.

No longer is the talk about what is conventional in warfare. J. Robert Oppenheimer had it right, when he quoted from the sacred Bhagavad Gita. Nuclear is the word being bandied with increasing intensity and impatience. I sensed a readiness for the reckless. Now there is a pandora’s box of unknown horrors that lurks behind every word and threat, around any bush, or out of some desert or mountainside. The aim was always to neutralize that particular capability of Iran, and whether successful or not, what is it that has been set in motion? Where is the voice of restraint, and the presence that stands as a holder of the bridge, when it is clear that parts of the world have gone mad? Maybe not the whole world just yet, but Washington is definitely in the lead. Many pieces now have to be picked up, but who is willing? Who is able? I look to the East. The UN has no voice, unfortunately. So, where will this lead?

In the most optimistic cast on circumstances, a long, new, season of low-level attritional activities, a sapping away of the will, as was being seen between Tel Aviv and Tehran. It has gone viral now, and has all of contagion’s features. I think that, as matters stand, this has gone beyond the extent of men. The road ahead now looks rockier than ever, most daunting. The Israel-Iran rage has been percolating forever, and what has been unleashed represents only fractions of the capabilities of both for mutual destruction. And sucking in the wider world into its erratic orbit. The picture is grim.

Turning closer to home, my Sunday predawn greeting from Demerara Waves just before 03:00hrs was of shots fired outside of Minister Juan Edghill’s home. Are Guyanese also inching, rushing, towards the abyss of confrontation? Perhaps, it was of individual differences between some late-night revelers, and hopefully not directed at the minister’s residence or family. The latter is not a comforting thought to be emerging, or a good line to be writing at 04:00hrs. The fabric that holds this society in an uneasy union is too fragile, the sentiments too volatile, given the year in which Guyanese live. Through the strained smiles, there are the grimaces of discontent. From discontent comes displeasure, and out of both flows danger. There have been sparks recently, and each one sets this society on edge. Guyanese live under their own nuclear mushrooms: race, elections, oil. An incendiary mix that should make even the inebriated discover sobriety instantly. I search for a calming voice and presence, one that can be believed, because there is a record of dependability and integrity. Unfortunately, the choice in the local environment has been to relish what is contrary. Passions here have been kneaded through with too much of the acidic and caustic. The environment is raw with anger about who is getting too much, and who is getting too little. Who is the lesser evil; not of two anymore, but of more. Guyanese have their own pitched battles being fought here, with the calendar getting tighter and tenser.

It is June and the world of Guyana now revolves around September. Politically speaking, the heat is too white, and the darkness is too frightening. I have no clue about where Guyanese go from here. What is discerned is not liked, does not give confidence. But I do know this, which I try to articulate most sensible: the furies are pent-up, the atmosphere is agitated, as not experienced in a long time. Talk cheese, talk chalk. I think I detect an ultimatum simmering behind these small incidents of shots fired and devices placed. Share or bear. Give or get ready. Listen or learn. There is no interest in finding out anything the hard way. So, there is sharing of my little two cents. Maybe, there will be some listening, changing. Whether the wider world or where Guyanese live, there is a powerful sense of things spinning dangerously. Not yet out of control. But of so much that is unknown, and of which there is the most unreadiness to parse through, listen, and act responsibly, honestly. When there is no honesty with oneself then it is foregone about how honest and trusted any can be to any other.