(Kaieteur News) – One Sunday morning, a man drove into the neighbourhood in a brand-new SUV. Before he could park, three people had already seen it. Before he could reach his front door, five people had already discussed it.
By nightfall, the neighbourhood had solved the mystery. “He got money.”
“No, he borrow.”
“From who?”
“Somebody say he wife family help he.”
“Dem boys say he does do something with government.”
By Monday morning, the man had become a millionaire, a fraudster, a government contractor and a suspected money launderer. All because he bought a vehicle. Dem Boys seh envy is one of the few things Guyanese could produce without importing the raw material. We does manufacture it locally.
A man could live in a little wooden house for twenty years and nobody does pay he much mind. But let he start building a concrete house with nice tiles and a fancy gate.
Suddenly everybody becomes a forensic auditor. In Guyana, suspicion does not require evidence. It only require somebody doing better than you.
A woman get promoted and people don’t say, “Congratulations.”
They say, “Who she know?”
A man business start doing well and people don’t say, “He working hard.”
They say, “He must have a connection.”
The same people who spend hours explaining why somebody doesn’t deserve success are usually the first people to congratulate them when the success becomes undeniable.
“Boy, I always know he had potential.”
Really?
Because last week you were explaining to everybody how he couldn’t spell his own name.
Dem Boys seh we gat a habit in Guyana that does keep we busy. You don’t have to accomplish anything yourself. Just monitor everybody else. Who buying land. Who building house. Who getting promotion. Who buying new car. Who going on vacation. Who wearing expensive clothes. Who eating at expensive restaurant.
By the time you finish investigating everybody else’s life, another year gone from your own. Some people so busy watching their neighbour climb the ladder that they don’t notice they ain’t moving.
Dem Boys seh envy is when another man’s blessing becomes your personal emergency. And jealousy is when you start praying that his Wi-Fi stop working.
Talk half. Leff half.
Source: Kaieteur News
