Dear Editor,
Living on the Guyana borders with Brazil and Venezuela one is bombarded on the airwaves with songs and news from those countries on the radio. In these areas most people still have their little radios to listen to because there is no internet. On the border with Venezuela one can listen to prayers in the Warau Indigenous language and in Spanish in the early mornings to start the day off.
In the Pakaraima Mountains on Guyana’s border with Brazil it’s the same thing. One can hear the radio from neighbouring Roraima state playing songs in the local indigenous languages, for example, in Macushi and Wapishana and also in Portuguese. Being in these remote parts of Guyana and listening to the radio one feels as if one is in Brazil or in Venezuela.
This contrasts with our border in Guyana where there is no radio station close by to listen to and catch up on the news of what’s happening in the country. There is one in Annai, but with its limited radio frequency, it’s not possible to get the signal throughout the border regions of 8 and 9.
We heard of the new government’s plan to bridge the coast and the hinterland in terms of ‘development,’ because the interior has been ‘neglected’ over the years by coastal administrations in terms of getting significant projects.
Editor, I think that setting up a radio station in the interior for the hinterland population would be something excellent, despite the cost both to build it, and for government and the local residents to sustain it. Nevertheless, I think it would be a worthwhile project for the residents on the border to have, because it will help the indigenous population promote their language. It will also serve to promote tourism as well as market the residents’ agricultural products and do other good services for the people in the area.
Setting up a local radio station in the hinterland, perhaps in Lethem would be great, to balance out the international radio and TV influence the people on the border are getting from neighbouring Brazil. A radio on the border in Guyana can bring our country and the flavour of the Carribean to our neighbours, where it can serve as a perfect example of Caribbean and South American cultural integration.
Yours faithfully,
Medino Abraham
