the archives contain old posts from the home page.
on the 5th june, notorious criminal shawn brown was killed
in a shootout with police. to many, shawn brown was the embodiment
of all the crime in guyana since the mash day prison escape.
this, of course, doesn't mean that crime is no longer an issue.
as the president said, we shouldn't be complacent.
also on the 5th, the government approved a kidnapping bill
that serves to deal with kidnappers in a more serious manner,
hopefully deterring them from the crime.
guyanatruth is all about asking questions and getting truth,
and in the case of this kidnapping bill, a question arises:
what enabled the government to act so swiftly and bilaterally
to enact this bill that dictates more stringent methods of dealing
with kidnappers. i think it's because the people who passed
the bills are the rich career-politicians and their supporters
who are the ones most likely to be kidnapped. this
may be speculation, but it takes only common sense to know that
the man selling coconut water at stabroek market isn't going
to be kidnapped; the manager of hotel tower is.
it's this kind of thinking, questioning, approach that guyanatruth
is built on. it's all about truth: the truth of omai and our
land, our government and its lies, and our society and culture
being watered down by american pop-culture. so many truths and
so little time. this is why it's necessary for all of us guyanese
with the will to change things to become soldiers fighting ignorance
and helping to make our fellow guyanese stronger.
before the politics and the bureaucracy, guyana's future is
in the mind of each individual citizen. until guyanese can become
aware of themselves, of their potential, and choose
to make their country stronger, we will get nowhere. we'll just
be running in the same place for as long as the power hungry
keeps the race vote alive, mind control exists from home and
abroad, and the heavy ignorance weighs us down. guyanatruth
is here to nurture the spark of self-awareness, unfortunately,
only for those who have internet access.
as you'll notice the logo of guyanatruth has returned to its
original form, as shown below:
this is simply what happens when the men who control the world
(bush, blair and the others) decide to tell us their fairy-tale
that war is over in afghanistan and iraq. the terrorism of the
afghan and iraqi people isn't over.
you'll also notice that the three bars (red, yellow and green)
at the top of guyanatruth's pages (except the home page) has
been replaced by five bars that better represent guyana: red,
black, yellow, white and green. eventually the logo and other
images will be changed to include all five colours. it's a relatively
unimportant thing, but i'd like to make note of it at least
once.
i have been greatly discouraged from writing extensively about
the things guyanatruth is here to explore because as soon as
i write something, i may realise new ideas that would make the
essay more thorough, and adding to the existing essay and discarding
the original seems somehow irresponsible. i've developed a plan
to take care of this kind of pessimism. if i feel i need to
rewrite or add to something i've written, i'll do so and provide
it as another version. the original would be version 1.0, and
the second would be 1.1, and so on. the latest version will
be the one posted at the site, but older versions will be provided
in downloadable zip files. these obsolete versions of major
writings would be available in order to demonstrate the growth
of guyanatruth in exploring issues.
i'm sure that no one will have the time or will to read everything
here at guyanatruth, but everything _must_ be available for
those searching for honest guyanese discussions and information
which are both very difficult to find on the internet. on a
personal note, it's important for me to fully document the growth
of guyanatruth.
i encourage you to viciously seek knowledge. ask the hard questions
and face the difficult truths. do not accept any system or stereotype
that you are born into--question its integrity and foundation
in order to make it more honest and strong.
15
june 2003
if you wasted three and one half hours watching the academy
awards on 23rd march, then you would have seen the controversial
acceptance speech by filmmaker michael moore who won the oscar
for best documentary feature. the speech follows:
I have invited my fellow
documentary nominees on the stage with us. They're here in
solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction,
yet we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we
have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president.
We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for
fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape,
or the fiction of orange alerts. We are against this war,
Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time
you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time
is up. Thank you very much.
moore deserves credit for being brave enough to say something
like this on international television, in a country where
you're a terrorist the instant that you question the us's
wars in afghanistan, iraq or elsewhere.
the web site of the oscar winning documentary, bowling
for columbine, provides the film
trailer and four film
clips. of the four film clips, i highly recommend that
you view "a brief history of america" and "marilyn
manson interview".
