Visa-free travel to UK and 1000-Man Movement

Oct 20, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

So, Guyanese can travel visa-free to the United Kingdom.  Also, President Ali announced his 1,000-man initiative, which reminds me of former U.S. President GHW Bush thousand points of light campaign flash.  Both developments have their merits, and I give a hand to them.  Then, a few thoughts came the more I pondered.

It is good that Guyanese would have that, shall I say, ‘hassle-free’ access long denied so many others.  As repeatedly tendered, this oil has its magic moments unrelated to cash.  But then again, cash is never out of the considerations of the powers like the UK, no matter how trussed up/down they may be.  Guyanese business people get to move across the pond (the longer version) to explore opportunities, with outlets for pouring some of their pickings, the clean kind, into the British economy.  Guyanese men get to shop on Savile Row, and the ladies with plenty spare cash can thrill to the fineries of Bond Street.  I would suggest that most of our media people travel and take a peek at how the Fourth Estate serves the interests of the people by obtaining some much needed guidance from Fleet Street.

For those planning a good time, there is always Manchester United and Piccadilly, with the really loaded stocking up on high priced real estate in Knightsbridge and Kensington.  My point is that the less than 1% people in Guyana, the super rich cohort of ruling Politicians, their surrounding cast of cronies, and the upper layer of private sector big shots, real ones not pretenders, have money to burn, and the delights of the UK are as good a place as any to layaway the hot cash, or splurge to one’s delight.  The Brits might even allow them a spot at Lord’s or Wimbledon.  By the way, it would be local content in reverse, but with the same result- Guyanese fronting for overseas hustlers.

Now for the other side of this visa-free story.  Why do Guyanese need to go anywhere?  I ask pardon, but Mohamed did not go to the mountain, he made it come to him.  So why aren’t we exhibiting the same attitude, doing the same thing?  I am nowhere near the splendor of oil, and that is my outlook.  To proceed into even choppier waters, I believe that the bulk of British based Guyanese are of Black ancestry, so this visa business could be an incentive for reunions, and who knows a bit of adjusting of local demographics.  I don’t recall if I shared this before, but I foresee my fellow Americans relaxing their own visa requirements, which should open the floodgates of Black Guyanese giving up the ghost here, and rushing over there to Brooklyn and Atlanta.  They tell me that all that is needed for a parliamentary seat is about 6,000 votes; thus, I like the look of such a helping American hand in 2024, if not next year.  COVID-19 is not such a concern anymore, and the US Labor market could use the hand, legal or illegal, within the officially allotted six-month space, or beyond, for which the adventurousness may get ideas.  In sum, thinning of the political ranks, open borders, and equal opportunity, with milk and honey all thrown in for good measure.

Regarding the President’s proud announcement of his laudable 1000-man initiative, the more I like it, the more I am worried.  Incidentally, in a bow to the sensitivities of the pc people and gender neutrality, I fix myself and make that the 1000 man and woman army of the noble and altruistic.  My first concern is whether we have 1000 such citizens in this country.  If His Excellency had said that he was going to search tirelessly for them in the lower, less visible, less obvious segments of this bedraggled and bedridden society, I would have way less doubts. But the more they are on the inside and the more present at the upper tiers, the more the uncertainty (a euphemism), about their qualifications and the required character for the job at hand, which is being mentors and role models for our largely morals-deprived, rudderless, and lost young.  To say this differently, the more ingrained men and women are in this society, and the higher they go, the more they compromise themselves.  Anybody hear anybody revealing anything about all the dirty, shabby, tricky things going on in this regime?

Moreover, I don’t think that it is not the best arrangement for this to be initiated and launched by the President himself, since he hasn’t done too well in certain departments, which his Attorney General made go away.  Now, please don’t laugh or squirm, but the Bishop may have been the better choice.  Repeat for emphasis: may….  Gives a little sheen to matters, but to make myself clear, I don’t look too kindly upon even some of the churchmen and churchwomen in this town.  If they can’t measure up, then who can?  Worse still, who is teaching, counseling, leading, and stands as exemplifying for our youths who need all the guidance that they can get?  This is how far gone we are in Guyana.  There is the greatest difficulty finding a talented tenth, or a wholesome hundred, but here is the President going forward with his dream of a thousand.  I bless him if he can find them, then who and what for whom and to where?

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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