Guyanese, migration and de licks

Jun 13, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As we are into our 44th year as a “we own country,” it has come as a mixed bag for many like me, considering ourselves as patriots and we are not scoundrels.
It is a mixed bag because a lot more should have been achieved but for many reasons of the human personality, we have not been able to make it better.
Some will point to changes in infrastructure and other capital forms and those are good visually, but the human condition continues to be found wanting, to the extent that our people continue to rove, resulting in disrespect and bad treatment meted out to us in the Caribbean in particular.
Observing the many commentaries on the treatment meted out to Guyanese living in the Caribbean including that of Mr. Ramjeet, and even though I understand the tenet of his argument which is pointing to the fact that Guyana has been good to its Caribbean brothers and sisters, thus we expect the same in return – the contexts are totally different today.

I want to get straight to the meat of the matter and that is that PM Thompson has a direct responsibility to protect and maintain a high standard of living for his people and if anything threatens that, then he will put on his patriotic hat and do what he considers important.
During the days of his predecessor, Mr. Owen Arthur, who had lead responsibility in CARICOM for the CSME, he was very accommodating, begging his countrymen not to be harsh on Guyanese migrants and even stressing the fact that his house was constructed using labour from Guyana. Mr. Thompson has no such sentiments and deals as an ultimate pragmatist.
So, Brother Oscar, never mind all those things that Burnham and others did, it will not undo how people operate in a crisis.
I know Sir, as a patriot you are concerned about what we have to show after 43 years as an Independent nation.
Just imagine on the eve of our 43rd year as an independent nation, our head of state went to Trinidad to cajole Mr. Thompson into going easy on his countrymen. That hurts me, bad.
If you are a nationalist of the pure kind it does hurt real badly. I cringe when I consider what Thompson said under his breath or in private. “Why he does not do all he can to ensure he keeps his people at home, rather than tell me to go easy on them.”

This same Thompson threw a few barbs during the EPA drama when he said that some people wanted to back away from the deal now, but they were in agreement earlier.
Moreover, Mr. Golding said that some of the leaders were panhandling, jumping around to the major capitals to demonstrate how poor they are and begging endlessly.
One Guyanese columnist said he knew who those leaders were talking about.
These are not public statements that give you the impression that you are very well respected and so I am not surprised to see the treatment meted out to us. But note this has been going on for sometime, and it takes many forms, of which I have personal experience.
Let us get to some practical and down to earth issues. As the crunch gets tighter and tighter, people are going to get serious.

For example, the average Barbadian or small islander sees the Guyanese as a scab who accepts little and does the donkey work. Why? A tradesman in Guyana gets $3,500/day but he accepts $8 EC/hr in Montserrat as against the $20 EC/hr demanded by the natives. The $8EC pay in Montserrat is equivalent to $7000/day in Guyana, but the Montserratian will be upset because the Guyanese is being exploited but his satisfaction level is at a much lower level, thereby ruining bargaining strength.
Remember, this was how some black Americans saw West Indians when they arrived and began working in Brooklyn, other parts of New York and Washington, DC.
I am not privy to speak of the Indian brothers/sisters in these islands but they are not seen in good light either for other reasons.

I noted Freddie talking about them and in some ways disparagingly, but what I know is that their thrift, sacrifice and swift economic mobility do not endear them to the natives, who are predominantly black and with many behaving cavalierly as we see with the WI team.
It is a sort of envy, but their causes are not assured when they demonstrate a clannish existence with little hope of integration or cultural assimilation. Islanders see this in a negative light.
To those who feel that the pattern of behaviour started now. No. It was there for sometime. As a student in Trinidad, my taunts had to deal with all sorts of negatives including lack of toilet paper in Guyana. It was harder for me because I lived on Campus and integrated more than my other brothers/sisters who lived off campus. My brother Percy Chin lived on C-Hall and was fully integrated with the Jam-town brothers. When I lost a table tennis game to Percy on my Hall, against Percy’s Hall, I was deemed a sellout. However, I introduced regular Badminton to my Hall, won the Interfaculty Badminton competition for my faculty, became the Badminton Champion; represented my Hall, faculty and campus at cricket as well as athletics and performed several dramatic pieces.
My Guyanese professors and one in particular called me to his office and told me in flattering terms how he felt about my presence.

He was an East Indian and I would never forget his encomium, which was dear and from his heart.
I did not know they were observing. By then the negatives would have been replaced by admiration and all the accolades which followed were all enough to dissipate any remnants of xenophobia for this Guyanese.
Note there were some other serious issues of the day. The African students were generally aloof and the Caribbean students had a major difficulty with that. It was felt that we (Caribbean people) were descendants of slaves and so were less worthy. Same time as well, Trinidadians referred to all non-Trinis as small islanders and this got the Jamaicans “prickled”.

