Guyana: The old die, the young leave and children play with laptops

Mar 18, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The people who spotted at a very early stage, the unchanging nature of Guyana’s politics were the Canadians. In 1980, the Canadian High Commission pulled out its consular section from Guyana and relocated it to Trinidad. The service was corrupted by Guyanese who were desperate to get to North America. Two senior officers were subsequently charged in Canada and jailed.
In 1992, Guyana returned to electoral democracy. Cheddi Jagan became President, but the Canadians weren’t interested. It was a strange decision since Guyana had returned to a free market economy and there was no longer an enduring pessimism among the population.
It turned out it wasn’t strange at all. Political risk analysts must have told the Canadian Immigration Ministry not to move back the visa section to Young Street, Kingston, because the PPP was not the panacea for Guyana.
It turned out they were right. The assumption to power of a very young Guyanese and the further opening up of the economy did not see a return of the consular office. As Guyanese began to migrate in record numbers and as the American Embassy was deluged with bogus documents, the Canadians made a permanent decision – its visa section would remain in Trinidad.
St. Maarten has now instituted visa requirements on Guyanese. Are we returning to the days when Guyana was a pariah in the Caribbean? Guyana will no longer have a World Bank resident representative. Guyana will now be served by the Jamaican office. The USAID mission will be closed next year.
These are early warning signs that major countries do not see a future for Guyana. The people who would know more about that are the Guyanese themselves. In the year 2011, nineteen years after the PPP came to power, the university community is contemplating the shutting down of the institution because it is financially incapable of retaining its existence.
Before this sad turn of events, Guyanese were informed by the World Bank that 82 percent of those who possessed a tertiary education leave for other lands.
Then the US Embassy disclosed that fourteen persons migrate legally each day to the USA (this does not include those who leave backtrack or who leave on visitor’s visas). When you couple that with the huge numbers that go to Caricom territories and to Canada, then the only people that will be left are small children. As the old die and the young leave, Guyana will become a deserted land. People are not staying here.
The former Courts manager, Mr. Burgess set up a restaurant. He saw prospects in Guyana but he is gone. The former Fogarty’s manager, Mr. Furnivall, invested in a pizza parlour. He too saw prospects. He too is gone. When Mr. Hiscock, the British High Commissioner retired, he chose to live in Guyana with his family. They have left.
For all his fanatical love for the PPP, Guyana’s Consul-General in Barbados, Norman Faria, never chose to live here. He died last year in Barbados. Rickey Singh is going on to his eighties. He has been an unashamed supporter of the PPP Government since 1992. Mr. Singh refuses to come back.
Sir Shridath Ramphal retired from international public service and has settled in Barbados.
It is unadulterated nonsense to believe that 1,000 Guyanese living abroad will return to take up those house lots promised to them by the Government. They may accept the plots, but they will not live here. Let us wait and see how many of that 1,000 will re-settle.
The truth about Guyana is that it is bordering on being a semi-civilized state. When people go on holiday abroad, the first thing that comes out of their mouth, whether it is about Trinidad or Suriname or Barbados or South Africa or the Bahamas or United Arab Emirates or Singapore or any other country is; “That place nice bad, you can’t compare Guyana to it.”
Even in Cuba, public institutions are nicely kept and are immaculately clean. When Guyanese students go to other universities they come back and cuss-down rundown UG.
You can’t compare us to any other country in the 21st century. We are backward and moving further into the age of the primitive.
Which population in the world would tolerate a stink, putrid, decaying capital like Georgetown? In the 21st century, look at the ugly, elementary bridge we build over the Berbice River.
The thing resembles a makeshift army bridge, the kind you see during the Vietnam War. Visit the High Court and see where the water runs when it rains. All the gutters on the roofs have more holes than a basket. In the land of blackouts, time stands still.

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