We should embrace expat’s expertise like Bisram & others

Feb 16, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,
Because we live in a world that is really a global village, one day we are here and the very next day we are there – on the other side of the world, technically, we have become citizens of the world. Even long before we were jetting about the place, life was never static, and so here today and in another country some other time, has characterised our nomadic lifestyle. Out of that sense of mankind’s wanderlust emerged the discoverers, Columbus, Drake, Raleigh, etc.
Since America was discovered and turned out to be the real Biblical land of milk and honey, the world has headed West – even those countries of the West – of Canada, Central and South America – have seen the United States of America as the Promised Land. Immigrants everywhere rushed to America. Even Guyanese and Trinis have headed for the USA since the 1960s.
So among the millions of the world who have migrated to the US is for example, well-known itinerant pollster Dr. Vishnu Bisram from Guyana in South America. As in almost all cases, Bisram left his homeland seeking a better life in America as he desired to escape the hardship of his homeland. Because that was the ambition of all immigrants to rise and shine, most actually did so like the morning sun.
Bisram succeeded as an academic and otherwise making a name for himself in New York where he is known in the Caribbean diaspora there as something of a roving ambassador for the various islands. Because he is a pollster covering elections in Guyana, Trinidad and other countries of the region, and is hired in that capacity by regional media, Bisram has become a recognisable name and face in these islands. That the media utilises his expertise in this field is commendable.
So in this case, all that is well and good, but the mere fact that his other latent talent and fame have not been utilised by these countries (Guyana, especially) as something of a springboard, a presence in America, is myopic. For here you have someone who is familiar with the territory, who knows the ropes, and who could help launch one’s diplomatic offensive across there but is ignored when it comes to selecting persons for such overseas appointments.
One remembers Trinidadian Mervyn Dymally, a former Lieutenant Governor of California, USA and a significant member for several decades of the US House of Representatives who befriended Basdeo Panday in the nineties and was a visible player in the UNC victory of 1995 that catapulted Panday into the Prime Minister’s seat. Vishnu Bisram was also there campaigning for Panday’s UNC and conducting opinion polls that predicted a tied election, which was the actual outcome. Bisram was not rewarded and he sought no recognition for his work. One wondered how Dymally might have been rewarded for his contribution – if as an Ambassador, Consul General or a lobbyist for the Trinidad government – all of which would have been to the benefit of this country. But in the pettiness of this banana Republic mentality, nothing was apparently offered Dymally and he left empty handed. Today, one hears we pay lobbyists millions of dollars to represent us in diplomatic wheeling and dealing matters that some expat could have done for us for perhaps less and more diligently. In fact, Dr. Bisram did exactly that for Guyana since 1977 while living in the US.
The treatment of Dymally was a classic example of a wasted opportunity gone awry. The question of celebrated expats like Guyanese Vishnu Bisram and others, Trinidadian sporting icons Ato Boldon and Shaka Hislop, award-winning actress Heather Headley, world-class oncologist Aneesa Ahamad and others of their ilk surface. These Caribbean persons with special diamond studded handshakes and bosom-buddy connection in high places globally might be considered when we are looking to hire persons beyond our boundaries and thereby stop frittering away precious foreign exchange on foreigners who after all might not be the best choices we make.
Yours truly,
L Siddhartha Orie (Novelist and Author of Conversations with an Atheist)

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