A portrait of the Guyanese condition

Oct 19, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Guyanese are paper rich, but dirt poor; too many of them.  Guyanese intellects claim they are bright; but the light in them is a sickly sight; something is not right.  An abundance of learning, yet nothing that recommends character, some essence in the heart.  For those, some collect a million or a few.  For the millions, the things that they have to do.

It is said to be the way politics work.  From the ludicrous to the frivolous, the malicious to the venomous, there are those poisons in Guyana’s blood.  And how!  What cannot be found is fabricated.  The imagined is expanded, used to incite.  Or to attack and cleave in two.  Despite all of this, there are those who still insist that this country is well on the way to being unitary in mind and on the ground, too.  I am glad that all of those wisdoms, great national visions, rushed past my door without so much as even glancing consideration.  Talk of unique wisdoms and riches, and that’s Guyana.

Most places have one type of gold.  Guyana has two; one is under small rivers, in the bowels of mountain, and spread out across parcels of land.  The other bigger storehouse is under the ocean.  But the greatest pirates and saboteurs are not from across the border, but those in the local domain whose minds are made of molten lead.  A pocketful for me, a handful for selected others.  The rest have hope.  Somehow, this mindset is hailed as equitable, with none left out.

Big men read from bigger books written by the biggest men to explain and maintain, to translate and rationalize, that’s what is going on in Guyana, it is a higher standard of leadership.  And what they are doing represents the richness of impartial citizenship.  Fascinating and repelling at the same time.  Can some Guyanese who have read a book or two, entered a university or so, have insights!  Of other men.  From other places.  With different challenges.  Under the weight of their own unique conditions, histories.  So, ask a Guyanese man, inquire of a Guyanese woman, what is truly inside (other than the bigotries), what is stood for (other than the self-enriching), and all the learning from the great books boils down to three items.  They are three oppressive letters from the alphabet.

The sum and substance, the strength and spirit, of Guyanese endeavours and Guyanese existence distil to three letters out of the 26-letter alphabet.  The letter P, properly capitalized, enjoys pride of place: the popularity of being used four times.  After almost 60 years of independence, there is the totality of Guyanese liberty: A P, an N, and a C.  Remember: The P is recycled four times, three in one go, and then once.  The people are said to come first, foremost in interests and considerations.  Now just peek at where the people are.  Right in the gutter.  Who has it right and who has done good?  And to balance the formula: who has done wrong, and let nobody ever forget.  One of these days I think I will mosey on over to the American Embassy and request a copy of the CIA report on Guyana.  The one where studies have been done on local champions, and the completed printed profiles put in steel cabinets with codes and restricted access.

I will bet top dollar that the identification of leading local swindlers and scoundrels occupy a good many page.  Plus, something that has remarkable, near universal, consistency.  Counting all the rogues and reprobates, and the obvious is emphasized: they are all rabbits.  There are those who hide behind dirty tricks and tricky language, those who fear light, love darkness.  And among them are those who separate this country into blocks, while hiding behind the billowing skirts of outsiders.  On this a nation is being built.  Guyana is on the move, they say.  It is mentally suppressed, socially stagnated, terribly wounded, but that’s hailed as advancement.

Only fools will deny that Guyana is rich.  Foreigners don’t flock here for the food and propaganda.  They arrive in droves to seize their share of the riches.  And to give a slice to those who cleared the way for reciprocal prosperity.  Indeed, Guyana is rich as Croesus, Buffett, Bill and Ambani.  Yet Guyana is also a country where the seams split, the feet fail, and the people can’t stand on their own.  Something has taken over their heads.  Control the head, and there goes the body.  Thus, the savage irony of a country rich in nuggets and barrels, and so lacking in everything else.  Truth and principle have been the first sacrificial lambs.  Before that character and self-respect went the way of the dogs.  I pity the dogs.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)         

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