Latest update August 1st, 2026 12:35 AM
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Sssshhh, don’t let Bruce know!
So we are asking little Norway for financial assistance. The begging has taken Guyana to untraditional places. Since Guyana attained Independence, it has had an invisible relationship with Greece.
There wasn’t anything in the land of the gods that made the Burnham and Hoyte administrations interested in it. Greece didn’t exist as far as Guyana’s foreign policy was concerned.
Now sixteen years into its rule, the PPP Government sent the President to Greece. It remains a fascinating question as to what Mr. Jagdeo thought he might have received from Greece.
By this time, Mr. Jagdeo must be deeply disappointed with the desert version of Benito Mussolini and Muammar Gaddafi after he read last week what this crazy Arab leader did. He attended the summit of the African Union wearing a gown laced with real gold from top to bottom. He took nine security personnel with him, all of whom were dressed in similar style with gold flowing from their gowns too.
The total cost of those golden flairs and gold accoutrements must have been more than US$41M which is the sum Guyana owes Libya and which Mr. Jagdeo traveled to Libya two weeks ago to ask Gaddafi to cancel.
One wonders what is going through the head of the Guyanese President when he saw the decadently expensive clothes Gaddafi and his henchmen wore. Obviously one thought ran through his mind; “And just US$41M that man couldn’t give me.”
Don’t let us mention Qatar. Nothing came from that part of the Arabian Desert. So Mr. Jagdeo turned to Norway. Like Greece, Norway never came within the radar of Guyana’s foreign policy. Why Norway? It is not a major industrialized country. It is not known for vast receptacles of wealth.
It has a mere four million people and though not poor is certainly not a nation the global index would rate as a world economic power. Nevertheless, Mr. Jagdeo did seek a dialogue for financial assistance for forest preservation.
Many of these talk shops (like Davos where Mr. Jagdeo met his Norwegian counterpart and the promise of money was made to Mr. Jagdeo) never achieve anything. They will always remain a getting- to- know- you affair.
Mr. Jagdeo hosted the Rio Summit but chose to travel to Libya, Qatar, Greece, and now Norway to seek help. Why not from the Rio countries? Because the Rio Summit like so many of its kind, are talk shop tales.
The Chilean President came and went. What interest she has in Guyana can easily be answered – none.
Mr. Jagdeo should try a thing in the Rio countries. After all, he hosted their leaders here in 2007. Why go to Greece and not Chile? For Guyana’s sake, one hopes a few dollars come in from Norway but sad to say that is a distant possibility.
So where next for Mr. Jagdeo? Of course there are some other Arab countries in which Mr. Jagdeo’s friend, CIOG’s President, Fazeel Ferouz has some contacts. These Arab sheikdoms have made funds available to the CIOG to build a Muslim hospital on Woolford Avenue on the site where the Muslim Youth Organization stands.
It is rumoured that a certain medical doctor who is looking out for his future beyond 2011 will be named the director. Even if the PPP wins the 2011 elections, the new leader will want to change the guards in the war room.
Every president changes the confederates, acolytes and sycophants of the previous regime. He/she wants to have his/her own at the head of the ship. Should that appointment take place, it will be a strange decision since that doctor, the past sixteen years, has not practised medicine.
Should a hospital overlook other practitioners and assign the medical directorate to a consultant that has been away from his profession for sixteen years? I guess the media should ask Hajji Ferouz that question.
The person who must be mad about these frequent begging trips of the Guyanese Head of State has to be Jamaican PM, Bruce Golding. He furiously accused Guyana (without calling names) of being an embarrassment to Caricom. He told his audience that Guyana is Caricom’s panhandler. He says Guyana goes all over the world imploring states to give it money because it is very poor.
If Mr. Golding was embarrassed, then what about us here in Guyana? Think of what kind of message our mendicant status sends to our youths. They see our leaders begging other states all the time for aid, and they ask themselves if their country does not have money. The brutally frank but sad answer is yes, it hasn’t got money. But we could get our own money if we have the right leaders.
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