Your Eyewitness’s heart goes out to the poor fella over in Hopetown who was doused with gasoline and set on fire by a fellow villager. And why was the attempted “death by fire” executed?? Simply because the 51-year-old had helped the Police move that car torched two weeks ago to the side of the public road, so that traffic could flow!! That’s right…for his “public-spiritedness” – as the Police called it – he’s now covered with God-knows-what “degree” of burns; but from the pic, it certainly looks VERY serious. And as we all know, it’s most painful, and will take months – if not years – to heal.
So, what are the good folks of Hopetown telling us?? Note, it was founded by freed Africans after emancipation – commemorated annually on the night of July 31 in a well-attended soiree!! So, these very close-knit folks are well-grounded in traditional African culture. And that’s why your Eyewitness was kinda taken aback at the violent incident. During the heyday of the ethnic riots of the sixties, and of the “troubles” centred in Buxton from 2002, incidents didn’t spread to West Berbice, in which Hopetown is located.
This is a rural, agriculturally-grounded village, where one would expect persons would hold on to the sober values that are inculcated by farming practices, which demonstrate that one must be patient and work towards desired outcomes. But all of that changed after the PNC politicised the terrible killings of the Henry boys at # 5 Village – some distance away from Hopetown – didn’t it?? Suddenly, folks were convinced by extremist rhetoric about their livelihood and their very existence being threatened by “the other”. And we had the tit-for-tat killings and riots along the West Berbice Road as far as Hopetown.
What we’re witnessing once again is that, when the genie of ethnic violence is released from the bottle, it ain’t gonna get back in on its own. Especially when we have these social media provocateurs stirring the pot of hate every day. With youngsters who haven’t experienced the futility of hate-generated violence against neighbours. So here we have a situation where a “youthman” – according to the daughter of the poor burn victim – took it upon himself to exact “vengeance” on the well-meaning older villager because he cleared the road!! He’d become a “traitor” in the eyes of many villagers who supported the vigilante actions.
So, as we saw in Buxton two decades ago, the hate merchants will pit villagers against villagers so that only their assessment of what needs to be done prevails. And what needs to be done is to declare war against even their “own” if they dare to think differently!!
No wonder the Buxton gangsters called themselves “Taliban”!!
…in Suriname
When Guyanese ever think about Suriname, we don’t think “violence”, do we?? In fact, our violent sixties convinced a quarter of their population to flee to Holland when independence was in sight – in the mid-seventies!! Most had thought that Holland’s billion-dollar handshake and their power-sharing political culture would’ve smoothed their transition – but it was not to be. One Sergeant Bouterse had a different idea, and seized power in a coup in the 80s. He summarily executed more than a dozen political opponents.
He remained the power behind the throne for a while, then took power on his own through democratic elections!! Even though by then he’d been convicted in absentia by Holland for drug smuggling!! He was finally ousted electorally in 2020 when, following Granger’s lead for a while, he stepped down in Opposition. But with his background and modus operandi, why doesn’t it surprise anyone that his supporters came out into the streets on Friday to attack Parliament??
And, not so coincidentally, loot some stores while they’re at it!!
…with school visits
After some school kids had visited that fella who owns a Lamborghini and Ferrari, the Chief Education Officer mandated that all visits must be vetted! Wouldn’t such visits inspire success in our capitalist oil economy??
