Desperate people in desperate times under a failed king

Aug 31, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The Wikileaks report on migration out of Guyana makes for sickening reading. It describes the Kafkaesque nightmare of a people who are desperately seeking to get out of the land they were born into and they would resort to any depraved, immoral and criminal mechanism to reach the shores of the United States. The Embassy cables on migration paint a tragic canvas of desperate people under the presidency of Mr. Jagdeo.
The Embassy describes Guyana as an impoverished South American country where “crime, poverty and political instability create strong push factors.” The cables went on to state that; “Many Guyanese see emigration as the best and only chance for a brighter future.” Mr. Jagdeo would say this is the Embassy’s opinion. But read the cables and you will find the evidence.
The dispatches outline the ways and means Guyanese people use just to get an American visa. This isn’t an American opinion. It is a documentation of what the US Embassy has to endure with Guyanese who are fleeing their homeland.
The cables on the mad rush to leave Guyana are an indictment on the Jagdeo presidency. These transmissions from the US Embassy tell the story of the unimpressive, ugly and sad legacy of Mr. Jagdeo. More than forty-five years after Independence, the Americans describe us as impoverished, with fear of political instability driving us to abandon our homeland.
It must go down as the biggest irony in world politics when you juxtapose Mr. Jagdeo’s speeches to young Guyanese and what those young Guyanese do to the Embassy staff just to get out of a country run by Mr. Jagdeo.
Speaking to hundreds of youngsters the Government freely transported to the Convention Centre two weeks ago, Mr. Jagdeo lectured them about the past under the PNC Government. He told them about shortage of food and lack of freedom. These young people must be in a decayed state of extreme brainwashing that with all the food and freedom they now have, they are inundating the US Embassy with applications for visas. Under Mr. Jagdeo’s wonderful land of plenty, the World Bank put the figure at over eighty percent of the young people who desert Guyana for foreign soil after securing a tertiary education.
The US Embassy cites poverty, crime and political instability as the push factors. And what is the record of President Jagdeo on poverty, crime and political instability? For all his ugly criticism of the PNC Government at the Convention Centre recently, crime, poverty and political instability were nuisances under President Burnham. Under Mr. Jagdeo, they are nightmares.
Mr. Burnham ruled this territory for twenty years and six months and one could have counted on their fingers the violent, internecine episodes that threatened the very existence of Guyana. It is outside the scope of this column to offer an enumeration of political instabilities that almost destroyed this nation during the reign of Mr. Jagdeo.
No one can be that indecent to say we had more starving people under Mr. Burnham than what currently obtains under Mr. Jagdeo. Poverty is the ubiquitous monster that eats away at this nation. When you see manifestations of poverty under Mr. Jagdeo you scream for the return of President Burnham. And this writer is no admirer of Mr. Burnham, was personally oppressed by him, and considers his administration a dictatorship. When you see poverty in Guyana today it creates the paradox of emotion – you want to cry but you are so angry you want to create a revolution.
On crime, the least said of that the better. It has come to the point where each one of us can die senselessly tomorrow from the gun of any punk who wants our gold chain, gold ring, bicycle or cell phone and death can come on the busiest street at the busiest hour. In Guyana today, you are not safe at midday in front of your gate. The zenith of criminal bestiality has been reached in Guyana – drug lords have turned Guyana into a narco-land.
I repeat – the Wikileaks cables on massive migration out of Guyana is an indictment of Mr. Jagdeo. As you read the cables, as you see the poverty, as you feel the air of political instability, you must ask yourself the inevitable question – what has Mr. Jagdeo done with his twelve years? You can see the twelve years alright. They are there to be seen – the questionable mansions, the multi-billion-dollar businesses, the manicured lawns that would make the American rich envy Guyana, the thirty million dollar SUVs. Read the cables!

Latest News

Desperate people in desperate times under a failed king

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 4th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

‘One Guyana’ 3×3 Quest tips off today

Twin tons from Anderson, Imlach steer Eagles back...

Race for quarterfinal spots commence today at MoE...

Marsh sets up Lucknow’s comfortable win...

Saints and GTI dominate as YBG Georgetown...

Carty misses ton, Hamilton (80) sets up tense...

Features/Columnists

The One-Man Republic

The U.S. “Joining” the Commonwealth: an unreasonable expectation

Polls – what they say, where I stand

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Desperate people in desperate times under a failed king

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 4th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]