The great rediscovery

Jun 21, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – There are few things more moving than a sudden conversion. Saul had his road to Damascus. St. Augustine heard a divine voice. And now thousands of overseas-based Guyanese are experiencing their own spiritual awakening.

After decades of living in Brooklyn, Toronto, Miami, Queens, Scarborough, London and assorted suburbs where the nearest bush is a potted plant on a balcony, they have suddenly rediscovered Guyana.

The timing is remarkable.  For years, they had complained that Guyana was too hot. The mosquitoes were too large. The roads were too pot-holed. The bureaucracy was too slow. The power outages were too frequent. The politics was too divisive.

Then oil was discovered. And Guyana was suddenly attractive. Then government announced a cash grant. And suddenly, Guyana became Shangri-La.

People who could not remember the names of the regions are now experts on the country. Persons who have not voted here in thirty years are passionately discussing national development. Men who left as teenagers and now speak with accents so thick that immigration officers suspect they are tourists are proudly declaring, “Guyana is my home.”

It is enough to bring tears to one’s eyes. Of course, there is a slight possibility that this renewed patriotism has less to do with love of country and more to do with collecting a cheque. After all, who among us has not suddenly rediscovered long-lost relatives after learning that they struck it rich?

The old-age pension system has been producing similar miracles. There are pensioners who live overseas. They own residences overseas, receive foreign pensions overseas, enjoy foreign healthcare overseas, but somehow manage to establish that their principal residence is Guyana.

The human spirit is endlessly inventive. If Einstein had devoted his genius to studying pension eligibility, he might have discovered a unified theory explaining how a person can simultaneously reside in three countries.

Some individuals have elevated dual citizenship into a form of quantum mechanics. They exist in Guyana and not in Guyana at exactly the same time.

The problem, however, is not whether these individuals are clever. The problem is that the money involved belongs to the taxpayers and the citizens who actually live here.

An old age pension is not a lottery prize. It is a social support system designed to assist elderly citizens residing within the country. Likewise, the cash grant is intended to help residents share in the benefits of national development.

Residence should matter. Otherwise, why stop there? Why not allow every person with a Guyanese grandparent to apply? Why not send grants to people who merely once ate a tennis roll and cheese and feel emotionally connected to the homeland?

The logic becomes impossible to sustain. Guyana is still a developing country with enormous demands on public resources. There are schools to improve, hospitals to modernise, roads to build and communities to support. We still have plenty poor persons living in Guyana.

Every dollar paid to someone who permanently resides abroad is a dollar unavailable for someone who actually confronts local prices, local conditions and local challenges every day.

This is not an argument against the diaspora. Far from it. The diaspora has contributed enormously to Guyana through remittances, investments, advocacy and family support. Many overseas Guyanese maintain deep emotional and cultural ties to the country.

But citizenship and residency are not identical concepts. A citizen living abroad remains a citizen. That does not automatically mean he or she should receive every resident-based benefit.

If a United States citizen living in Georgetown for an extended period cannot simply claim social security benefits intended for U.S. resident, why should the reverse principle not apply here?

At least for now, Guyana should focus its limited resources on those who actually live within its borders. Perhaps one day the country will become so prosperous that every Guyanese everywhere can receive a dividend from national wealth. If that day comes, wonderful. But we are not there yet.

At this stage, the priority should be the pensioner in Charity, the widow in Corriverton, the cane-cutter in Berbice, the market vendor in Georgetown and the miner in Mahdia.

Not the gentleman who spends eleven months each year enjoying central heating in New York but suddenly develops an intense attachment to tropical weather when grant season arrives.

National pride is admirable. Patriotism is noble. Love of country is priceless.

But if that love appears only when there is a cheque attached to it, one begins to suspect that the heart may not be the organ doing the thinking.

As someone once observed, money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. Unfortunately, some people seem to have expanded the principle.

They have concluded that Guyana is better than exile, if only for cash grant and old age pension-collecting reasons.

(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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• Peeping Tom, Saul, St. Augustine, The great rediscovery

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