Smells of Progress

Jan 31, 2026 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists

(Kaieteur News) – Long ago, dem boys seh, you ain’t need no GPS when you passing through Diamond. Your nose does alert you long before your eyes catch the sign. One whiff and you know: “Aye, Diamond reach.” The smell used to hit you like a slap from a wet hand—strong, unforgettable, and entirely unsolicited. If you was sleeping in the car, the smell alone could wake you up and remind you exactly where you was on the East Bank.

Back then, Diamond had a brand. Other places had names; Diamond had a scent. It was olfactory geography. Even if you blindfold a man and spin him round three times, once that smell reach he nostrils, he would tell you confidently, “Boss, leh me down, we in Diamond.”

But times change. Development come. Progress march on. And now, visitors to Guyana no longer experience that famous Diamond aroma. Dem boys seh Diamond get deodorised. The smell gone, wash away by modernisation, infrastructure, and maybe one or two strong prayers. So now when tourists passing through, they confuse. They watching left and right wondering if they miss the place, because their nose ain’t confirming nothing.

But progress, dem boys seh, never remove smells—progress just relocate dem.

Because further up the road, a new fragrance now greet you. A powerful, free-range, organic bouquet of fowl dung. Not just a smell, mind you—a full experience. This is not a casual passing scent. This one cling to you. It follow you. It sit in the car with you like an uninvited relative who refuse to get out.

Dem boys seh is modern agriculture. Big chicken farms, big investment, big smell. So while Diamond retire from the scent business, poultry take over. It is the smell of GDP growing. When that fowl dung hit you, that is foreign exchange you smelling.

Some people complain, but dem boys seh you must look at the bright side. That smell mean eggs cheap. That smell mean chicken plentiful. That smell mean development happening, right under your nostrils.

Is true, Guyana now full of new smells. Oil smell, asphalt smell, garbage smell, and now fowl dung smell. Dem boys seh if smell was currency, we would be rich already.

So next time you driving and your nose wrinkle up, doh complain too loud. Just smile and tell yourself: “This is the smell of progress… even if progress coulda bathe lil bit.”

Talk half. Leff half

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