Bobby's flag pole 5 and 51 and 258 years after in Guyana

 "It ain't deh deh no mo'' the young woman told me as she collected the tattered hundred dollars from me. She was barefoot. Walking between the cars at the traffic light near to the monument to the 1763 rebellion and to the Office of the President and to the giant flag pole in the Durban Park Stadium.

I had asked her about the huge flag which had generated a lot of excitement in 2016. She was walking between the cars at the traffic light with two young men who were selling water, another young man who was selling car accessories, and another young man on crutches who was also asking for money.

Not far away, people were cleaning the parapet and wrapping cloth around trees to celebrate the 51st Republic Day.

I should have asked the barefoot young woman, the young man on crutches and the three young men moving between the cars at the traffic light what they thought of Guyana the Republic at 51 and the 258 years of the Cuffy Rebellion.  Walk between the cars with them.

Descendants of enslaved Africans, Indigenous people, indentured labourers from India and Spanish invaders in sight of the monument to the 1763 rebellion and the giant flagpole.  

2016 and Francis Bailey had shared around an idea for the transformation of the bush into a green space at Durban Park which was rejected by the patriots in Power in favour of concrete tarmac and wooden stands for national events like raising giant flags to celebrate unity because the existing spaces for large events were too small.  2016 was like that, that people hoped that change would be in the air after the PPP of 2014 turned out to be a huge disappointment to many who supported the PPP in 1992.

A woman told me that she felt in 2016 how she felt in 1993, that she could get on with developing Guyana, learning from past mistakes, help to create strong institutions.  Giant flags and all.  

The PNC led Government like the PPP led Government disappointed sections of the population.

Patriots were trying to rig the elections in 2020 and other patriots tried to stop the rigging. Covid came.

2021 is like the return to 2014, with oil and Covid now.

The giant flagpole without the giant flag is a kind of a monument to the death of the optimism of 2016, 1993, and 1763.

I should have asked the barefoot young woman, the young man on crutches and the three other young men who were walking between the cars at the traffic light near to the Office of the President what they wanted for themselves in Guyana.