If nothing else, Guyanese can’t complain about their spiritual needs being unaddressed –- especially right now! Hindus kicked off their “Nau Ratri” – nine nights of worshipping the Divine as “Mother” in nine incarnations. Christians followed with their 40 days of observing Lent in which they’re exhorted to remember the execution of Jesus and his resurrection at Easter. And finally, Muslims have started their month-long fast of Ramadan that’ll end in the festival of Eid ul Fitr.
If everybody observes their religion, your Eyewitness supposes we should see a lowering of the crime, mayhem and angry politics that have now become the norm in our once-fair land. Sadly, he’s gone back to the news reports for the same period from some previous years and doesn’t have much hope of this crime lowering. So, either the criminals aren’t God-fearing or they believe all will be forgiven eventually! They obviously didn’t accompany your Eyewitness to his place of worship where he was assured that whatever he sowed, he’ll certainly reap. With interest!!
But with all this religion in the air, your Eyewitness wondered as to what role it was playing in Europe where Russia had invaded Ukraine and we were just shown some graphic pics of bodies strewn in the streets of a town outside Kyiv – from which the Ruskies have just retreated. Now, your Eyewitness knows he’s gonna be bombarded with all sorts of propaganda from the West ‘cause that’s where he lives. The Russians would be streaming their version of how the war’s going to their people and allies.
But no matter how we slice it, dice it or even purée it, these horrible actions are inevitable once war breaks out between countries. Never mind, all religions have their version of what makes a “just war” that’s…well…justified. There ain’t no saints in war and war is hell. In terms of brutality and inhumanity, the Ukrainians have their Azov battalions who’ve vowed not to observe any Geneva Conventions when it comes to the Russians. They’re the ones the Russians have justified their invasion by pointing out they call themselves “nazis”.
For our politics in Guyana, the lesson is we should beware of those pushing confrontation as the way to break a political logjam of their own creation. We had an election that the PNC tried a “ting” … to rig in front of the world. It failed. Bellicosity and playing “wrong and strong” ain’t the answer. In democracies, elections have been accepted across the world as the means of settling political disputes. An election’s coming up in three years.
Shouldn’t all parties be wooing constituencies across their divides to win fair and square? Rather than calling for “war break”?
…but first, off the ships
We all know that prices of the items in our shopping baskets have skyrocketed. We’re hearing it’s because of the war in the Ukraine. But hold it…our goods don’t come from Ukraine! At least not much. But this price rise started long before with the COVID lockdowns and the war simply multiplied whatever was going on. Which is – a phrase we might’ve all heard by now – breakdowns in the “supply chain”.
Over the last four decades that process called “globalisation” has been accelerating at breakneck speed and the “global village” isn’t a metaphor anymore. It’s the real thing. Every country is connected through specialisation of production and trade. But we’re not just trading commodities or manufactured goods – components of these goods now have to reach factories on the other side of the world!
In this “supply chain”, we’ve discovered that container ships are the weak links in getting stuff from country A to country B.
Leading to shortages – and price rises!! Any comfort?
…to normalcy?
We’re finally coming out of this two-year plus lockdown? Your Eyewitness used to read about “cabin fever” in northern winters when the enforced lockdown – for a few months – led to mental explosions.
We haven’t done too badly, have we?
