Jul 19, 2026 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – Venezuela had one earthquake, then more. Death and destruction on a wide scale. I shrink from forces larger than life, bigger than man. Guyanese were in the middle of one earthquake, when another crashed down on their heads. Seems like more than one. Political earthquakes rattling the towers of Guyana, rocking ground floors. Venezuelans braved the battering. Fought to rescue survivors. Picked up the pieces shattered and scattered all over. Guyanese from the highest political elevations to the bottom of the national ladder run for cover. There is considerable screaming here. Some feeble attempts at salvaging lost causes. A country imperiled. Leadership besieged. The Palace Guard form a circle. To protect what? An empty palace? A poisoned chalice?

An account that’s bigger than the accumulation of assets. Opulence. Vehemence. Last, violence. Inflicted on the already roach-infested, rat-gnawed, national conscience. One disclosure about storybook meadows, cows that bellow, loud echoes that ring hollow. The first earthquake shaking the foundations. Hair standing on end. Lips quivering. Mouths dribbling. It’s that see-sawing, buckling, moment that signals an earthquake in full swing and rugged form. Before there could be that proverbial, eerie, hush after an earthquake, another competed for expression, catapulted into Guyanese consciousness.