Dear Editor,
As overseas Guyanese, we may not be able to speak with any authority or even authenticity about solutions pertaining to the many problems confronting Guyana at the present time.
However, I am of the opinion that we do have a contribution to make if only in the realm of ideas, and this is not to mention the material support of ‘barrels’ and cash that we are able to provide from time to time, to assist family members and friends still residing in Guyana. ( As I write, my wife is hard at work trying to get a barrel together, which we intend to ship at the earliest possible opportunity).
But getting back to the ideas that we can contribute, when I read the analyses of a few of the newspaper columnists writing in Guyana, I have to wonder whether these individuals are thinking about what is best or even good, for Guyana.
One particular columnist speaks with a very loud and powerful voice, but sometimes his approach is rather reckless and irresponsible. Of course, he has a good mind and probably means well, but I think that he often paints a very bleak picture of Guyana and some people could get the impression that there is no hope for Guyana. Maybe that particular columnist has a good reason for saying what he does, because he lives in Guyana and is far better acquainted with the situation than I am. And I am really not objecting to the idea of someone being critical, what I am objecting to are some of the negative conclusions being made, as the idea that there is no hope for Guyana, under the present regime, or any other regime for that matter, should be unacceptable to all Guyanese, whether we reside in Guyana or overseas.
Mr. Editor, a few months ago I was fortunate to be able to spend a week in Guyana, and although we all know that crime is rampant and needs to be brought under control, I really didn’t detect any sense of hopelessness, in my casual observation of the Guyanese people.
One friend told me, ‘Well you know Guyanese people don’t really show their real feelings.’ But comparing the look on people’s faces and their physical well-being, in comparison to how they looked when I was there ten years ago, I have to honestly say that I felt much better about the situation this time around.
I also spoke with another old friend of mine, who happens to be from the ‘marginalised’ group of Afro-Guyanese. He is an ordinary working-class Guyanese and he said that he was doing quite well, though he really couldn’t speak for his friends and acquaintances. The cousin that I was staying with, who is a re-migrant from England didn’t have any complaints and, as a matter of fact, he was even encouraging me to, ‘Come back home.’ However, I would add that this cousin of mine is not your typical Guyanese, because he has so much drive, optimism and discipline that I think that he would make a good life for himself, wherever he goes and he is not a young man. I also spoke to two other cousins who are also British re-migrants.
They moved back to Guyana well over twelve years ago and their words to me were,’We are not complaining.’ When I asked them about the crime situation, they casually said that crime was everywhere and that every country has crime. Of course, this was before Lusignan and Bartica, and I haven’t spoken with them since these tragic events occurred. Of course, these two cousins are not your typical Guyanese either, as they are both retired and went back with their own resoures. Needless to say, I spoke with other Guyanese, who had never left Guyana, and understandably this was where the bulk of the criticism of the government came from.
This group of ‘home-grown’ Guyanese were the ones that spoke about marginalisation and the day-to-day hardships that people were experiencing on a daily basis. One friend even said,’I have no problem with that’; to a pronouncement that on the whole, overseas Guyanese were not willing to return.
Also, as I travelled around the city of Georgetown, the east bank, east coast and west coast, I saw a much brighter and more elegant Guyana than when I was here about ten years ago. People were showing greater pride in home-ownership by painting and repairing their homes and I had to remark, on how much prettier many of the new homes were when compared to similar homes that we have here in Southern and Central Florida. I was also impressed with the new traffic lights that were installed around the city.
What I really liked about them was the fact that they had a timer to show how many more seconds you had to wait before the light changed. I had to tell my people in Guyana, that those traffic lights were more advanced than anything that I have seen in the United States. So, Guyana does have something on Uncle Sam. We have more advanced traffic lights, among other things
Of course, I recently learned that something went wrong with some of the traffic lights. They were either stolen or vandalised.
Mr. Editor, I have to make the point that my observations of Guyana are purely subjective and could in no way reflect what is actually going on in the country. But it is part of the Guyana reality that, at the very least, would make interesting reading for some of your subscribers. Maybe, as an overseas Guyanese, I can afford to stay out of the political fray and focus on the more positive aspects of life in Guyanese; not to deceive, but to provide some measure of hope to the Guyanese people as so many others are trying to do, including this newspaper.
Let’s draw some inspiration from what Barack Obama is doing in attempting to become the first Black president of the United States. Or what Hillary Clinton is doing in attempting to become the first female president of the United States. Think about the obstacles that they both had to overcome to get where they are today. Didn’t it require a lot of optimism? As Guyanese immigrants, don’t you think that we also have to overcome many obstacles to succeed or even survive in this society?
If there is one thing that we have learned in America, it is how to remain optimistic against overwhelming odds. Guyana has survived many difficulties but we must continue to tell ourselves, ‘We can. I know we can.’ And in this, let’s learn from India, China and Japan. Compare where they were yesterday with where they are today. If they can rise from nothing into something respectable and dynamic on the international scene, Guyana can also do it and in time, we will do it.
Yours faithfully,
Rudy Vyfhuis