Dear Editor,
There is a popular saying that ‘curiosity killed the cat.’ But on the flip side ‘curiosity’ is the mother of all advancement. If it was not for Columbus’s curiosity there would have been no Guyana. Could it be that my fellow Guyanese are still suffering from that old complex?
In our politics we seem stuck in the same old mindset since the 1950s, with no apparent intention of climbing the hill to see what lies on the other side. But it is not our politics that prompted me to write this particular letter. Since announcing the publication of my book, The Ituni Experience, I have received more orders from my wife and my co-workers, all Americans, than from the Guyanese who the book was intended to inform and is all about.
Maybe it’s the name of the book. Ituni is a dull place. Who would want to write about that, much less read about it? I should have named it The Trials of Doing Business in Guyana, or The Unpredictability of the Logging Business in Guyana. Would those names have stimulated interest? Or are we just stuck in the lack of curiosity syndrome waiting for someone else to read first before we take a look?
The Ituni Experience is not just about Ituni, although logging is what was responsible for the experience. It’s about raising capital in the absence of a commercial bank. One tractor vendor poured $1 million into my account for me to use as show money at a bank. It’s about the preferences the banks give to some as opposed to others. It’s about trying to get a logging concession, trying to get a duty free concession to import equipment and dealing with an unreliable work force.
The experience spanned two election cycles – 1997 and 2001. I was able to solicit assistance from ministers and members of government. The book gives the vibe of the place. This book is about Guyana and the way we do business. Anyone who left Guyana more than twenty years ago would find that ‘things’ are not what they were accustomed to. This book would be an eye-opener for them. There are also my personal tribulations. It would be good for Americans born to Guyanese parents. It will give them an understanding of how underdeveloped we are with infrastructure. I would be bold enough to say that no Guyanese home should be without this book.
The book is available on lulu.com in both hard copy and ebook formats. Fellow Guyanese are invited to go to the website and give their comments.
Yours faithfully,
F Skinner
