Yuji22, you have come to the point where I did sometime ago, actually at the time of the big floods a few years ago.  I have no personal grudge against the PPP as I was never a PPP man, just a regular Joe public with a keen interest in the betterment of the nation and people.

As we worked to help alleviate some of the suffering, we went where few overseas Guyanese ever venture when they make their annual pilgrimage.  What we saw and found was shocking and unbelievable, many of which continue to this day.  At that time we were still not overly judgmental of the PPP.  However, what really turned us off was when we tried to engage the Govt to help facilitate us, the absolute disregard of certain officials for the suffering and what was going on.  Some of these sitting ministers began attacking us for exposing, make us feel as we are creating problems where none exist.  They accused us of bringing our "American" ways and attitude to Guyana.

I can attest to you, when we went to Social Welfare regarding the suffering, they looked at their map and accused us of making up stories as, according to their records, no one lives where we found people.  I can tell you this, in one place there was about 50 people with about 15-20 kids below 14 who never saw a school door and lived in shacks.  When we questioned the people, there were living there for five or more years.  We saw little children left to fend for themselves, girls being preyed upon by sexual predators as young as 8.  When we brought these cases up, PPP officials cuss us and start cussing out the people saying they look for it, they caused it, they are responsible for themselves.  Yuji22, I must say, we went into primarily Indian areas as no Indian wanted to take us into Afro villages due to race tensions at that time.  I have to believe this was also happening in Black villages.

We formed groups here to help and tried soliciting local affluent people.  Most were/are un-interested, they have the same attitude of the PPP and started blaming us for "stirring up" issues.  Many refused to assist us so we are now engaging the more capable poor to help up.  As we got to know some of these destitute people, they were not as you would think, all are not drunkards and pissers, especially the mothers.  Many of these women want to do better for their kids, but have no avenues, there are totally helpless as their husbands go to find work, they are stuck with their kids.  Some of there women do go and clean houses in GT, etc but this is only if there kids are a certain age.  Even then, they are afraid to leave their kids due to sexual predators.  This seem to be a sport in some quarters, like a duck or rabbit hunt.  We met with the police who are overwhelmed and very frustrated.  The officer in-charge showed us files where the pursued certain cases and were mysteriously "thwarted" from completing the investigation.  Money and who you know seems the law in Guyana.

This situation is still as serious as ever, though there have been some sensitivity to the issue by the PPP.  However, we find the PPP still seem to be kicking and screaming and only do what is needed to make a decent UN report.  What we believe, the Govt is not incentivized to expose these for as long as it remains "undocumented" it does not make it into the "numerator" of any UN stats.  As harsh as it seems, this is the only rational explanation for their attitude as they know it exists.

Even now, we take some affluent persons in GT to some of these places and they put their hand to their mouths in disbelief sometimes exclaiming "is this really Guyana".  Yes, we had this reaction only a few months ago.  Yuji22, certain very very senior PPP leader(s) made veiled threats to us hinting that we may be breaking Guyana's law by not "reporting" what we uncover.  Yes we are breaking the law for "uncovering" things happening in full view of the law.

On the positive side, we have found alot more positive attitude from mid-level Govt officers (Afros and Indians) as they truly want to help.  They appreciate our efforts and do what they could to make things happen.  Many of these people live closer to reality and do see and understand some of the suffering.  The affluent and senior Govt officials are removed from the people and live lives that is separate and apart from "Joe public".  They live in a virtual bubble reminiscent of long past colonial physical and mental enclaves.