Latest update January 7th, 2025 4:10 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

BILL COTTON/REFORM… ‘WHEN ARE YOU LEAVING..?’

May 31, 2011 News

It’s a Guyanese tradition…as Vieira’s Evening News used to say. As soon as you arrive they ask you ‘When are you leaving?’ What sort of perverse logic is that? Don’t they like you? Don’t they value your presence in our mother’s land? Do they want to see the back of you? It makes you paranoid.
Bill has always been perplexed by this. What can possibly be the explanation?
So many Guyanese have left in the last fifty years that I guess leaving is now a part of everyday life. You all have relatives abroad-in the UK,USA and Canada and have probably grown up with them going and coming back especially for high days and holidays.
The diasporae are just that. So when they come you expect them to leave. The temporary is the norm for many Guyanese families.
It could be that more and more of you are going abroad to visit dem relatives so leaving is a part of your life. There is that wonderful phrase you hear when you try to track an individual or an official down, ‘Sorry he is out of the country’.
No indication of where they might be –Miami, The Moon or Mars. It covers a multitude of sins. At least the secretary does not resort to my other unfavourite ‘I wouldn’t be able to say’.  Why not!!
Or perhaps Guyana’s burgeoning tourism industry (copyright Guyana Tourism Authority) with the hordes thronging  Georgetown’s tree-lined  avenues means you have all got used to the comings and goings of the international tourist swarm. Perhaps.
Bill thinks not; he has yet to see the swarms of humanity coming to visit his mother’s land.
Perhaps as a nation you have collective ADHD–attention deficit syndrome— and you can only tolerate people (or is it Just Bill?) for a short while before your attention wanders elsewhere .Understandable. It is possible that in the future or the present, we will all be famous or concentrate for just fifteen seconds!
Bill is still really perplexed at that opening gambit. Maybe he should have a card prepared with the date to show and tell when asked?
But, as you are curious by now, I am leaving on June 1, for Trinidad. Bill just hopes when he gets there his hosts at UWI don’t open the conversation by asking, “When are you leaving?”
If they do, he will scream!! Pip!pip!

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

National Indoor Recurve Archery tournament to shoot off from January 18 at Cyril Potter College Auditorium 

National Indoor Recurve Archery tournament to shoot off from January...

Jan 07, 2025

Kaieteur Sports-Archery Guyana (AG) is set to host a 2-day National Indoor Senior Recurve tournament on January 18 and 19 2025, at the Cyril Potter College Auditorium, Turkeyen Campus. Getting the...
Read More
GDF ‘A’ crowned GFF/Maid Marian Women’s Cup champions

GDF ‘A’ crowned GFF/Maid Marian Women’s Cup...

Jan 07, 2025

Harpy Eagles to bowl off practice games ahead of Regional Four-Day Title defence

Harpy Eagles to bowl off practice games ahead of...

Jan 07, 2025

Former British Guiana footballer Alvin Geronimo Braithwaite dead at 82

Former British Guiana footballer Alvin Geronimo...

Jan 07, 2025

Guyanese MMA star Harris set for octagon return on January 11

Guyanese MMA star Harris set for octagon return...

Jan 06, 2025

GCF Calls Urgent Extraordinary General Meeting to Resolve Leadership Crisis

GCF Calls Urgent Extraordinary General Meeting to...

Jan 06, 2025

Features/Columnists

  • Boxing should be banned

    Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Olympic boxing now finds itself as at a crossroads. A recent report in the Kaieteur News... more

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]