Young people across this land tackle their personal development with great faith that they could build a solid future.
Young men like Ryan Sukhoo, 22, who built a duck farm from five ducklings to a thriving 580-duck operation at No. 7 Village in East Berbice, and Loris Nathoo, who, with his brother Pierre, launched a classy ice cream and dessert franchise in Georgetown and Vreed-en-Hoop, show what private citizens can accomplish using personal initiative, and working hard.
Guyanese here and around the world know what it means to achieve. It’s a wonderfully inspiring and motivating sight to see people do it in the homeland, tackling incredible odds.
Take Annette Arjoon-Martins, for example. Not only did she stay in this country, refusing to migrate, but she plays a dynamic role, tackling development on so many different levels. After pioneering work in the Barima-Waini region to preserve the natural eco-system, becoming famous for her campaign to prevent the extinction of turtles, she took on the national project to plant mangroves as a sea-defence strategy.
Now, she has turned her attention to developing the crucial local aviation sector, and pushes out into the leadership of the private sector, a woman making her mark, demanding her place in a society still patriarchal in its ways.
Arjoon-Martins’ story inspires on so many levels. Along with her iconic husband, Dave Martins – himself a national hero who inspires a unique, unifying Guyanese culture – Arjoon-Martins believes in the future of the Guyanese nation, and tackles the task of her vision with great determination.
She, like quite a few other Guyanese, builds a fantastic Guyanese success story, and her two kids follow in her footsteps. Both national squash champions, they won scholarships to colleges in the US.
The story of Sukhoo, the Nathoos, Arjoon-Martins and the many others who achieve success, right here in the Guyanese homeland, remain silent stories. We don’t see them enough out in the public, inspiring, motivating the nation to beat the enormous odds that stifle the bulk of our young people.
Sukhoo lives at a humble home with his parents and three sisters aback of the main roadway at No. 7 Village. The atmosphere exudes an exotic charm. A vast green savannah surrounds his house. Across the canal and dam leading to the house, the breeze rustles rice fields, planted, with ripening paddy. All kinds of birds find the pure eco-system a peaceful playground.
This country still harbours a natural environment that is quite breathtaking. Sukhoo lives in the middle of such beauty.
Last Monday, the day exuded a sense of aesthetic wonder where he lives. While he let out his 580 ducks to wander the savannah, and kept a keen eye out for hawks snatching a chick from the sky, his parents took their fishing net into the backdam to bring home fresh fish.
His neighbours, owning wide open land, rear all manner of livestock – cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, ducks – and plant kitchen gardens, cash crops and rice.
One would think such an idyllic, pastoral place would be one of the best spots on the planet, where people from all over the world would love to come live. But most folks living here want out. Many of Sukhoo’s neighbours wait to migrate to New York or Canada, or look forward to their family overseas sending the monthly remittance.
Sukhoo refuses to fall into that trap. He sets his mind on building a future. He works a day job in New Amsterdam, the pay small but helpful. In the evenings, and early mornings before he leaves for the job, he takes care of the ducks, feeding them, letting them out of the pens to roam in the savannah and swim in the canal.
Sukhoo, however, must battle odds. Local government authorities ignore many of the drainage and other works necessary to maintain a decent public space in the residential farming area. Instead of focusing on building his life, he has to lobby the local village council for the simplest of public service. He turned to the Region Six administration, and still vents frustration at lack of action.
He and his family must walk on a muddy dam to access their home, and his duck farm. When it rains, the dam becomes impassable, and Sukhoo lays pieces of wood to pick his way to his yard. Floods frequently threaten his duck farm, and last week he had to move all the ducks into his front yard, on a small concrete section.
His personal story inspires, but the challenges he has to battle – for things like good roads and decent public drainage and irrigation – should be unnecessary. Our young people should be able to work hard to build their dream, not be drafting petitions to the Regional Chairman about the state of their community, as Sukhoo did.
Throughout this country, countless such stories abound, with our Guyanese citizens, many of them young and ambitious, forging ahead with dogged determination. Most hope for the chance to migrate, or wait for their sponsorship papers. But the good news is that we harbour hard working young people in this nation.
Our citizens develop their private lives, ignoring the poor governance across communities that stifles the development of public spaces and crucial living conditions.
One rice farmer in the Corentyne made the point that development flows out of the work of citizens, not the State, or the national budget. Noting that the State and the national budget ought to enable, drive and foster citizen initiative into community development, the farmer makes a telling point.
Young citizens like Sukhoo, Nathoo, Arjoon-Martins, and countless others whose stories remain untold, prove that point.
Given decent public spaces and workable living conditions, the generation of Guyanese coming of age now would fuel our leap forward. But we must listen to their voices, understand their dreams, and enable their personal development. We must make a determined effort to install governance systems that work for citizens, instead of stifle their dreams.
Our young people believe in a great future, and invest with faith and determination in that belief. The onus is on our leaders and governance structure to make that belief real.