It was a contemptuous view and one I saw starkly when in the Bomb (of Chokolingo’s fame) newspaper, a cartoon showed a small islander was threatened with a slap by a Trini. The small islander was indignant and told the Trini to go ahead and “Bax” him. A slap from a Trini became a “Bax” to a small Islander – the cartoon was expected to demonstrate through lexicon, the difference between the two, in class, breed and condition. I diverted here simply to show that there have always been nationalistic by-plays but in these circumstances you have to manage it as much as you can at the individual level.
To illustrate my point once again, some may remember when New Zealand came to WI in 1972 that the WICB did not invite the ‘Super-Cat’ (Clive Lloyd) and Mr. Burnham probably called his Australian counterpart to intervene in order for the ‘Super-Cat’ to play in the WI. The ‘Super-Cat’ landed at Timehri and was whisked in a helicopter to Bourda. Earlier, he was declared in the Guyana team and came just in time to put on his pads to start batting.

The rest was history as the ‘Super-Cat’ showed his class and wended his way back into the West Indies line-up, making captain two years later and becoming one of the best in the world.
The trouble though was that in the early days he got a licking from Trinis because he was deemed to have been close to Mr. Burnham who became unpopular with the policies of austerity, self-reliance and left-leaning ideology. (I dare say that I am seeing these coming differently packaged now).The policies at that time spawned the Guyanese traders,’ contraband activity from countries such as Trinidad and Suriname. Traders were taking over these countries’ airports with their over laden bags. The airlines were smiling because every flight to and from Guyana was fruitful.

I would add too that in recent years many West Indian cricketers avoided coming to Guyana as much as they can, especially bowlers. You will recall also, Mr. Holding speaking of abandoning Guyana as a Test playing venue because of the weather. Why not England where the weather is equally unkind?
But then again how many of my Test players are at home? Sometime around the mid- nineties (maybe 1996) I did a census and we had about five living at home and they were Roy Fredericks, Roger Harper, Basil Butcher, Clyde Butts and Mr. Ivor Mendonca, who kept wicket for the WI in the olden days. Today that number has not improved significantly.

We have added Nagas, Sars, Ryan, Reon, Chattas and Colin. I am not sure of Narsingh as I understand his family lives abroad. Compare this list with Barbados it will not make for a good feeling of a real GT man.
(Sir Gary, Sir Everton, Rev. Wesley, David, Tony, Prof, Charlie, Wayne, Gordon, Desmond, Joel, Carlisle, Philo, Sherwin, Floyd and very many others) These names are unmistakable because they did well for the WI. The same can be said for little Antigua and Trinidad.
Very many had hoped for welcome changes to national politics and ultimately living conditions in Guyana after 1992. Seventeen years later there is a strong feeling of disenchantment and the migration trend has not been abated. Prior to 1992 our teachers built the education system in St. Lucia and other islands. Since 1992 our teachers have built the same systems in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and far-away Botswana.
Even more amazing is that our nurses and teachers are demanded in USA, UK and Canada.

A friend told me she keeps her passport on her all the time and as soon as her leave begins, the next day she is back home. Some are not like that and vow never to return. So the migration trend and xenophobia have not gone away after all these years.
Let us look at migration of the races. Prior to 1992 it was argued that most of the outward migration came from persons of the East Indian extract and the professional class, who voiced dissatisfaction with discrimination and sub-par living standards respectively. Since the new government in 1992 it would have been assumed that discrimination would have been brought to a minimum, the economy would have improved resulting in migration being reduced considerably. The evidence shows that migration of all races has not abated with the East Indian segment justifying this with the pull factor.

That argument can hold for the North American trail but not for the Caribbean Islands. On the other hand the Afro segment is cursing discrimination and sub-par living conditions – the same issues of the past. So from empirical evidence these conditions of life have not changed except the people who governed.
I do not know who is listening or checking on our real situation but this matter warrants a National Reconstruction/Reconciliation Commission with some teeth. We have enough prominent people here and abroad with no axe to sharpen, who can help chart a way that will restore confidence in all things Guyanese. However the big question is if our politicians are of the mind to share the space to bring healing to this troubled nation. We need it now more than ever.
Let us not divert our hostility to little Barbados and the smaller islands. They have done whatever they could and are appearing better off than Guyana. Give them credit for having little and doing better with it. We need a ‘good cut tail” for having so much and producing so little. Take the “boo-boo” from our eyes to begin to see properly. Is high time man!
Hope we can make that important step in this our 44th year.
Orrin Gordon

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