Guyanese already living with subtle, spreading segregation

Sep 11, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Somebody did me the courtesy of sharing a Facebook post. I wish they hadn’t; then glad that it was done. This is the situation.

A man posted the experience of his family at a resort on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. I gather that it was a party of a dozen plus with children present. Concisely, the experience from gate to remote benab to departure, with staff communications presented was revealing, roiling, and repugnant. According to this man baring his anguished Guyanese soul, he and his family were made to feel unwanted, inferior, and as inconvenient interlopers. Subtle segregation in Guyana. To elaborate, the presence of unofficial segregated facilities effectively barring Guyanese citizens from partaking of nature’s gifts in their country. Locals shouldn’t swim in the pool because the foreigners wouldn’t like it.

Immediately, images of lunch counters, Birmingham, South Carolina, and Faubus and Wallace came to mind. This can’t be what oil has done to Guyanese. But, it has, if this unknown man’s story is to be believed. I go out on a limb: I believe him. If not, he is a worst bigot than those at whom he points a finger wrongly, cruelly. Worse still, I would be aiding and abetting him. But, there is something in this hurting man’s story, his deep humiliation, that stirs deep inside of me. It has that ring about it.

Editor, have we become so diseased that foreigners loathe being near us? Are we so low that outsiders can’t even share space with us, think the worst of us? And, are we so damning and dangerous that they need to segregated from us, or us from them? I know the answers to all three questions from living close enough to foreigners, being in the vicinity of them for the longest while, more than most Guyanese living here would ever know. Some like to keep down, keep out, and keep away. The noble, equitable ones helped with doors opened.

I understand from the FB post that there were some locals sharing space with them. They are our Guyanese versions of subversives, turncoats, and men and women who have no self-respect left. Anything for money. We have them in high houses of the state, in Pradoville, in Opposition ranks, and in the private sector, there is a breeding ground of addicts for a dollar, any dollar by any means from any degrader, any insulting violator. Do they think for one moment that the incoming newcomers have any regard for them, other than their utility as middlemen, arrangers, and fixers? In street lingo, nothing but pimps. Philby and Burgess sold themselves for ideology another fellow sold for silver. History has left its dark, ugly record of those who stood for nothing, so they sold themselves to the nearest, swiftest bidder. Oil history is littered with still more of these individual and tribal betrayers.

From FB, we learn about a resort, a swimming pool, and who can’t dip their toe where. I think we are going to have more of that here with segregated (exclusive) communities, separate (VIP) airports, separate hotels (entrances), and places in offices where Guyanese dare not go, dare not aspire. This has all the budding elements of Donald Trump’s Guyana, and I besmirch myself with the mere mention of this brother’s name. I lay the praise and thanks where such belongs – at the feet of a President who could care less in his appalling parochialism (a kind word), a Vice President who is lost in his own maze of mysteries, and the cohorts of willing flunkies who kiss their boot and the bottom of those coming here to get rich from our endowments. This is what oil has done to Guyana. Upstream is the welcome distance and cleanliness of offshore; downstream, they have to deal with dumb and dirty Guyanese, but only on their terms.

Man, we must smell real bad! Gosh, our sweat must be so profaning that we can’t even be allowed to partake of the waters (chlorinated) that nature has given to us. We pontificate about Dutch disease; well, this disease at work slyly and slickly in the homeland is a spreading virus, and one of epidemic proportions in Guyana. We speak brightly about resource curse when we don’t know the half of it. Political correctness camouflages very well.

George Wallace, that good ole boy from racist Alabama had it so right, lives powerfully on. Segregation today! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever! This is Guyana, as it will be. As it is now in real estate, real dealings, and reality. Now, if the great unwashed masses only knew…Get some damn pride, my fellow Guyanese. One last word, get used to living in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Get real!

Sincerely,
GHK Lall