Fifty years later and a lot has changed

Fifty years ago I was a schoolboy. I had grown up in colonial Guyana.

News of independence was met with mixed reactions. After all, change is not something that people readily accept. The older folk had grown accustomed to having the colonial masters making every decision of meaning.

But the thing that the older folk concentrated on most was food on the table. Most of the food was imported, so the older folk saw the move to independence as cutting off their food supplies. The idea of Guyana producing almost all its food was not in their mind.

It was a different story for the young people. They were excited; they wanted to call the shots, see their own as head of the country and getting rid of the system that seemed to favour the light-skinned people.

At school, many who looked like me believed that the deck was stacked against them. They had to be the best students if they were to survive.

So it was that when Independence Day approached the air was full of excitement. The decorations went up and the entire place was transformed. Never had Guyana seen so many red, green and yellow flags. The Queen had come and gone.

I remember the BGCC ground. There was a fair there and all of Guyana seemed to descend on that ground. For those who may be wondering where I am talking about, it was the ground east of the Queen’s College ground. It was later used as a solid waste disposal site because the plan was to develop an athletic ground. It is still the most built-up location in that part of the city.

David Granger was a boy also, but he had gone to join the army having been a member of the Queen’s College Cadet Corps. I suppose he liked the idea of wearing big boots and marching. He was on the then Queen Elizabeth Park when the Golden Arrowhead went up. That place is now the National Park, the third name because it started off as the golf ground. People practiced archery there, way back then.

Today, fifty years later there is that excitement again. Once more David Granger would be in the thick of things. It is as if his life is centered on Guyana’s independence. There would be steelband tramping on the streets of Georgetown, because steelbands are as popular as they were back then. In fact, many things have changed.

I remember that fifty years ago there were not so many tall concrete buildings. In fact I can’t remember any. Houses did not have grills across doors and windows, and people walked instead of taking taxis to where they wanted to go. There were no more than two taxi services back then. Bicycles were ubiquitous; everyone had one because that was the most convenient means of going places.

Fifty years ago Roger Luncheon, Deryck Harris, Leyland Grant, Leon Clarke and so many others would jump on their bicycles and ride from Georgetown to my home in Beterverwagting.  George McDonald was a chubby lad who lived at Hague and who never touched alcohol. Gunmen were unheard of.

Today David Granger has his hands full dealing with what seems to be a burgeoning crime wave. A few months ago, I suggested to Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud that whenever a big event comes around, there is escalating crime. The view is that the young men want money so that they could be in the thick of things. They want their girls to look special; bottom line, they want to be the centre of attention.

The other night gunmen invaded the Ramada Princess casino. This was one of the places where no one expected a robbery. It just goes to show that nowhere is sacrosanct. That the police have been able to make an arrest is testimony to the level of security that exists at this time.

I saw some videos of that robbery and I saw people who were so shell-shocked that they have vowed to stop gambling. The bandits did what no priest or pastor could have done under normal circumstances.

Then I learnt of another gunpoint robbery, this time on Regent Street, even when the streets were full of people.

Fifty years ago there were not so many Guyanese living overseas; there was no big preparation for this anticipated influx. And what people like me remember was the absence of electricity five miles outside Georgetown.

So we are more developed than we were fifty years ago, but nowhere near where Singapore is, although we started off almost at the same time. It must be that with development comes violent crime. And there is growing illiteracy.

Fifty years later we have lost the art of teaching; we have lost self-pride because we are only concentrating on the pay we get. Back then teachers were not only people who stood before the class, they were the disciplinarians. There was a focus on industrial arts for those who were not academically inclined. The result was that we had contractors and builders who produced excellent work.

We have no shortage of food, because our farmers are the best in the region. Instead of sardines and potatoes on the table this time around for the holidays there will be a host of foods grown right here. But there are going to be the nervous moments because of the crime. I expect to see even more gunmen parading in the run-up to the independence jubilee, but this is one thing that I would not be disappointed to see a reversal.