Chidren deserve better

Dear Editor

I refer to the letter by Lurlene Nestor begging for VAT relief and my heart skipped a beat while my eyes could only welled what the Faith of Humanity refers to as the last vestige of social capital or empathy.

Where are those who shout children first? Now is the time, and not only for toys but a tax break for the general funding for education, medical and clothing needs; after all these future leaders need to be treated with some dignity.

How much humiliating can it be that a child witnesses his or her parents are dragged on their feet pleading for mercy so the rice man may dip one more saucepan of livelihood! So the taunts of well-greased peers may go unhurt.

Jesus came at a time where mercy was buried in the hard rocks of human anarchy. He brought hope. A hope like the hope Abraham brought when the dry desert of Arabia parched the dying livers of Ishmael and Hajar. Water came as a hope for civilization, then, in the form of the famous zamzam well and until today we celebrate that hope by re-enacting that run at Hajj between the spots of Marwa and Safa.

All of this for what?

That we make this season a true blessing to humanity the way the Divine wished it to be- to relieve the poor of the yoke of poverty- the call of every Faith leader as far as I remember. The promise of every promising leader as far as the ears could recall. This is the song of every mother and the music of every father; the prayer of every innocent child when they watch TV and drop asleep longing with desire.

It’s not about making the rich richer but giving a gesture to the underdog; its not about Christmas or Eid but signalling a real act of hope into the fading memories of happiness as poor children watch faces painted by death with each wind that blows and each moon that sets.

I was lucky to be at the premier of Mandela: Son of Africa in Toronto and listen to him assert, "children are the rock on which our future will be built".
How lucky we are that given our position we can become the Mandela of Guyana and the mecca of Hope for “ahwe pickney” by reconsidering Lurlene Nestor’s silent prayer.

Yours truly,