Looking for good news in Guyana
Some people have found it funny when the President accused the private media like Kaiteur News of giving Guyana a bad name because of the promotion of bad news. The Government is concerned that tourists and diaspora people have a bad impression of Guyana because
I think many Guyanese living here also have a bad impression of Guyana, though I am not sure how much reading the news in the President's favourite papers will change that. Many of the people who have left Guyana think those who stay are either crazy, or that they are martyrs or as some have told me, I am not good enough to make it 'over there'
So.. how do we survive in Guyana? How do we thrive in Guyana? How do we bury the bad news in the bottom pages of our minds and our lives and pretend that every time that the presidential promises and exhalations and flatulent outbursts will be the good news which will enable us to enjoy life here.
As I write this, I hear that a PPP MP thinks that Movado is good for Guyana. This is probably good news for some Guyanese, while for people like me who celerbated good news when the Government banned him last year, it is a celebration of the legacy of Cheddi Jagan that one PPP member will vest violence on Guyana when another tried to counter act it. I wonder how the PPP feel about violent lyrics and whether they sanction their members who promote violence in the country.
I have met through Couchsurfing many people who have come to Guyana because no one has as yet, and Guyana is the unknown destination, These people do not necessarily read newspapers and seek to make contact with local people. Vicky Baker wrote about this last year in the Guardian.
Like the President's online reading potential visitors, I am also bothered by the bad news and I want to go to places with good news. But it is difficult, unless i just attend the LCDs consultations around the place and then I will get the nice warm fuzzy feeling that something 'wonderful' will happen like after the Constitutional Reform and the National Development Strategy and the poverty reduction strategy.
The trick though, about living in Guyana is that because you are in no control of the newspapers, or the bad news . is that you have to make the good news for yourself. You have to find it, and think of it. So for every child rapist who is not punished, you have to think of the hundreds of fathers who are looking after their children as best as they could. You have to think when you hear that the PPP and PNC want to keep beating children in school, like slave days, of the many parents and teachers who are not beating their children and who are open to looking at our history of violence to children.
There are many people in this country who make good news... they try to help teach children to read, they try to resist the crime in their communities, there are young people who decide not to pick up guns no matter what. There are good people who look after other people without looking for returns, even as others will rob and kill. There are people who do not just accept the bad news, but are actively working to change things all the time.
There must be children learning to walk and talk, people doing things for the first time which they never did before so as to develop their potential, with or without anyone's help. This stuff rarely makes it to the news. But those of us, who live here out of choice.. we know it exists. Or else we would not be here.. and we are glad when people who are like us want to come and experience what we experience .. the anger and depression at the bad news and the joys at the good news which we make for ourselves..
I think many Guyanese living here also have a bad impression of Guyana, though I am not sure how much reading the news in the President's favourite papers will change that. Many of the people who have left Guyana think those who stay are either crazy, or that they are martyrs or as some have told me, I am not good enough to make it 'over there'
So.. how do we survive in Guyana? How do we thrive in Guyana? How do we bury the bad news in the bottom pages of our minds and our lives and pretend that every time that the presidential promises and exhalations and flatulent outbursts will be the good news which will enable us to enjoy life here.
As I write this, I hear that a PPP MP thinks that Movado is good for Guyana. This is probably good news for some Guyanese, while for people like me who celerbated good news when the Government banned him last year, it is a celebration of the legacy of Cheddi Jagan that one PPP member will vest violence on Guyana when another tried to counter act it. I wonder how the PPP feel about violent lyrics and whether they sanction their members who promote violence in the country.
I have met through Couchsurfing many people who have come to Guyana because no one has as yet, and Guyana is the unknown destination, These people do not necessarily read newspapers and seek to make contact with local people. Vicky Baker wrote about this last year in the Guardian.
Like the President's online reading potential visitors, I am also bothered by the bad news and I want to go to places with good news. But it is difficult, unless i just attend the LCDs consultations around the place and then I will get the nice warm fuzzy feeling that something 'wonderful' will happen like after the Constitutional Reform and the National Development Strategy and the poverty reduction strategy.
The trick though, about living in Guyana is that because you are in no control of the newspapers, or the bad news . is that you have to make the good news for yourself. You have to find it, and think of it. So for every child rapist who is not punished, you have to think of the hundreds of fathers who are looking after their children as best as they could. You have to think when you hear that the PPP and PNC want to keep beating children in school, like slave days, of the many parents and teachers who are not beating their children and who are open to looking at our history of violence to children.
There are many people in this country who make good news... they try to help teach children to read, they try to resist the crime in their communities, there are young people who decide not to pick up guns no matter what. There are good people who look after other people without looking for returns, even as others will rob and kill. There are people who do not just accept the bad news, but are actively working to change things all the time.
There must be children learning to walk and talk, people doing things for the first time which they never did before so as to develop their potential, with or without anyone's help. This stuff rarely makes it to the news. But those of us, who live here out of choice.. we know it exists. Or else we would not be here.. and we are glad when people who are like us want to come and experience what we experience .. the anger and depression at the bad news and the joys at the good news which we make for ourselves..
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