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At the centre of turbulence
Fatigued Guyana, struggling to get on its feet, is in the middle of more troubles that are generally recognized or acknowledged. Most of it is external and not of its own making. They are a matter more of geography and outside forces, than the usual self-affliction, so characteristic of this nation.
Take a careful look at any map of the northernmost areas of South America and a stark picture emerges. It is mostly bad and should fill with foreboding. Look left or right, nearby or slightly afar and it is the same disturbing sets of circumstances.
There is French Guiana with its share of problems. Come closer to home, and there is Suriname: a nation with a badge as a thriving narco-state. Right next door, but a little more distant, there is once-swaggering Venezuela, floating on fabulous riches, yet trapped and paralyzed in the throes of a confluence of societal and national traumas that wound one and all over there grievously.
Venezuela poses a special problem and threat to Guyana; a clear and imminent danger that is neither going away nor diminishing in intensity. Last, there stands still another neighbour, the giant of the hood, mighty Brazil; it, too, is not spared and basking in anything that may be accurately termed as placid or peaceful.
Everywhere that Guyanese take the time to observe, and then assess the implications, it is the same depressing story of a region in states that span the spectrum from discontent and disturbance on the lower end of the scale, to severe turmoil or chaos at the other.
Major segments of these woes can be traced to internal forces clamouring for some level of cleaner government or greater participation in the very apparatus of governance. In the case of Venezuela, the extreme prevails in the hardcore bitterness of desire for outright replacement of the existing governance machinery.
Even as this is posited, the heavy hand of powerful foreign influences must not be ignored. It does not help that these competing foreign powers are all angling to be the dominant player in the affairs of these troubled states, be such economic or ideological. It is the newest version of the old, big power great game being played out right before the eyes, and right in the vicinity of Guyana.
For its part, Guyana has its own perennial intractable problems; and all highly insoluble. To be surrounded by societies that attract so much negative foreign interest and attention, and with the corresponding pressures that come with those, it is the worst of all worlds for little Guyana, now wondering how to capitalize on its mineral blessings.
The first issue is how to get near enough to the wealth to actually touch it and pocket it. That looks thornier by the day, with louder and more frequent saber-rattling and insistent hostility by its deeply troubled and deeply divided neighbour.
The recent meeting of Guyana’s Foreign Minister with the Deputy Secretary of State of the United States should go some way to alleviate some local anxieties. Ease them, not eliminate them. Words emanating from that discussion are direct and unambiguous: Guyana must be free to explore and operate within its economic zone and territorial sphere. That is as good a counter, and veiled warning, that locals can expect at this time.
What is not so good, and which need no cautionary reminders, is the continuing dissonance and divisions in this country at the political, racial, and social levels.
When this country should be at its most prepared and sharpest, it is laid low (like struggling neighbours in the region) by one self-created and self-perpetuated crisis after another.
Instead of a concerted focus on reaping the oil, there is this fevered political and racial delirium, with the usual accompanying social animus, that renders this nation prostrate and vulnerable. Wrong time, wrong reasons, and with the wrong long-term results threatened for one and all Guyanese.
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