AT the time of writing, 53 bodies have been recovered from the sunken MV Barima ferry. This number is only exceeded by the Jonestown massacre in 1978. The incredibly hurtful aspect of this tragedy is that these were people who died trying to make a living for themselves and their families.
Many were vendors taking retail goods from Georgetown to sell in their hometown.
What really happened to that ferry, Guyana and the world will never know definitively until after a commission of inquiry, so it is best for people not to fill the airwaves and the internet with tall tales that bear no connection to the actual causes of the disaster.
The huge loss of life in Guyanese waters last Saturday is yet another tragedy that will pierce the soul of this nation. If you count these disasters, then, it is unimaginable that a small populated, developing country such as Guyana should suffer such immense human devastation.
I remember as a young teenager what happened to the Indians in Wismar and the large loss of lives on the Sun Chapman. I grew up after 1964 in a trouble-free Guyana only to see that over 900 American citizens were forced to commit suicide in a remote part of Guyana today known as the Jonestown massacre.
After 1978, Guyana swam in calm waters only for monster waves to return in 1992, when violence and looting broke out in the holding of the first free general election since 1964. I was a witness to those episodes of violence. I never thought after the successful free election of 1992, that I would see post-election violence more internecine than what I saw in 1992.
But it happened in 1997 and it was a terrible display of mayhem in which Georgetown looked like it would go up in flames. CARICOM intervened and calmer waters returned to Guyana. Five years after the violence of 1997, nicknamed “slo fyaah, mo fyaah,” more mayhem returned. There was a reign of terror on the East Coast of Demerara originating from Buxton that began in 2002 with the Mash Day jail break. Then gunmen created terror in Lusignan, killing more than a dozen persons. Then for the first time in the history of the CARICOM region, prisoners burned to the ground the entire central prison of Guyana with lives lost.
This has been the history of Guyana from colonial times to 2026, when the ferry capsized last Saturday evening, and so far, 53 deaths have been recorded. In all those traumas, Guyana has survived and we have endured to the point where fate has seen that there will now be a future for us because we have discovered oil, a commodity the world needs.
This column is about the ferry tragedy and I don’t want to bring in extraneous discussions, but every Guyanese should be mentally comfortable with the arrival of EXXON and its discovery of oil. It is ugly bravado to say that EXXON is exploiting because if it wasn’t for Exxon we would not be able to compensate those families whose relatives lost their lives on the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday.
This country has been through too much psychic devastation over 70 years. But it is one of the world’s resilient nations. Guyana will always survive because the Guyanese people are inherently dreamers, and one must keep dreaming. I leave you with a pertinent song. It is the theme song from a movie titled the “Poseidon Adventure” in which an aging cruise ship sinks in the Atlantic Ocean. It is titled, “The Morning After.” There will always be a morning after for this ebullient nationality named Guyanese.
Maureen McGovern – The Morning After
There’s got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let’s keep on looking for the light
Oh, can’t you see the morning after?
It’s waiting right outside the storm
Why don’t we cross the bridge together
And find a place that’s safe and warm?
It’s not too late, we should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It’s not too late, not while we’re living
Let’s put our hands out in time
There’s got to be a morning after
We’re moving closer to the shore
I know we’ll be there by tomorrow
And we’ll escape the darkness
We won’t be searching anymore
There’s got to be a morning after
There’s got to be a morning after
There’s got to be a morning after
There’s got to be a morning after
There’s got to be a morning after
There’s got to be a morning after
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.
