"Only in Guyana?" A student in my class told me that he was not able to complete his research requirement for the whole weekend... "Okay, lay it on me." (This will be good, I thought.)
Friday, he was riding home from school on his motorcycle when he got stopped by a traffic police officer on a routine stop. After showing the officer his id's, the officer told him that he needed to accompany him to the local police station. Once there he was informed that he looked like one of the escaped criminals from the jail. They needed to hold him till they could verify his claim... He said that he wasn't released till late Sunday night.. and that is why he didn't do the assignment.
I love a good story and would have granted him a pass even if it was all a fabrication, but I thought I should inquire a bit more.
"So you were held all weekend and you were never charged with anything?"
He nods affirmatively.
"Did you get your one phone call?"
"Yes, I called my mother."
"And.."
"She said there was nothing she could do. I just had to sit there till they figured it out."
There goes her Mother of the Year Award. My look of disbelief encouraged him to continue.
"Yes; the last time it happened ......"
Stop! This can't be true ..... "The last time"!??! And then I remembered: I am in Guyana.
He continued, "She came down to the police station and explained to the police who I was and everything. They said that they had to conduct their investigation all the same even though they realized I was not the escaped criminal."
"Did you think of calling a lawyer?"
"It wouldn't have helped. They were doing their job."
Ugh, he wasn't angry at the whole thing. He went on to describe the cell he was in .... and I'll spare you the squalid details.
I am overwhelmed by the passivity and hopeless acceptance of so much here, from simple things like someone receiving a traffic ticket for stopping at a red light but across the stop line (while the whole concept of stop signs and red lights are usually considered optional here) to this serious kind of detention.
Of course, I gave him a pass on his assignment... and I got myself a beer. (Later that evening!) I raised a toast with a can of Stag: "Thanks to any god available that O'Connor lives in Canada." Pretty selfish, eh?
Kim - Trump -- and Me in the Middle
On Thursday night, I went to a University of Guyana public debate on Constitutional Reform. I was interested in how the human rights of minorities were to be better protected... I think that technically any same-sex behaviours are illegal. Cross-dressing even on Halloween is going to get you locked up. If I lived in Guyana, I could have been arrested many times .....
The Debate on Reform started on time, but the introductions before the introductions were about 40 minutes long. The event was not very academic and it certainly wasn't a debate; it was more a parade of people who wanted the audience to know how much they are already doing ..... such as the woman who addressed us on women's situation and stated often how they had the same rights as men ..... I wonder where she lived in Guyana? It is not a right if you are not able to exercise it ..... And the woman who spoke on children's rights ..... more of the same.
I left and since I was at the Pegasus Hotel, I thought I'd have a beer. Unfortunately, the tv was tuned to CNN ..... and there was the tragedy of earthquake deaths in Mexico and Kim calling Trump "mentally deranged"..... Does not the world have enough suffering without two boys still playing who has the biggest willie? I was upset.
From the Worst to the Least Worse
The next morning, I was scheduled to teach Psychiatry Residents, as I did last week. I attended morning rounds where there were four male patients: a strong-looking patient (acutely psychotic) who thought that I was his father and who had not responded to treatment; a calm older man who was somewhat delusional; a sixteen year old gay youth who had left a lot of shelter placements and finally was brought in by the police as he was in someone else's house watching tv. (He was described as demon-possessed since he was eleven and had survived a rat poison suicide attempt.) And finally a man in his twenties who was described as schizophrenic and who said nothing but walked away to a corner of the room. They all had family who had been exhausted by years of trying to help them. And there was no shelter willing to accept them.
So the decisions about these four people was about trying to figure out the least bad option ..... and there seemed to be none!
And while I was thinking that what I had to teach was irrelevant to the Psych. Residents' world, an even bigger black man (handcuffed and dragging Security with him) came into the Residents' office proclaiming his own particular gospel for all to hear.
"I smell a white man here."
"Wow, you are quite observant."
He looked me in the eye up close: "I want to kill white men." Security escorted him out.
And then it got worse. Friday is not an Outpatient Clinic day and yet there were maybe thirty patients sitting and waiting to be seen. So the residents would have to see them because "Everyone gets seen!" The residents were already exhausted before this .....
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| The four Residents: Stephan, Veneta, Shonnette and Elizabeth. |
There were no beds or spaces, no good treatment options, not nearly enough professionals ..... just not the resources for those in dire need. And there's Trump, with unlimited resources, and Kim, depriving his people of everything, and CNN covers their tantrums as if they were more important, more spectacular than the world's real problems and appeases the soap opera addicts. It is a sad state of affairs that mercy and compassion seem to have no place.
And there were still the thirty patients in the clinic, waiting ..... and a woman was brought in by her sister; she had not eaten, not talked, not slept for three days ..... And the Residents did not stop working. I said to them, "I don't know what I taught you today, but you have taught me much. Thanks." And I left (maybe fled is a better word) knowing that in a small corner of the universe there is compassion and mercy.
Oh yeah... forgot the Nursing Students
I seem to have overlooked my brilliant class of students ..... I needed to exaggerate, as I yelled at them this week that their research was junk ..... and when I checked research from previous years they were at about the same level of junky-ness. Anyhow, we had a field trip this week to a show of Amerindian crafts, dancing and stories. A field trip is even better for teachers than for students! We arrived almost a half hour before the time we were told two weeks ago that the programme would start ..... and that was only about ten minutes before it ended! However, they did get to see the crafts and meet Michael Khan a marvelous storyteller. And there was a free lunch of Pepperpot, cassava and soft drinks .....
Some Pics from the week, including the Girls
Disappointed
My photography exhibit at the Ayr Public Library will be ending this week. I was pleased with the display. However, it is hard for me to hide my dismay that the Art Gallery of Ontario hasn't called me -- yet.
