THE Mamluk (soldiers requited as young slaves) were an Islamic medieval sect; ’men of the sword’; they were warriors of another age when Napoleon arrived with his army to attack the then Muslim occupied Egypt in 1798, with an army equipped with the arms and proven techniques of the day, led by the incredible general Alexander Dumas.

Pound for pound the Mamluk were a far more superior type of soldier than the French men they faced, but they were fighting an age-old proven battle methods in a changed world and they lost. The Zulus were another ancient people that Shaka, their nation founder, had honed along improved methods, with traditional weapons, the later cost of defeating the English at Isandlwana, was by Zulu numbers of warriors lost unbalanced, though it was described as “magnificent in its conception and execution.” That fact is evident because the English were fighting with the most updated rifles and weaponry of the day with local allies who could not foresee that they were sealing their own fate that followed with the final defeat of the Zulus.

These examples are based on comfort zones that can be translated into our way of doing things in Guyana. We still believe that a great idea should be entertained, only if it is taken from the perceived common source and given to a certified friend to execute, who will most likely fail; because new ideas in most cases have no precedent templates until they are fulfilled, thus are viewed with scepticism and resentment that are justified eventually by personal irritation.

Isolationist thinking comes from group customs and practices that have become accepted and have created a comfort zone that resists adjustment. The root causes for the domino effect of the comfort zone are stress and depression to all who are in direct expectation of fruitful resolving of matters engaged; matters that involve the general public. In today’s world, our earning capacity is drowned by the things we have to pay for.

I am unaware of how many schools have in-house internet cafes because children need access to the net for assignment research. I lived this experience because I didn’t always have an in-house computer and printer that were connected to the internet. The journey to the Light or Cummings Street Cafe was costly because there were always printouts needed. Having a computer extended the expense to include protection equipment for GPL issues, software protection, paper and printer ink supplies. It’s all about where the world has taken us or unwillingly dragged us, but the biggest problem rests with what we get when we spend our dollars.

Lack of regulations for importers, service providers and even farm produce and culinary sales vendors and entities expose us to callous and intentional fraud, physical and mental injury. For example, people with transportation vehicles offering moving and delivery services are governed by no mandate. They steal, mishandle and damage items because they are not working under a legal framework that insists on any particular protocol.

Contractors or people proposing such services have so far killed three published cases where bathrooms have collapsed with fatal consequences. How does a bathroom collapse? It’s obvious that there was no steel framework. Who and what legal mechanism jumps into sequence to prevent after three occurrences, several more? Are food providers required to sign an MOU that hold them criminally culpable for food poisoning?

I’ve written before on the pesticide and force- ripe risk with vegetables and fruits, but there is no guide in the public domain that this matter was ever addressed by the relevant authorities, all that is mentioned above are sources of added stress and depression; of the hopelessness of who cares at this level? That can be alleviated by tabulating and addressing issues that can be defined as “Citizen lay functioning Laws”. The reality to bring small businesses into the tax pool is a state function. The parallel complimentary implementation should be mechanisms to enhance small businesses to a quality control production capacity with attention given to both local and CARICOM markets, there is no quality control bureau with knowledgeable expertise to verify and pass ‘bottom house existing potential’.

Don’t be offended by this latter term, Cadbury Chocolate started as small location selling tea, coffee, cocoa and drinking chocolate, for an example, to add, none of the produce grew in England. Technology will continue to terminate the job market as we know it; we cannot remain as consumers of imported substandard and at lower percentage quality merchandise. We have talents here, ‘home receipts’ are the high end of the food manufacturing Industry worldwide, sensitising our people who are still in a casual under self-value and vulnerable mode is essential because earning diminishes stress and Hypertension generated by hopelessness. Let me expand on the latter, some years ago, a UNESCO representative sent me a brochure on a competition held through UNESCO with Japan. The winner would get US$ 5,000. The recipient would have to submit five designs. Okay, so my questions were what happens to the artwork if you lose it, will they be returned? What happens to the four if one wins? The answer was no. The A-Ws will not be returned. No consideration of copyright existed. It was a brilliant idea to amass a massive collection of artworks from hungry third world artists. I, however, declined to participate.
We have got to break the stereotype of waiting to be discovered while drowning in depression and stress and dying by those ailments. What the president said to the Toshaos applies to the nation: “We have to re-invent ourselves” and every decision maker has to understand that.