MOST likely it’s not just “we” Guyanese who dismiss things we should take seriously. COVID-19 under Trump was a tremendous example, but closer to home is my concern. Any writer of adventure and fiction must fix their stories on accepted facts and scientific possibilities; whether biological, historical or on physics, poetic licence is taken into consideration. A recent social media article on Guyanese infected by Leprosy surprised me. This is supposed to be something of the past in Guyana. But I could have said the same for Tuberculosis, but that also is on the rise, so is the foolishness we smoke. One of the realities that have to be considered is that there are laws and adherence to those laws. Diseases don’t just emerge out of mysticism, they emerge out of human failures to follow hygienic rules if they are aware or by circumstances are allowed to. During the post-slavery period, the first villagers suffered infant and adult mortality due to Cholera, because their paid taxes were used to finance indentureship instead of drainage works. The indentured suffered from Cholera on the ships because they were in many instances forced to drink infected water on the ship and also on the plantation estates, again, to save money. Mental ill health, Tuberculosis and Leprosy became common mostly in the ‘Towns because of lack of sewage management, clustered housing and inadequate nutrition, dependency on bushmeat, due to unemployment ‘blues’ and unreasonable wages when employed, 1850s- 1900s onwards. Thus, there were fixed centres of isolation for mental health “madhouse,” a Leprosy Asylum on the grounds of an Old Fort, and a Tuberculosis Hospital. These institutions were complemented by an extensive prison facility – spanning Georgetown to Mazaruni, and unhygienic sugar estate logies for imported labour. Thus, the tapestry of the good old days.

Now the ball is in our court, no governor to blame. Who is to inform ‘those who don’t know, what they don’t know?’ For example, since I was a boy, there was the myth that ‘wild meat’ is much healthier than yard fowl chickens, ‘white fowls’ etc. This thinking is contrary to what the studies of Zoological studies have discovered. For example, Yacee (Armadillo) is an animal on the extreme wildlife menu; this animal however is the only mammal that carries Leprosy, but it shows no symptoms. But humans who handle Armadillos, eat its meat, can contract Leprosy, this infection is categorised as a Zoonotic disease, transferred from animals to humans; see University of Florida. Tuberculosis is active in cows and if not examined by vets, can transmit Tuberculosis to handlers and to the public through contaminated food products, namely milk and cheese. We can only pray that these products go through a strict regimen of scrutiny overseas before they’re imported to our shores. The old people back in the day, when buying cow’s milk from vendors, always insisted that such milk be scalded before any usage. We cannot remember why many of those rules were fixed in place, except to muse that they were possibly guided then. Now to my brethren in the “scheme” areas of South Georgetown, I hear from the horse’s mouth that there is an acquired taste for Alligators, “how tings change bway, sometimes not always fuh de best, but this different, fuh real.” Well, Alligators (Caiman) can be infected with Salmonella. This seems to be common in a variety of reptiles, including iguanas. Salmonella can result in blood poisoning and can be fatal. Alligators have been identified in some studies of transmitting the West Nile virus. It doesn’t kill them. We must understand that most animals are (evolved or created) a few hundred thousand years ahead of us, bushmen have a saying “Watch wuh Monkey eat, then you eat” Arnold-(Pigs) can walk around with tapeworms in his body and no evidence of illness, not the same for ‘Johnny come lately’ humans, like Armadillos and Leprosy, de Yacee (Armadillos) shows no body effects of this disease, not so with us. Exotic bush meat has to be paid attention to since some stuff can be dangerous, contributing to unusual, underlying illnesses that we may ascribe to “Somebody poison meh’ or “Deh wuk pon meh.” I’m not sure this is whose job, but it’s an angle that has to be explored, and the conversation has to begin beyond this article. We have got to review this ‘Bush meat’ culture that we are all accustomed to.

In closing, somewhere along the way, the ‘building laws’ for Georgetown seem to have been quietly changed. The owners of original Georgetown-type houses are crying out as concrete structures have surrounded their homes, stifling and strangling them in this obvious global-warming heat increase. Many of these concrete ‘Forts’ house foreigners, but guess what, nobody has changed the old school sewage system, blocked alleyways are still not addressed. This requires an independent article of its own, even as we must remember that many health issues in the 19th century emerged out of crowded and stagnated housing concerns.