Friday Musings
On the other side
By Sharief Khan
ALTHOUGH some may dearly wish it, this is not any personal confession about me being “on the other side”.

Being on the other side in Guyanese parlance has different meanings and I have got to be careful.

Some people in some political circles may jump for joy if this is about me being on the `other side’.

But that’s not likely any time soon. Politically, I take sides when I make my choices come elections time in the secrecy and sanctity of the voting booth.

And I treasure that because it’s a right that Guyanese now enjoy only after long and painful battles that restored it to us on October 5, 1992. It was a right that had been brutally stolen from us for almost three decades and I am proud of the part I played in helping in the struggles to win it back.

As a journalist, I have to be careful not to be seen to be taking any side. So, I tread carefully and try to be on the fence from where you can often get a good perspective.

And as for the other peculiar Guyanese twist to being on the `other side’, I am a straight up woman-loving man, thank you. Amen! Hallelujah! Praise Be!

The `other side’ that has got my attention though is a series I came across this week by the Reuters news agency about how hard the depression is hitting some ordinary people in the United States.

It makes grim reading. One story is about three homeless guys in Charlotte, North Carolina who have no work, no home and few prospects.

Roy Hawkins, Mark Corbett and Drew Everhart were workers in the construction industry and all they have is each other.

They live in a makeshift camp in the woods; one of them has a prosthetic leg, after losing the lower half of a leg in an accident in April.

As construction workers, there are few possibilities for full-time work because the U.S. housing crisis and the recession it spawned have wiped out many construction jobs.

“If we’re lucky, we get one or two days of work a week,” Everhart said. “Sometimes there are 50 or more guys out there and maybe 10 of them get work.”

He added that standing in line at the job agency is often a tense experience, as some men push in line. It’s not easy to know which ones to push back against, as they may be armed.

“If you’re not careful you can get stabbed,” Everhart said. “We’ve seen it happen. Some guys are desperate to work and it’s best not to get in their way.”

One of the men said he and his wife are separated and he has to find work to ensure he pays his child support to stay out of jail.

And there are similar heart-wrenching stories in the series about Americans trying to cope in a crippling crisis.

I move around quite a bit in this country, meeting people from all walks of life, sharing experiences, listening to problems and I know it’s not easy for a lot of us.

But sometimes when we think we are bad off, it’s worth taking a look on the other side.

I thought I was having it hard when I had to undergo heart surgery in 2003. But I came across others who were in worse situations than I was and I have since learnt to appreciate life so much more.

If you think you are down and out, think about what others may be going through and things may not seem so grim after all.

When I came across this series of stories about the trying times for a lot of people in the U.S., I thought about what some Guyanese are going through and who believe they are in the bottom of the pit.

The stories in the series I saw do not often get much attention in mainstream Western media and some sections of the local media seem to take a delight in highlighting only sad, bad news here.

That’s a real pity because it doesn’t tell the full story. I was recently chatting with a man who said he has been trying to find work here without much success and I didn’t want to ask him how hard he has been trying.

I wonder if he has ever been in a line looking for work and careful about who’s standing behind him in case he gets stabbed in the back.

The construction industry is booming here and there are so many other avenues for people with little or no skills to find jobs – if only they want to.

It’s not so in many other countries where jobs are scarce and millions of people are on the breadline, lining up for meals at soup kitchens and trying in other ways to survive.

Peeking over the other side may just help some people here open their eyes to the stark realities of the world.

Paying attention to what’s happening over the other side can sometimes get you into trouble – like sneak peeking at your neighbour’s wife or daughters!
But a careful peek also has dividends.