'a brief history of america'
clip
|
'marilyn manson interview'clip
|
i know that moore's work is about america and
really has nothing to do with guyana or guyanese, but i'm
interested in him for two reasons. first, he exposes the kind
of truth that guyanatruth is all about. secondly, i am within
the american consumption system right now, namely
queens n.y., and my search for truth in this structure
of lies has led me to americans like moore.
to get an idea of guyanatruth's purpose, see the videos.
22
june 2003
one of the issues of guyanatruth is the exploitation of
guyana by local and foreign corporations. in the pictures
section, i posted an
image that describes banks d.i.h. as one of the local
corporations that "don't care 'bout guyanese."
a report in the chronicle (19 june 2003) of yet
another person being robbed in the demico house/stabroek
market area testifies to the irresponsibility and indifference
of these corporations.
what makes this robbery different is its brutal nature.
the victim was a woman travelling with her five-month old
daughter from lima, essequibo coast, to georgetown to collect
her husband's wages. after collecting the money ($20,000),
she was approached in the demico house area by three men.
she and her daughter were both robbed and beaten. the bandits
took the money as well as jewellery from the child. when
the jewellery wasn't coming off the child fast enough, the
bandits did it themselves, breaking the infant's arm. the
chronicle also reports that the infant was beaten
to unconsciousness.
in a letter to the chronicle someone contemplates
"how could people in the usually busy stabroek area,
near demico just watch as the vicious barbarians unleash
their animalism on a baby, a real beautiful little child
unto the point of breaking her hand." (21 june 2003)
the attack was truly barbaric, and what makes the crime
even more sickening is that, like many other attacks, the
victims are of a particular race. it is very disturbing
when any race is targeted like this.
i think that this attack is partly the result of banks
d.i.h.'s uncaring attitude towards the communities in which
it operates. i'm not saying that banks is to be blamed entirely
for the attack on the mother and her child, but i do believe
that banks has a responsibility to the people that they
make their money from. for a very long time, there have
been regular robberies taking place in the demico house
area. there is no reason why banks, which obviously owns
demico house, can't organise more private security forces
in the area. they won't just be protecting people walking
by demico, but also people who go inside and give up their
money for demico's deep-fried wonders.
maybe banks sees this as unnecessary because their profits
indicate that regular attacks on civilians don't affect
business. after all, demico house is located in the hub
of georgetown. travellers from across guyana usually find
themselves in this stabroek market area. demico house therefore
has so many customers that the ones robbed in front of their
business are expendable. if 100 people travel through the
stabroek square every day, and 5 get viciously robbed, then
demico still has 95 happy and undisturbed potential customers.
this is surely speculation on my part, but also possibly
true.
there have been countless letters to the editors of newspapers
about robberies in the infamous demico house area. yet,
banks d.i.h. have done nothing to protect people from the
dozens of bandits lurking in the stabroek area. of course,
there is no law that dictates this as the responsibility
of banks d.i.h., but as a corporation that makes a lot of
money off of guyanese, it is their civic and ethical responsibility,
especially in this area that they generously capitalise
on.
this is a relatively minor issue, but it is an example
of corporate irresponsibility in guyana. this irresponsibility
can take other forms than social; it may be environmental,
or economical.
as stated before, the attack was additionally disgusting
because the victims seemed to be targeted based on their
race. this race issue in guyana surely impedes our growth
and may even summarise us as a backward people. however,
recent riots in a u.s. town indicate that we may not be
the only backward people. on 16 june, riots erupted in a
michigan town after a black motorcyclist was killed while
fleeing white police officers. (see
cnn story here). it's no big secret that racism
is still one of the biggest problems in america, but these
riots show that things are still so bad, that even in america--the
righteous god-bless-america, freedom-loving america-- there
are racial tensions that culminate to the point of violent
race riots.
some people say that america is the most racist place on
earth, which isn't really valid unless you've actually been
to every place on earth. well i can say quite correctly
that of all the places i've been on this earth, america
has been the most racist.
i plan to present my views on guyanausa.org.
visit this letter
reply for more information. what
do you think of guyanausa?
