A Canadian educator’s impressions of Guyana

May 14, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,

As my latest sojourn in Guyana nears its end, I would like to offer another set of impressions on the nation’s current state, as an important milestone in its history is approaching. My previous two letters were a “report card” on Guyana, highlighting some positive and negative features, from a foreign visitor’s viewpoint. As an introductory disclaimer, I should inform readers that I am a Canadian academic with a Guyanese-born spouse. While I have never lived in this country, I have spent pleasant vacations here and plan many more in my impending retirement. I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about Guyana’s history, politics, and culture but of course what follows is an “outsider’s” perspective.
I have definitely enjoyed my latest stay in this friendly, fascinating, and (it must be said) occasionally frustrating country. The Guyanese people are extremely welcoming, and I have always received a friendly reception from those with whom I have interacted, in the market, on the minibus, or just passing by on the street. Unlike large, impersonal cities such as Toronto, my home town, Guyana remains a “face-to-face” society, where people take the time to greet each other warmly in the most casual of interactions. I hope that this is one aspect of the local culture that does not disappear as globalization spreads its mixed bag of blessings and curses here.
This time I would like to award a few “pluses” and “minuses,” as my teaching background might suggest. But as a historian, I would also like to make some deeper observations about this country’s interesting, inspiring, and at times tragic history, in both the pre- and post-independence eras, and offer some ideas about how I think it might be commemorated, especially on this important occasion. Much of my historical research and teaching deals with what constitutes a nation’s “historical memory” and how that precious and important legacy is interpreted and passed on from one generation to the next. To this end, I will review some key incidents in Guyana’s history, and point to their contemporary resonances on the eve of the Jubilee.
On the “plus” side, on this visit I was happy to see that the much-vaunted “clean-up” of the capital, especially the once shockingly squalid Stabroek Market area, has indeed taken place, not a moment too soon for the impending anniversary and the expected arrival of many visitors from abroad. This is apparently one of the proudest accomplishments of the APNU-AFC coalition, now observing the first anniversary of its election to government, and its pride is justified. Another positive, if the pro-coalition press is to be believed, is the new regime’s stated commitment to “inclusive governance” exemplified by the creation of a new ministerial portfolio of “social cohesion.” The current administration is the first in Guyana’s post-independence history that at least in theory, embraces the notion that all of the country’s ethno-cultural groups should have an equal seat at the table, after so many decades when one has been pitted against the other.
This distrust and enmity has all-too-often been manipulated by politicians from both of the nation’s main political parties for their own cynical ends. Without pointing the finger of blame in any particular direction, this stark reality in my view represents the tragic “original sin” of the nation’s difficult birth fifty years ago. It is a vexing and burdensome legacy that the current generation of civic leaders and citizens in general, must address and examine honestly if this country is ever to achieve real progress in the future. I hope that leading political figures do not ignore this “elephant in the room” in their public addresses as the anniversary looms.
As for the negatives, I will refrain from harping on the crime issue, although unfortunately this is often at the forefront when diaspora Guyanese in Canada and elsewhere explain to me why they are reluctant to return to their country of birth, fearing for both their personal safety and that of their pocket books. According to some published reports, the rate of violent crime is actually declining here, a fact that loyal readers of the main newspapers, myself included, might find hard to believe.
It is an old journalistic maxim that “if it bleeds it leads” and perhaps the widespread and graphic coverage of violent crimes is meant to satisfy a prurient hunger for sensationalism, a phenomenon found in many countries besides Guyana, including my own. This can lead to the misperception that crime is on the increase, when the data might in fact point in the opposite direction. I would only suggest that violent crime anywhere is directly linked to poverty and economic inequality, whether the country in question is Canada or Guyana. I have addressed the issue of the wide chasm between this country’s “haves” and “have-nots” in previous letters, and it should be on the top of the new government’s agenda. Guyana is potentially a very rich country, whose ample resources and opportunities have been negligently squandered and scandalously mismanaged, by political parties of both stripes, and should be far more equitably shared and distributed than they are at present.
Dr. Peter Flaherty
Faculty of Education
York University, Canada

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