The past week saw two significant anniversaries
February 26, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, My Column
Source - Kaieteur News
The past week marked the anniversary of some events that many simply ignored. There were those who were unaware of these things because they were not yet born and because their parents could not take the time to inform them of significant parts of their history.
One of the anniversaries was marked on February 16. Way back in 1962, Cheddi Jagan was the Premier and the population was restive. There is the belief that the international community, which had a dread of communism, did not want Dr Jagan to lead any country in this corner of the world. There was already Cuba which sat on the doorsteps of the United States.
Just a few months earlier there was the Bay of Pigs incident. Scores of Cuban exiles, with support from the United States, opted to invade the country. The bloodshed was horrendous. Needless to say, the invasion failed.
In Guyana, February 16 was the infamous Black Friday, because in 1962, that date was a Friday. The waterfront workers and the people who worked at the bottom of the social ladder were complaining about their pay. They took to the streets in protest. The police were called out and the tension rose.
Eventually tear smoke was used and the rumour flew that the tear smoke had killed a baby. That rumour was all that was needed to fan the flames of the riot that followed. Parts of Georgetown still bear the scars of February 16, 1962.
Buildings went up in flames and many storefronts were shattered. People looted. The newspapers that followed showed people with huge fridges on their heads running through the streets of Georgetown. People removed just about anything they could lay their hands on.
This year, on the anniversary, again the target was the government; again the issue was money, but not money for wages and salaries. This time it was about money spent from the national budget. The opposition parties contended that the spending was unauthorized and that they could not approve some of them.
The government insisted that it had a right to make the spending in those controversial areas. For such a confrontation to occur on the fiftieth anniversary of an event that scarred Guyana made me think that the person who said that lightning does not strike twice in the same place was not really talking about Guyana.
The government later took to the airwaves to explain its actions. And, as could be expected, it accused the opposition with its parliamentary majority of stymieing development. The truth is that the government had grown accustomed to its way of spending money as it saw fit. There was no one who could do anything.
There were the successive Auditor General reports that contained criticisms of these spending, but what the heck?
The issue is far from over. The parliament will be convened again next month and the issue will be revisited. My view is that one should always observe correct attitudes, regardless of whether one has power to do as one pleases.
One thing that emerged was the arrogance of some people on the government side. This arrogance cost the government crucial votes when it was time to vote on some of the issues. People can be unforgiving in the face of arrogance and disrespect.
The other anniversary that passed this week was the tenth anniversary of the prison break that spawned a six-year crime wave that was unprecedented in the history of Guyana. Suffice it to say that the February 16, 1962 event also spawned unprecedented violence in the country.
The following year there was the famous 63-day strike. People died. Ethnic groups went after the other and spawned the kind of racial segregation that one sees today. Black people who lived in predominantly East Indian communities moved out to live among their own.
East Indians who lived in predominantly Black communities did the same. Battle lines were drawn.
Needless to say, people on both sides of the ethnic divide moved to save their neighbours. Some hid people in their homes. Those were dark days. Even more people were killed in 1964 when the strike lasted for some 135 days and soup kitchens became the order of the day.
But back to the jailbreak. Five notorious criminals escaped on Mash Day 2002 and sparked a situation that saw policemen being afraid to wear their uniforms. One policeman doing traffic duties in the city was shot and killed where he worked.
For every action there is a reaction; others armed themselves and bodies fell like raindrops. Many innocent people are not around today because criminals operated with merry abandon. It took the involvement of the army, and the operations of some others who had an interest to protect, to eventually bring the situation under control.
All five escapees died violently, the last one being shot and killed after a robbery on Regent Street. The others who joined them are almost all dead. Buxton, the village in which they holed out, got a reputation that even now sees people being scared to enter the village.
This was a crime wave that spread across the entire country. The criminals had AK-47s and people in the Guyana Defence Force helped them by stealing weapons from the army. A Minister of Government died in a hail of bullets, the first time such a thing ever happened in Guyana because whatever happened, people still had some fear and respect for officialdom.
On the tenth anniversary of the jailbreak, we partied and we compared the day to others; we compared the floats and we compared the crowds that lined the Mash route. Nobody seemed to remember what happened ten years earlier.
I lost a cell phone on February 23, 2002, and got it back from a woman in Charlestown. It cost me a small fee. I worked that day when one prison officer was shot dead on his job and another incapacitated for life. I also worked this year but there was not even a line in the press to recall the memory of that infamous jailbreak, facilitated by prison officers, some of whom may still be on the job. They smuggled the gun into the prison.
