The Coil: Cloudy Water and Sweet Tangerines

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

Market vendor said tangerine coming back –  is 5 for $200, nice small sweet ones and I know I remember when I was getting 10 and 12 for $100.. way back in the past , but things are never the same. But a small soda in the nice new cinema is $250  and one scoop of foreign ice cream is $200 so why not 5 tangerines.

The sweet tangerines purchase was a nice Made in Guyana thing in a week of fear of floods and celebration that some places did not flood while mourning that places which never flooded, flood for the first time.

Week started with Made in Guyana dark red water coming through the tap. This is not a PNC thing, it is not the fault of  Comrade Baby Doc Van West Charles since in the PPP days too, there were days that the water would be clear and the water would be dark and then of course there are many, many days when the water was cloudy as a kind of half way from red to clear.  Cloudy water as a sign of hope.

One of my favourite shirts is now dinged red.  I will wear as a badge of my faith in Guyana in fact, to the most formal functions to show that no matter who says what, this shirt was washed in Guyana Water Inc water.

I mean, the water was coming full flow and I have privilege and I know that in Guyana there is disparity in access to fast flowing water as there is in wealth. So survival in Guyana means gratitude for the sweet tangerines and the fast flowing cloudy water which might clear up.

Sweet tangerines is the young man playing the piano, and then going on to do an excellent presentation on his GIS (Geographic Information Systems) project. There were other excellent presentations about ideas of Guyanese to solve problems. Cloudy water in the realisation that  twenty years ago Guyana was ahead of the Caribbean in GIS and now.. well.. there is still no widespread uptake in the public sector.  Perhaps, there are those who prefer to have the problems unsolvable and keep the water red, but fast flowing.

Young people who giggled when I told them I am a black lesbian and  asked why, and then – sweet tangerines, actually copied down the name  “Audre Lorde” – she wrote that ‘your silence will not protect you‘ .  Cloudy water though that there were divisions between the young people that had nothing to do with PNC/PPP but with perceptions in ability and knowledge and class.

The silence thing – thinking about the  wisdom to stay silent about Minister of State (some cynics say, de real President) Joe Harmon’s apology for his no apologies remark about the Government’s salary increase.

He made this announcement in a press briefing and he, the Minister of State apologised to people who were  offended – “except the PPP because they did not deserve it”.

The 202,694 who voted for slap-and-strip-apology-without-apology bheri’s and his women and his men are governed by Minister Harmon, but maybe it will take time for Minister Harmon to accept that reality,  like the reduction in the income from the move to public sector.

The Minister of State in the post-Cabinet briefing where he excluded the PPP from the people of Guyana who were deserving of his apology also said that there were doors open for Unity talks with the PPP.

Sweet tangerines for some though, would be in the news that the PPP/C MPs will be refusing their increases in  salary by optionally putting them into a  PPP bank account . The PPP as one of the taxpayer charities.

Sweet tangerines for others would be that  Minister Harmon has  started to donate his salary to community projects of his choice. Like road lights in Pouderoyen. Maybe the PPP salary increase will sort out the road lights in Bath.

These political apologies over the last year might have been like sweet tangerines for the many people who would have said “Yes. He big, he apologise”  But .. like fast flowing red muddy water..  Courtney Crum Ewing was killed even though Tagman Inc helped share Anil Nandlall’s statement to his staff which was supposed to be an apology.

This year, slap and strip bheri also issued an  apology which he later overturned, and then Donald Ramotar apologised for pardoning convicted child killer Ravindra Deo just before the 2015 elections. No talk about how this issue will be repaired.

But the most recent Member of Parliament to be affected by the same feelings as slap-and-strip-bheri   has refused to apologise even though women and men have asked him to.

Many survivors of domestic violence know the apologies of men who inherently have contempt for women usually mean nothing. And perhaps some Members of Parliament do take their oaths seriously  and have no intention of being hypocrites. Like slap-and-strip-apology-without-apology bheri, they are confident that nothing will happen to them.

So silence rather than make an apology which does not show contrition and which offers no scope for redemption and restoration of relationships with those who have been affected by the actions and comments.

Many people face danger by not being silent.

Saudi Arabia has jailed and beaten blogger Raif Badawi.  Saudi Arabia recently hosted President Granger as part of Guyana’s intention “to deepen relationships with Arab states” and  possibly looking for oil.

Some  people see great potential and think that it is wonderful for Guyana to access the Saudi oil and money. Guyana, under the PPP, became part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).  The OIC has developed its own Human Rights in Islam guidelines which states among other things that “

Life is a God-given gift and the right to life is guaranteed to every human being. It is the duty of individuals, societies and states to protect this right from any violation, and it is prohibited to take away life except for a Shari’ah prescribed reason.”

In other words, it seems that in our search for oil and money, we might have to be governed by Shari’ah?

There is no doubt that there are many interpretations of Shari’ah – Daesh/ISIS uses a version too .
Saudi Arabia is described by a writer in the New York Times, as ‘an ISIS that has made it’ .

Does Guyana have any interest in how our oil suppliers beat citizens who write blogs?

Guyana had condemned apartheid in South Africa and supported the ANC in opposition. We have a history of condemning human rights abuses in sovereign countries.
President Granger has not generated any calls for apologies or any of the critical attention like some of his colleagues.

At a Tree lighting ceremony, the President called for peace, love and charity this Christmas. It would be nice if the President could negotiate a demonstration of peace and love by the Saudis in their treatment of Raif Badawi.

One could eat sweet tangerines, and imagine that somebody else from the Government, maybe Minister Harmon himself crafting his apology in this way

“The Cabinet has noted the objections of the public – supporters and opposition alike – to the salary increases, and to the reasons given. Minister Harmon’s ‘no apologies’ comment which was intended for the PPP has been received by the full public and the APNU/AFC Government understands that they have to govern all the people.

We apologise to all those who have been offended by our actions and explanations.

We recognise that now is not the time to go for salary increases, even if we have pet projects to donate the money to.

We will therefore be removing the salary increase with immediate effect and will keep the increases in line with the public service increases. We will further ensure that our Cabinet colleagues have training in understanding that democratic governance when you in Government is not cussing out the opposition, no matter how difficult it will seem to do.”

Peace, love and charity should not be seasonal like sweet tangerines ,  we need them like fast flowing  water, clean water,  for Christmas and always.