Dear Editor,
Guyana would still have a brain drain even if all Guyanese stayed at home because of our political system. Indeed, this nation lost when the hundreds of thousands of Guyanese fled in
earnest starting in the 1950s, as political destruction descended upon this nation. They lost people. It was not a brain drain. It was a brain gain for the fleeing. The political charlatans who wrecked this country love to stand on their political pulpits and cry ‘brain drain’ in justification for what they unleashed upon this 83,000 square miles, but let’s face it, this country would have experienced a brain drain if no Guyanese had left these shores. It is the same damning brain drain that occurs every day in Guyana where power is corruptly and brazenly abused. There are graduates stymied at every turn by a system turned sour. They cannot put the intellectual capital they have earned through struggle to any good use because mimic men committing political fraud are afraid or incapable of utilising the brainpower of a people who remarkably still value education and intellectual growth.
The system cripples brainpower with alarming efficiency. Its dynamism is crushed. In order to survive it must sell its soul and the integrity of its freedom. This is a country that clips wings and performs intellectual pogroms because it possesses fraudulent political systems that reward stool pigeons over intellectual eagles. Those who fled, fled because they could flee. They had the opportunity and capacity to leave Guyana. Other nations wanted their lucrative brainpower and skills. Why fight when one is needed elsewhere? Their investment was producing no returns and they were facing risks. They couldn’t pay their bills. Their children had to go hungry. They had to beg family abroad for a chance at surviving every day. They spoke out and were threatened by those schooled in ignorance. They couldn’t take the thieving, the plundering, the blatant corruption, the bribes, the denial of their ideas because some little dictator with a party card and nothing between his ears said it must be different.
Those who left wanted what was best for them in the face of political ignorance. This nation would have been drained and gutted if no one fled. Thank God for America, Canada, Europe, our Caribbean brothers and sisters and those faraway places where we, like eternal nomads, end up calling home. These places provided environments for the maximisation of our talents, skills and the full expansion of our brainpower. We can send back more to save the drowning at home. The brain drain has given more to Guyana than the so-called brain gain would have. It has been the nation’s most successful aid programme with no interest. It has taken us to freedom and the right to be the best we can be. The people of this nation have a right to flee political chicanery and corruption. I just hope they decide to change this country for the better by voting for the better while looking to the north for a new dawn. They should leave something of value for those they leave behind or wish to leave behind. With their vote, they should give this place a chance at a future before they leave.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
