Pandemic – a year later
Kaieteur News – For one long year, the work has been hard and heavy, sometimes unbearably difficult for many Guyanese. Many times, for many more Guyanese, it must have felt like going down the hill, and having nothing to hope for, with no end in sight. Here are some of the realities that were part of the coronary virus pandemic that suffered a year, a year later.
To be out of work, due to controls in place and the closed doors of many places of employment, was the appalling number of Guyanese employees. The businesses, large and small, and mom and pop, who are part of the cottage industry, all suffered from forced shutdowns or a steep drop in business demand. Citizens didn’t win, which meant they had no spending money, not even for the basics. Those who depended on a constant helping hand from abroad found themselves empty-handed, as those generous friends and family connections themselves were under siege, and in many cases without. It was part of the heartbreaking picture and circumstances of many Guyanese struggling to have ends that were far apart and resistant to meeting, to put food on the table, to buy recommended nutritional ingredients (vitamins and citrus products , etc.) to strengthen against them. the brutal pandemic attacks.
Although the fears came and intensified, especially from a lack of knowledge, and a related lack of confidence, Guyanese dug deep and for the most part managed to survive. They did this through a brutal and depressing election season that looked like it would never end, with a postwar situation, and raging and growing passions. And, of course, it is the now-infamous national prejudices that are ruining this society.
Those who didn’t have enough bread managed to pass on some water to carry them somehow into the next day. Those who found themselves for much of the long month without so much as traces of malleable sustenance managed to find the spirit within to flow with whatever came, and rise above the dangerous tide. Once again, the innumerable citizens of this country demonstrated a keen sense of survival. It was when the chips went down, or when they were not around, and the going was hardest, that our fellow citizens rose to the occasion. They survived.
Guyanese showed remarkable resilience and spoke to those elements that are such an indivisible segment of the individual and national character. When there was nothing, they found something. When there was no leadership, they pulled themselves up by the bootstrap, and walked like the men and women they can be. They have done so before under various leaders (who lost sight of what selfless leadership is supposed to mean); under different, but always, demanding economic conditions (that knocked the stuff out of them); and in previous serious circumstances (when there was only darkness, even at that most favorable hour immediately after dawn). Panic attacks and COVID-19 batteries left Guyanese wounded, and from there can be no doubt. But it also showed them, and the world, that they will not be beaten to the ground. Not from a powerhouse pandemic that will not disappear, not from wretched political leaders who always seem to be here, and not from the curses that come from both because of the oil that makes men go crazy with greed and total senselessness.
There has been some relief, thanks to more facilities, more scope for government action, some new government thinking, and some blessings from above. We have not been spared, but we have not been punished into a pulp. We stand upright on our own two feet, looking ahead, planning to move forward in the midst of more threatening waves and scary variations. But going forward we have to, as there is no other option. To be willing to stand still is to invite the worst weaknesses, the most powerful failures, personally and nationally.
We can do more, and government can do more. And we must press ourselves and the government to meet the crunch. This is the big test as we enter the second year of these most stubborn viruses. The biggest tests are still around and on, and they will test to find out what we are doing, how we will be. We have to be sensible, if we are going to be strong. We must be wise, if we are to have a chance to overcome. And we have to be prudent, if we are to get the best out of ourselves, and those in government who lead us somewhere, hop on and up .