Professor Daizal Samad

Grand statements and grand claims

THE people who read well — people like Ian MacDonald — would have noticed that many of our columnists and such always begin their pieces with grand statements and even grander claims. My experience in too many countries to count is that this is an almost across-the-board under-graduate habit.

It is okay, one supposes, to babble things such as “Guyana is the most stupid country on Planet Earth” or “Guyanese are the most foolish, idiotic, shameful, despicable people on Planet Earth”, but those things are good only to babble in rum shops. For one thing, those grand things are said by people who have very little idea of the big world spinning out there. That, too, is okay, since one can often just put those writings in the garbage.

I met a rather nice fellow, some time ago, who actually went to AFRICA! Actually, he had gone to the outskirts of Lagos in Nigeria. He had also lived in AMERICA for a while. Actually, it was Queens. So he had actually travelled to three places, including Guyana. But then he talked with such authority about Africa — that big, diverse, complex continent in which I lived for six years (please notice that there are no redundant adjectives).

He said things like this: “Everywhere in Africa you see palaces!” and “Everyone is RICH!” Then he proceeded to let me know, in the Queens accent, that the Guyana Police Force must be trained in “stuff.” Goodness knows what “stuff” means, like “issues”. That, too, is okay, as if our good policemen and policewomen simply jump into uniforms as if by magic.

At the December 16 ceremony that honoured the fine achievements of some of our cops, the training shone through. Service above and beyond, and I take this opportunity to congratulate them all, especially Shiv Bacchus, Best Cop; but many others too, for the naming of whom there is no space here.

What bothers me about these grand statements and even grander claims is that, when they are written, they are downright embarrassing: the wild claims; the exaggerations; the gossip that passes for analysis; the awful language; the self-serving egos; the narcissism; the complete ignoring of any kind of objectivity, and balance and coherence; the base ordinariness of all of which a first-semester student would blush at.

The lack of honour bothers even more, since a single incident (always personal, of course!) is an excuse to insult everyone and the nation itself.

The Minister of Public Security is intolerant of crooked cops, for instance. So is the Chief of Staff of the GDF and Commissioner of the GPF. I am optimistic that they will act against all in the joint services who dishonour the respective uniforms. One of the justifications for this optimism is the fact that the intelligent and intellectually adroit cops are being advanced in very speedy ways. Advancement is now performance-based.

There is a tangible sense of the GPF being much more active against crime of all sorts in Berbice, and we ought to say a simple thank you to the conscientious ones out there. We ought, also, to try to redeem those that are bribe-takers, mischief-makers, bullies; the crude and rude. The new GPF will help to change them, but they need to want to change.
Genuine change does not come from outside-in; it comes from inside-out.