Motions, distance, indifference

Sep 02, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – There’s a human tragedy. Cotton Tree and two cousins. Across Mandarin Bridge and an 11-year-old-child. Police killings in Linden. And, more lately, a boat that went down and took down over 100 Guyanese lives. Poor ones. The rich ones and big ones don’t sail, they soar. A flight is ‘fine change’ for them. The PPP Govt. has a practice. Entourages roll into communities, before families. Amidst human tragedy, caravans, and human dramas. Political ones that follow a canned formula, a set procedure, what are now standard operations. Follow the threads.

Visits. Handholding. Solemn expressions. Proper clothing. Words and carriage matching. Police or politicians. By golly, the PPP creates new science. All that’s desired is truth and justice. Hopes for truth and a sincere quest for justice are all that’s placed before visitors and professional mourners. Political ones are the best. Done! Will be done! Guaranteed with seal of public oath affixed. Repeated. Cotton Tree. Tuschen. Linden. The national tsunami that was the capsizing, plunging, horror of the MV Barima. Hope still stirs, springs. Out of tragedy’s agonies, there will be duty to the people. Truth and justice delivered. Finality that brings blessed closure. The ghosts of the stricken, fallen, find peace. So, also the savaged spirits of families and communities. So, begins and ends chapter one in the Guyana story of when tragedy stalks and the PPP Govt. mounts its rescue operation. The first objective transcending all others is damage control. Limit the spread. Manage flareups that could incite more fallouts.