The “Donald Trump factor” in the exodus of young Guyanese

Jul 22, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Ask any high school kid why Donald Trump is the most controversial person making the news around the world, and he/she will tell you that it is because of who he essentially is. Ask any school kid why Trump divides opinions so bitterly in the US, he/she will tell you that such a person should not be the head of government of the world’s modest powerful state.
In other words, people have a cluster of values which they feel their leaders must embody and for substantial numbers of Americans, Trump lacks those qualities.
There is a huge section of the American population that believes that if Trump becomes president, he will not display the type of leadership that will expand the popularity of the US around the world, build on the things that made America great and transform the US into a more open, democratic, multi-racial society that it has come to be viewed as since the beginning of the 20th century. The point is, people look to leadership to make the land they live in a better, richer territory.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Greenidge told the nation that among other countries, Guyana, per capita, has the highest migration rate of Guyanese with a tertiary education. The World Bank put the figure at 82 percent. Why do they leave? It is naïve to think it is just for higher salaries alone. I dwelled among young Guyanese for 26 years as a lecturer at the University of Guyana. In that time, I have come to understand how they feel about their country. It is misleading to think that leaving is the first thing on their mind after graduating.
How they see their country and the things they want to see in their country, play a powerful role in their decision to leave. Young people feel that leadership continues to fail this country, because our politicians are not visionary, transformational thinkers. In other words, our leaders are like Donald Trump. And how and why did they come to that conclusion? Through travel and social media. Once you save up a few dollars, you want to visit your relatives or friends in the Caribbean or further afield.
They go there and they see modern countries with modern infrastructure, modern technology, modern science, modern laws, modern leaders. They come back to Guyana and they frown on what their country is, because they see more sensible things and sensible leaders elsewhere. It is interesting to note that when Trevor Benn, the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, removed the primitive dress code requirements at his workplace, he told the press that in his travels around the Caribbean, he didn’t see those requirements.
A young lady graduates from UG. She goes to Lands and Surveys to transact business for her aging parents. She is turned away because of her armless dress. She is appalled. She goes home and says, “Mommy, I have my education, I don’t have to live in such a silly country.” This is just one of a plethora of reasons why tertiary graduates leave; it is not for money only. A young lady graduates from UG. Her parents buy her a car. Almost daily she is a victim of routine traffic stops. She goes home and tells her parents, she is going to live elsewhere where such unnecessary hassles do not exist.
Tertiary graduates know their country is backward and they are not prepared to live here, because they feel their university education makes them marketable in foreign lands, especially Canada, where self-sponsorship is not difficult to secure. Young people know that Guyana may be the only country in the world that retires its talented teachers in public schools, experienced officers in the public security sector and qualified public servants at age 55. Young people know, through the ordeal of their parents, that the court system takes at least twelve years to complete litigation.
Young people know it is not easy to get a UG transcript, a birth certificate and a passport; things they need to apply for Canadian self-sponsorship. They pass on their frustration to their friends. Their friends internalize that frustration and they want to leave too.
I am going to conclude this column with a few lines that may cause you to question my integrity. You may do so, but the words below are the truth. In my 26 years as a lecturer at UG, I never came across a student that enjoyed UG. Honestly! Not even one! All of them found UG to be a torture chamber and were desperately waiting for their moment of graduation.