Disconnecting and connecting with the real majority in Guyana 2025

Disconnecting

Ishwar Singh killed Paula Abraham the day after news that 240,000 or so people voted back for the PPP/C. Ishwar Singh killed Paula Abraham the week after another man shot and killed his wife , and shot his son. In a year when the PPP/C Government had said they would 'reduce' the femicides to 10 , and we now at 21 , 240,000 people or so voted for progress to continue. Ishwar Singh and I have one thing in common, we were disconnected from the elections, could see no connection with those who voting and winning including those men who have abused women and children and the women who enable them.

Real Majority

"Good afternoon, checking to see you if you vote"  5pm or so Elections afternoon and a young black man and a young coolie man (yes, I use the word coolie to refer to those like me who are descended from indentured Immigrants from India as distinct from 'Indian' meaning those citizens of India who voted as 'Commonwealth'  ) at my gate, showing me their inked fingers

 'I don't vote' I told them instead of asking who they were or why they want to know. 'Arite'..

And as I play the numbers game and explain to a visitor, about 300,000 people did not vote.. and so it seems that the winners in this election really are those of us who did not want 'None of them' or choose to participate in this aspect of  democracy. Some people have religious reasons, others might be dead.

And as I then do the numbers game, to add people like me 'None of them' to the 195,000 or so who did not vote for the PPP/C and then I have this delusion that the real majority in this country are people who do not believe the PPP/C party should be in power.

Women leaders

Years ago, a woman who is still active in the PPP/C told me that she (and other women) are not concerned with gender equality. She had held a knife to tell her husband that she would kill him if he ever hit her (he also is a strong PPP/C man). Another PPP/C woman, younger than me , who has broken tradition by separating from a toxic marriage, still remains conflicted because she feels she has duties to the man. And other PPP/C women (and a few men) deny, or hide that Papa Prezzy and the other PPP/C men tolerate gender-based violence.. this year the party list includes the most candidates who have had allegations. One PPP/C man told me that 'I have nothing to do with .. ' the two rapists , one of whom lives in his community.

Something in 2025 elections  AFC, ALP, APNU, FGM and WIN have women as leading candidates. - two women presidential candidates - Simone Broomes, and Amanza Walton-Desir, and PM candidates Laura George, Juretha Fernandes, Tabitha Sarabo Halley.  The PPP/C had three men.

The last time PPP/C lost an election, they had Elizabeth Harper as their PM Candidate. (And the winning APNU/AFC coalition had two men)

Does the voting majority in Guyana not care, like the PPP/C woman who held a knife to her husband,  about women as leaders? 

Connecting

I am more afraid of what this victory of 'the people'  means as the rage and violence increases in Guyana and most of us are losing out.

A green space near me has been taken over for private interests to put up concrete and steel.  

Two men concerned about gender-based violence despair as they cannot find champions in the Government to collaborate with.

Irfaan Ali when launching his Men on Mission had hoped that men would be fixed, but billions of dollars later, another man who works with the PPP/C Government tells me 'this work has to be funded.. where can men go to get help." and when I tell him about Men on Mission, he does not reply.  

And the politicians in responding to the femicides shout 'seek help, seek help' and 'family is in crisis'

instead of 

'hey man, change, stop beating, abusing women and children, stop the violence' (apart from Robeson Benn who indirectly connected the masculinity of violence with the road accidents )

And so for those of us who have lost the elections, we could find ways to exploit and survive, pay the bribes, sit for hours, hope to have connections to get work and services, vent on Facebook , suppress our dissent , rage, kill , thief,  curse up those who 'did not vote as we did' , accept that we continue to lose out and there will be no winning really for the real majority in Guyana,

Or we could find ways to connect with each other, with the land , with ancestors, find spaces for healing (Thanks Lina Free), imagining and building healthy and nurturing communities, move from the violence of the victory; to real equality and mutual accountability. And hope that the 240,000 will also get the courage to do the same.