Unholy traits
Editorial
IN SOME respects, Georgetown seems to have become the unofficial dump site of Guyana. Walk in any city street and the large piles of garbage and clogged drainage systems testify to this. Someone eats a bar of candy and automatically discards the wrapper on the ground; a man needing a urinal heads for the nearest wall or lantern post - in broad daylight. Those who should know better spit on the ground, even through the windows of vehicles in which they are travelling on the city streets. The common language of the day has an invective or two in every sentence. Sadly, as a matter of course, children follow the habit patterns of the adults in their world, so the cycle revolves down the generations and accumulates additional baggage as the years go by. Some teachers in learning institutions, even in secondary schools and higher places, are themselves coarse in nature and highly abusive. This was demonstrated clearly during the post-elections disturbances when teachers and others at a high school in Georgetown openly abused members of a television camera crew in the foulest language possible. One female even bent down and showed a part of her anatomy for the camera crew and this was aired on television. Buildings do not automatically become homes, or schools, or hospitals. The people who live and function within create these institutions and standards are seriously lacking among some. Sadly, some leaders create the climate for further deterioration of standards in the country. So children are taught to hate their fellow Guyanese and to disrespect systems created for the orderly functioning of society, even within the home. Teachers who lack the fundamentals of good grooming, etiquette and even the ability to communicate well in the official language of the land do not help the system and falling standards are perpetuated. Also guilty are some public servants, even in essential services such as hospitals. In some places, the service offered is poor, discourteous, with scant regard for the general public which pays their wages through taxes. It is quite accepted today that these unique set of people, who in any other stable society would not last long on the job, arrive at work late, spend a lot of time gossiping or running out on `errands’, and leave office before the end of the official working day. Work ethics seem hardly to prevail and commitment to a job that, at the end of the day, is their sole source of income, appears to no longer exist. The situation is cause for concern and there should be some serious attempts to reverse some of these unholy traits, for the good of the society and the future of the country. 
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