Bajans’ disdain for Guyanese

Jul 30, 2008 Editorial

A Guyanese was murdered in a bar in Barbados; the proprietrix of the bar, another Guyanese, was critically wounded by the same gunman, who robbed the bar but did not take the murdered man’s jewellery or money.

This newspaper reported that: “Relatives of the two Guyanese believe that the incident was a direct attack on the Guyanese community on the island.

(They) have almost ruled out robbery as a motive for the attack, since they are convinced that the shooting may have stemmed from (the bar-owner) Samuels’s strong advocacy for the rights of Guyanese on the island.” At this point, there have been no arrests in the murder and robbery.

Guyana’s Honorary Consul to Barbados, Mr Norman Faria, however, has weighed in on the matter and has asserted that our report was “speculative nonsense”.

He claimed, “From all the available evidence at this juncture, including from senior investigative officers of the Barbados police, this was an apparent case of a robbery gone wrong.”

Now, here is an individual who is supposed to be acting in a “diplomatic” capacity, who admits that the lone perpetrator of the crimes has not been caught and that the police can only give an “apparent” motive, yet can himself announce definitively that “anti-Guyanese” bias had no role to play in the incident. One is left to wonder at the quality of service our interests are being given in Barbados.

Whatever the facts of the matter may be in the case of the murder and wounding, it is a fact that anti-Guyanese sentiments are on the rise in Barbados.

As our land fell on hard times in the seventies, many Guyanese began to look for avenues elsewhere and prosperous Barbados was a favoured destination.

The Bajans themselves encouraged this move as they brought in hundreds of Guyanese to work in their sugar industry, when their own nationals balked. Many of these hard-working sugar workers saw opportunities in the building trades and a steady trickle of Guyanese moved in.

There was a backlash. The most glaring and widely reported one was the inhuman and discriminatory treatment meted out by Bajan immigration officers to Guyanese, not only those seeking to enter Barbados but also those merely “in-transit”.

Matters got so out of hand that officials, from our Minister of Foreign Affairs to our President, Bharrat Jagdeo, had to raise the matter at various fora. Mr Faria himself had to intercede on occasions. But all to no avail.

Within Barbados, the discriminatory anti-Guyanese sentiments are rampant. Mr Faria spoke about the “the commendable movie — ON THE MAP about migrant workers in Barbados” and warned that at its screening, “progressive and democratic forces including the left have to really get worried and decisively act; anti-foreigner sentiment and xenophobia becomes part of mainstream Barbados politics.” Two issues jump out – one of omission and one of commission.

If we had not been informed by Dr Randy Persaud that the major category of “migrant workers’ in the film were Guyanese, we may have thought that Mr. Faria’s thesis of “benign Bajans” had some merit.

As it is we can only wonder how Mr Faria can dismiss as “speculative nonsense” claims that anti-Guyanese may have something with the crimes under review.

Secondly, Mr Faria’s call on “progressive and democratic forces including the left” to act against “anti-foreigner sentiment and xenophobia” appears to imply that he accepts that Barbadian right-wing forces, who preach and practice such sentiments, are up and about their land.

In fact, Mr Faria claims that he himself has “on many occasions written radio station managements which encourage misinformed or willful inflammatory views; views which can only serve to create divisions and racial hatred among working people.”

In view of the documentary, ON THE MAP, and Mr Faria’s intervention as Guyana’s Honorary Consul, we can only assume that the said berated “working people” were in fact Guyanese.”

Barbadians have evidently forgotten that after the abolition of slavery, Guyana provided a haven for thousands of Bajans who sought a better life than the one in their homeland.

Time, according to some, moves in circles: our day in the sun will one day return. In the meantime, those who are supposed to represent our interests should do so without becoming anyone’s doormat.
Even diplomacy does not require sycophancy.

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Bajans’ disdain for Guyanese

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