APART from the fact that the temperament of a community is governed by the elements of its machismo and threats to its values (which often include unapproved intrusions towards its treasured womanhood, and norms that include challenges to its manhood), there are other factors that preside over communities that impose stereotypes, and fix conclusions on the nature of its people, providing certain expectations of criminal badness. Forty years ago, in Georgetown, it was ‘Federation Yard’ on Regent Street; ‘Tiger Bay’ just off Main Street; ‘Berlin’, as parts of Charlestown were called; or ‘Warlock’ which, to this day, is still a troublesome part of East Ruimveldt. And there is one profile that connects these areas: Overcrowding and joblessness.
Every nation and continent has faced the reality of human groups being forced on the fringes of its own society into hopelessness, then evolving into a sub-culture of hostile survival towards what it defines as discrimination along race, religious and class lines.
‘YARD-FOWL’ VS ‘BOURGEOIS’
But the strong undercurrent that drives its creed, aware or not, flow along economic lines, commanding such slogans as “dem people”, or, to use another very local, more definite colloquial expression, “De Bourgeois and De Yard Fowl”.
Both social areas, however, are intertwined, as, because of the mystery of genes, the definition of ‘De Yard Fowl’ is deceptive, and can be imposed on energetic creativity struggling to rid itself from impeding circumstances and bourgeoisie blockages that emerge from pretentions without substance.
The Guyanese poet, Walter Mac Lawrence of the 1930s expressed this social ill in his time, as narrated by P.H. Daly, in his booklet, ‘Revolution to Republic’:
“Show you how to make a living,
On the minimum of work
And the maximum of bluff and make –belief,
On your father’s reputation,
And the fat of social ties.
While the law of compensation
Shouts… a thief!”
That cultural ill has morphed today; it persists through intellectual dishonesty in the form of “Give me your ideas, but stay off my committee.”
I cannot, however, resist recognising here that in P.H.Daly’s book (and he’s family), I couldn’t find in the credits the name of the artist who had executed the many illustrations.
SENSITIVE MEDICATION
The anxieties of a society require sensitive medication and management. To ease overcrowding requires tremendous national finances to create housing schemes; finances I’m not sure are available. But whether now or tomorrow, it has to be done. Whichever comes before, whether the factory or the village, is up to the side of the urgency that tips the balance.
When these schemes do come to be, I would suggest that they do not carry the impediment of former schemes of squeaky, unpaved roads, which leave pedestrians with muddy, grass-covered gutter edges to stumble along on.
The problem with fallen communities is to educate and enlighten at the same time, because these gifts often don’t manifest in the same package, but are crucial in the nation-building consciousness.
One such current relevant example is the simplistic and embarrassing analysis given by world-renowned American surgeon, Dr Ben Carson, a Republican candidate at the time, about the Holocaust. “They [the Jews] didn’t have guns in Germany,” he said. “That’s why they were mercilessly slaughtered.” Great surgeon! But pitifully unenlightened on any working awareness of this historical period that he chose to use as his reference, to support his pro-gun lobby!
One cannot know everything, but academic success can delude an unenlightened mind into springing into unchartered waters; thus the balance has to be culturally cultivated to avoid references such as the one given by Dr Carson.
CRIMINALISED CULTURE
Guyanese below the age of 30 have been enveloped by a criminalised culture of narco-trade and hitmen; easy material gains such as motor vehicles, fancy clothes and expensive liquor (which that government now in the opposition still erroneously refer to as progress) have retrogressed our values by decades. Most citizens have witnessed this, and knew some characters who have participated or died in that anything-goes lawless period that the past administration had condoned.
Thus, the curbing of some criminal practices by an obviously more effective police force will send positive counter-messages, but with the easy availability of weapons, not many job offers, and small business overview entities undermanned and unable to impact on communities with a new survival philosophy, the task of enacting change has only just begun.
But how would such communities react should they see a 9pm one-hour drama on NCN, based on scenarios they understand, showcasing and highlighting checks and balances that they could relate to? Propaganda, edutainment, and life dramas don’t have to lie to inspire change; the references are there. But once achieved, remove themselves, then the inspiration is overshadowed, and the candle smothered by the self-censoring force of “Banna, we’s this, we don’t do that.”
I can recall a young Greaves in the ‘Scheme Yard’ in the early 80s, with his glasses, talking to me and Andy Anderson, in a soft voice so his friends couldn’t hear him, telling us how he liked Jazz and Concert Music, something the other youths in his environment saw as strange and bourgeois. And we put his young mind to rest, saying, “They say that, because they don’t know or understand it.”
The fact is that limitations are cultural; money does not enlighten. Nor does certification.
‘De Yard Fowl’, Ben Carson, gets money: He buys a house, a shiny ‘4×4’, lots of CDs and DVDs, but needs guidance that his children need to read, and what books to buy, and how to remake their future sensibly, away from his nightmares.
That imaginary show I’m talking about might be the candle that lights that way, possibly for both Ben Carsons.