Next week we celebrate 48 years of Independence. Ours is yet a young nation, still growing up. What kind of nation are we becoming?
Born after World War 2, into an international arena where the United Nations brings together the peoples of the world into a global family, we started with visionaries in Dr Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham.
While both may have misread the world context of their times, focusing on internal socio-economic revolutions and thus suffering from the geopolitical realities of ambitious global superpowers, they positioned the Guyanese nation for greatness.
While the Caribbean leaped ahead and left us languishing in economic doldrums, we played a key role in the grand scheme of things. Burnham’s role in forming CARICOM, in leading from the front at the Non-Aligned Movement and at the Commonwealth are brilliant triumphs for our young nation.
Dr Jagan’s idea for Human Development, adopted as a socio-economic blueprint for the world at the United Nations recently,