Indeed we do have short memories.
February 26, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, My Column
Source - Kaieteur News
The past week marked the anniversary of some events that many simply ignored. There were those who were unaware of these things because they were not yet born and because their parents could not take the time to inform them of significant parts of their history.
One of the anniversaries was marked on February 16. Way back in 1962, Cheddi Jagan was the Premier and the population was restive. There is the belief that the international community, which had a dread of communism, did not want Dr Jagan to lead any country in this corner of the world. There was already Cuba which sat on the doorsteps of the United States.
Just a few months earlier there was the Bay of Pigs incident. Scores of Cuban exiles, with support from the United States, opted to invade the country. The bloodshed was horrendous. Needless to say, the invasion failed.
In Guyana, February 16 was the infamous Black Friday, because in 1962, that date was a Friday. The waterfront workers and the people who worked at the bottom of the social ladder were complaining about their pay. They took to the streets in protest. The police were called out and the tension rose.
Eventually tear smoke was used and the rumour flew that the tear smoke had killed a baby. That rumour was all that was needed to fan the flames of the riot that followed. Parts of Georgetown still bear the scars of February 16, 1962.
Buildings went up in flames and many storefronts were shattered. People looted. The newspapers that followed showed people with huge fridges on their heads running through the streets of Georgetown. People removed just about anything they could lay their hands on.
This year, on the anniversary, again the target was the government; again the issue was money, but not money for wages and salaries. This time it was about money spent from the national budget. The opposition parties contended that the spending was unauthorized and that they could not approve some of them.
The government insisted that it had a right to make the spending in those controversial areas. For such a confrontation to occur on the fiftieth anniversary of an event that scarred Guyana made me think that the person who said that lightning does not strike twice in the same place was not really talking about Guyana.
The government later took to the airwaves to explain its actions. And, as could be expected, it accused the opposition with its parliamentary majority of stymieing development. The truth is that the government had grown accustomed to its way of spending money as it saw fit. There was no one who could do anything.
There were the successive Auditor General reports that contained criticisms of these spending, but what the heck?
The issue is far from over. The parliament will be convened again next month and the issue will be revisited. My view is that one should always observe correct attitudes, regardless of whether one has power to do as one pleases.
One thing that emerged was the arrogance of some people on the government side. This arrogance cost the government crucial votes when it was time to vote on some of the issues. People can be unforgiving in the face of arrogance and disrespect.
The other anniversary that passed this week was the tenth anniversary of the prison break that spawned a six-year crime wave that was unprecedented in the history of Guyana. Suffice it to say that the February 16, 1962 event also spawned unprecedented violence in the country.
The following year there was the famous 63-day strike. People died. Ethnic groups went after the other and spawned the kind of racial segregation that one sees today. Black people who lived in predominantly East Indian communities moved out to live among their own.
East Indians who lived in predominantly Black communities did the same. Battle lines were drawn.
Needless to say, people on both sides of the ethnic divide moved to save their neighbours. Some hid people in their homes. Those were dark days. Even more people were killed in 1964 when the strike lasted for some 135 days and soup kitchens became the order of the day.
But back to the jailbreak. Five notorious criminals escaped on Mash Day 2002 and sparked a situation that saw policemen being afraid to wear their uniforms. One policeman doing traffic duties in the city was shot and killed where he worked.
For every action there is a reaction; others armed themselves and bodies fell like raindrops. Many innocent people are not around today because criminals operated with merry abandon. It took the involvement of the army, and the operations of some others who had an interest to protect, to eventually bring the situation under control.
All five escapees died violently, the last one being shot and killed after a robbery on Regent Street. The others who joined them are almost all dead. Buxton, the village in which they holed out, got a reputation that even now sees people being scared to enter the village.
This was a crime wave that spread across the entire country. The criminals had AK-47s and people in the Guyana Defence Force helped them by stealing weapons from the army. A Minister of Government died in a hail of bullets, the first time such a thing ever happened in Guyana because whatever happened, people still had some fear and respect for officialdom.
On the tenth anniversary of the jailbreak, we partied and we compared the day to others; we compared the floats and we compared the crowds that lined the Mash route. Nobody seemed to remember what happened ten years earlier.
I lost a cell phone on February 23, 2002, and got it back from a woman in Charlestown. It cost me a small fee. I worked that day when one prison officer was shot dead on his job and another incapacitated for life. I also worked this year but there was not even a line in the press to recall the memory of that infamous jailbreak, facilitated by prison officers, some of whom may still be on the job. They smuggled the gun into the prison.
Indeed we do have short memories.
