Christmas arrived in Guyana yesterday and would probably penetrate and sustain the true spirit of Guyanese for the next week or so. And people all over the world would partake in this holiday tradition that transcends all ethnic and religious dimensions. For me, Christmas brings to the fore the fundamental values of unconditional love, sharing, humility, and forgiveness, a time, too, when acrimony and unnecessary nastiness take a back seat.

Many religions, however, espouse similar values, and this similarity is a good in itself; for it is this sharing of similar fundamental values that creates this ‘oneness’ in Guyana at Christmas time, and also on the occasions of Phagwah,Deepavali, and Eid-ul-Fitr, inter alia.

I suspect the world would be a better place if people can live the true spirit of these fundamental values throughout their lives. It may seem that being able to share, be humble, show appreciation and love, and use the power of forgiveness could only affix the personality of a ‘goody two shoes’, and that apparently, everyone should be good and not fight for their rights and justice, etc.; not so, for the essence and spirit of sharing, humility, and forgiveness are the products of some form of behavioural change; all phenomena change, sometimes from something good to something evil and vice versa, and there are even intermediary dimensions in behavioural change.

And no change can come without conflict; conflict is necessary and inevitable. Nonetheless, we must have the capacity to manage the conflict, as there could be both desirable and undesirable conflict. And it is left to these fundamental values to guide conflict management. Unmanaged conflict produces all sorts of undesirable consequences. In this country, we could think of racial, political, and journalistic excesses. At least, in Guyana, we have our Christmas, Phagwah, Deepavali, Eid-ul-Fitr seasons to thwart undesirable impacts.

Without the application of these fundamental values, unfairness and injustice would run riot. For instance, look at the way the mass media describe floods in Guyana, it is as if floods should not happen. Well, I think it is an example of the excesses I speak about, excesses in terms of the intentions and the negative behaviours that they seek to trigger. Floods will continue to happen inspite of solid drainage systems in place because all phenomena are dynamic, not static, therefore, what may work well today with given technology, may not work well at another time because of changes in environmental conditions. I believe we all know something about climate change repercussions. For these reasons, the ‘excesses’ crowd should constantly review their excesses because while these excesses promote this crowd’s self-interest, such self-interest hurts an entire nation.

On this Christmas Eve, as I write this short piece, over the last week residents in Highland, California have had to bear sufferings from floods, mudslides, and evacuations from the blitz of rains. Many may be unable to spend Christmas at home. Some may posit how come the U.S., a highly technological society in the post-information era with enormous resources at its disposal, could not have prevented this flooding and destruction? In fact, in the U.S., floods were the top natural disaster in terms of people killed and extent of property damaged for the 20th century, encompassing 32 floods; in July this year, the Rio Grande region in Texas endured considerable flooding due to rains, and swelling rivers; there were also the Tennessee floods in May 2010, with many people losing their lives and with extensive property damage. And there were many other floods and man-made disasters I could mention, but I will leave these for another day.

Let the architects of racial, political, and journalistic excesses in Guyana take stock of their excesses, and bring the true spirit of this season for now and perhaps for a long time to come into their daily repertoire. In this way with some behavioural change on their part, they may be able to make a sustained contribution to nationhood.

Happy Holidays!!