Frogs in the pot

I remember having an interesting discussion with an old Jesuit priest in which I wondered whether a number of venial sins committed could ever add up to being as bad as one mortal sin. He said an emphatic no. I tested him: ten, fifty, a hundred, a thousand? He stuck to his beliefs - no, mortal was mortal, it deprived one of Divine Grace, venial could never be the same. I was not so sure.

I also recall chatting with a friend about the theory/fable of the frog in boiling water: put a frog in a pot of water and very gradually heat the water. The frog will not protest even as it boils to death. I said I doubted this - there would come a time when the frog realizes it was in grave danger and would flop about and try to jump out the water. My friend said - absolutely not so. We never did put a frog through a practical trial.

This rather wayward preface is simply to introduce what I think is an important question for any government - to what extent should it/can it concentrate on getting the “big picture” developments right even if it means giving much less attention to the hundred and one problems/nuisances/challenges which affect the daily lives of citizens. In other words - should a deep water harbour take precedence over making sure ten thousand old age pensioners get their due on time and easily collectible?

Governments can be excused for concentrating on the headline projects both because they do, if properly executed, move the country forward economically and make the nation more powerful and sustainable and also because they attract great publicity and popular fanfare. And “Oil and Gas” is now by far the biggest driver of national transformation - and potentially the most popular development ever to come our country’s way.

But in this brief essay let me make the case for not at all neglecting the small issues, the ordinary problems, the daily grievances, the hundred little, unnecessary fires people have to put out in their lives. Any good Government should be greatly concerned with these and in helping citizens solve and cope and stamp out the little fires.

The list is long and I am sure it can be added to copiously. Any habitual letter-writer to the newspaper could do the job.

The noise nuisance: not to kill partying - but nonparty goers have a right to peace and quiet, especially in clearly residential areas. Quiet, my young friends in particular please note, is as much a human right as jollification. And the appalling shrieking of unnecessary sirens, often catering only to pomp and circumstance, should be controlled.

The police must be strictly and as a matter of course disciplined - and they must be better paid - so that the damn-foolishness of harassment by police shakedowns ceases - it is a practice completely unworthy of a decently run society.

Littering must be prescribed and punished at a level which gradually cleans up the environment - and particularly the capital city - allowing us to feel at least not ashamed of what should be the clean and pleasant surroundings of a well-ordered country.

I trust Mr. Samuel Hinds when he informs us that great strides were made at GPL in the period 1992 to 2015 when the number of families receiving reliable electricity increased from 75,000 to 175,000. However, “black-out” vexations aplenty continue and one must therefore hope that one or other of the current government’s major projects succeed in solving this generations-old problem once and for all.

Nonsensical banking regulations imposed on Guyanese and said to be designed to counter moneylaundering - as if any substantial money-launderer was ever caught by the absurd “proof of address” requirements - which frustrate thousands of Guyanese and impede business - must be scrutinized seriously, simplified and scrapped whenever possible to make banking more customer friendly.

All Government servants should go through simple training which drums in the priority of helpful service, cheerful manner, and a positive determination to assist in particular the old, the sick and the handicapped - always avoiding that knee-jerk reaction of “no, it can’t be done” or “come back in a month” or any other of the terrible obstructive etceteras of civil service behaviour.

Venial sins can add up and add up until they indeed become mortal. The water can be heated just that bit too much so the frog feels it has to jump out the pot. Every Government should have a roving Minister whose job it is to find out what is frustrating and angering the small man and his family in their everyday, ordinary lives and insist that such problems be addressed. I’m not sure that roving Minister should not be the President himself.