GUYANA and the world woke up yesterday morning to the news that the MV Barima had taken on water and capsized with 133 people on board — 116 passengers and 17 crew members.
Up to the time of writing this column, it was reported that 67 persons had been rescued so far. No word yet on the composition of those rescued, how many crew members or passengers were rescued. No official release about any confirmed deaths. From retold stories via news media and social media, there were eyewitness accounts that suggest several persons have died, including children.
I saw one personal account of a rescued parent/guardian of seven children, recounting that all the kids were swept away by water in a matter of seconds and none of them were among those rescued.
I saw accounts of survivors who claimed they were asleep and woke up to find themselves already submerged in water. I saw accounts of survivors who claimed they were ripped apart from family members whom they were unable to save and after being rescued, could not locate those family members.
Such accounts are heart-wrenching and unspeakable. Any way you look at it, this is a tragedy of enormous proportions. The ordeal that the survivors endured, the public and private properties lost and the lives potentially lost has to be up there among the worst sea tragedies in our history, bearing the ultimate tragedies recorded during the middle-passage era.
Despite the mountains of information out there, there is an aspect that has not been properly explained by the news media or authorities. They seem to take it as a given that most Guyanese understand the route, but this is not so.
This is also a tragedy of international proportions and major news agencies of the world are reporting on it. Therefore, providing visual information on the intended route and the exact location of the tragedy will provide more background information about the difficult nature of the search-and-rescue mission. Simply saying the tragedy occurred near Iron Punt, is not sufficient.
I hope this aspect of the reporting is corrected post haste. Many of the comments I heard and read on social media seem to suggest that people believe that this was a two-bank river tragedy. To describe it as a tragedy on the open sea may be more accurate. Rescue efforts in our rivers vs on the Atlantic; in the dead of night, present different challenges. This understanding needs to be conveyed to the public.
Of course, like everything else, wherever there is a weak and limping opposition, the long political knives come out to try to slice and dice and squeeze political mileage out of every tragedy.
I saw some members of the opposition saltier than the waters of the Atlantic, already drumming up anti-government sentiments in the middle of an ongoing tragedy. No thought for the fact that while they were sleeping in their warm beds, in the middle of the night, in gross darkness, there were people in the Atlantic literally clinging to fragile floating objects and gasping for what could be their last breath. Instead, they chose to gang up and shout, “de guvament dis”, “de guvament dat.” “… and de tara.”
They say, must give Jack his Jacket and Jenny her gym skirt, in this case, one of the standout opposition politicians is MP Amanza Walton, she was concise (as I paraphrase), “the information suggests that the systems are working, let us not rush to judgement, let us not spread misinformation, let us not try to score political points, but continue to help where we can and to pray for victims, survivors and family members. There will be time to review everything after all administrative and rescue efforts are expended.”
This is immense political maturity, which no doubt would cause her to amass more political points and political capital than if she had taken the destructive anti-government pathways. This is worthy of emulation.
Apart from a small band of perpetually salty anti-government wishy washy political charlatans and purveyors of doom, whenever tragedies such as this occur, the true good nature of a nation and its people shine through. This nation is immensely grateful to all those individuals, public organisations and private companies who committed personnel and resources to the search-and-rescue efforts.
Many have reached out to family members to provide comfort and information to family members; we are a nation of people with big hearts. Many words of solidarity have poured in from friendly nations and the eyes of the world are trained towards Guyana. There is a lot more to be done beyond search and rescue. Medical, social, psychological and financial help will be needed for victims and their families long after the rescue efforts are called off. And of course, we must extract the lessons learnt to avoid future tragedies. Our collective thoughts and prayers are with the victims, survivors and their families and loved ones.