Enfeebled Voice of a common person!

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” When I browse the national news of the Country, invariably I hear is only one thing, ranting about politics and their each politician’s tactics to prove that one is better than the other. I am not too keen in those matters, despite knowing that it affects each individual in this nation, because we are one nation, one people and one destiny. It seems like two people, two destinies and we two nations; one of the leaders and the other is of the common person like me. We will get nowhere since we are on parallel roads. Hence common person will be silence since he does not want to speak.

In 1968 the women workers on the Ford car plant in Dagenham, Essex, got up from their sewing machines and walked out on strike to make the authorities to recognise their work as skilled and equal to their male colleagues. Women never gave up until their demands were met. This action fanned out across the UK and led ultimately to the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. Can someone speak up like these women and stop the leaders who invariably tighten their party reputation. It seems like we the common people do not have a say, we are silenced for several years. We elect our leaders to meet our needs, needs of the common person. But in reality, our leaders become powerful and suppress the voice of the common person.

It is always a joy for me to see small groups of young persons taking interest in cleaning up the city, picking up garbage. This shows their interest in the one nation. How many our leaders can come out to the streets to compliment these young groups of people? Of course, they won’t because it won’t affect them, since they drive a luxury car or live in a clean environment. Last week, I saw something beautiful, children from the Rose’s High school painting the wall, which was dirty looking. Now it looks very soothing for the eyes when we walk along the wall. I think we have to look at these good things happening in our city and make it news, so that there is a positive vibe among the young people. One day, they will decide, ‘wow this city is so beautiful, I will work right here.’

My appeal to our leaders and news agencies to please publish more of these good happenings in our country, rather than publishing all the time about our leaders who target each other for their own backyard interests.

JM Dias

Georgetown, Guyana.

This letter was written for Stabroek, Keiteur, and Catholic Standard news papers.