From a boy of 10 or so, growing up on West Dem, it was there in front of me – the difference between Indians and Blacks, what we refer to today as the ethnic divide; I never heard the term back then. Only on my return here did I come to understand the depth of this rift, and the dilemma it poses for Guyana. In the wake of the election, several 
prominent voices, including our former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran, have addressed the resolution of this topic; Freddie Kissoon in Kaieteur News has recently written a stirring column on the subject, citing East Indian myopia; I urge all Guyanese to read those columns. Additionally, private voices in assorted blogs and letters to the press have raised the same shout for an end to this rift that is seen by many, myself included, as the biggest impediment to political cooperation, and, therefore, development facing our country. Just this week one letter-writer was pointing to Sri Lanka as an example of political accommodation between two leading rival groups that Guyana would do well to emulate.
As potent as such intimations are – and there have been several – the reality we face is that in the well intentioned calls for harmonious accommodation coming to two dominant opposing tribes or races, history, unlike the Sri Lanka exception, is not on our side. In almost every place where mankind has trod, groups holding different views of how life should be lived (culturally, politically, racially, religiously, etc) have been at odds with that ‘other’ as a result. It is