IT has not been a good year for Guyana. As a matter of fact, in comparison with other years, 2023 has been disheartening for a number of reasons. We can start with the Mahdia inferno that took the lives of 20 young Guyanese. That has been a national disaster in the context of our population of under 800, 000 people.

It made the news around the globe and naturally so because for 20 citizens to die by arson in a large population will make the news anywhere, much less in a small population. Each tragedy in this country brings out the mental opaqueness of lost souls. An alleged arsonist is responsible for the deaths of 20 teenagers and not semi-literate citizens, but educated people can publish an open letter calling for the cancellation of the 20 murder charges to be substituted for the single indictment of arson.

We must look back at 2023 with disgust at what some Guyanese have become. 2023 was a terrible year for the psychological integrity of some Guyanese. Things about life people should never say and for a small population we say those things, making us per capita, maybe the stupidest nation in the world.

I will just offer one hypothetical example about things in life humans must never utter because there are philosophical non-starters. Can you imagine anyone saying the male species is superior to women? Well there are Guyanese, not semi-literate derelicts on the roadways but educated Guyanese that will publicly say so.

Here is a manifestation of crass stupidity that filled the space of radio, newspapers, and social media last year after the Mahdia inferno. There were public utterances blaming grilled windows for the deaths because students could not open the windows to escape. Some Guyanese are so ignorant that you wonder if they are in fact humans.

The Guyana Government would have been criticised insanely if a female dormitory was built without grills and a rapist got through a window and molested a number of them. Ordinary humans around the world who are not wealthy and cannot afford an expensive guard service grill their houses for protection of their lives.

I live in a compound in Turkeyen, next to the CARICOM Secretariat, and since the Mahdia massacre resplendent houses have gone up, built by wealthy people and the windows are grilled. I guess last year was no different from previous years where some destroyed minds will justify any degeneracy just to get at the government.

We saw this in two ways in 2023. There were people whose ant-government frenzy drove them to dissolve any residue of patriotism and play into the hands of the Venezuelan aggressors. I read an article by a man named GHK Lall (someone I find to be one of the most unacceptable humans in the history of this country and believe me at my age in the 70s, I have met an ocean of such people) in which he outlined the reasons why Maduro will invade Guyana, one of which was that the international situation offered Maduro an excellent opportunity for invasion that previous presidents did not have

Glenn Lall’s description during the aggression against Guyana of Venezuela as our beloved neighbour was translated into Spanish in Venezuela and used to justify Maduro’s referendum game. Do you know what would have happened to such unpatriotic utterances in India? But in Guyana both Lalls were never visited by the police.

The same destroyed minds I refer to above turned a brilliant masterstroke by President Ali in St. Vincent into a failure. Our country got the international community to warn Maduro to back off and he did. That diplomatic success was described as a failure.

Last year, the cry of unaccountable, undemocratic government in Guyana did not wane. But last year when you looked at the democratic regions of the USA, Canada, the European Union and the UK, people lost their jobs, got victimised, got harassed for simply condemning Israel’s genocidal action in Gaza. Now it is important to note that the citizens of these countries were not condemning their own governments for some unacceptable policy, but were merely supporting the victims facing genocidal violence in Gaza and they were mistreated by their own governments.

Here in Guyana, the government did not seek action against GHK Lall or Glenn Lall. People in Guyana were free to write and say the most appalling fictions and they were not victimised. The opposition said in 2023 that there are two video tapes available of Vice-President Jagdeo offering a sea lane to Venezuela. No such tapes exist.

Finally, 2023 will always be remembered for the heroism of five phenomenally courageous military officers who gave their lives so we who are now living in Guyana could be a free nation. More later about Guyana in 2023.