President David Granger yesterday called on the nation to view Guyana’s diversity as an asset and not a liability and to use the occasion of the declaration of Social Cohesion Day, May 11, to reject divisive political culture, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency said.
The President made these remarks at the National Day of Prayer event at D’Urban Park. “We are proud to belong to a society of many faiths. We are proud of the tapestry of ethnicity within our country,” President Granger said, in his charge to the large gathering of people, who braved the rain to assemble at D’urban Park, the release said.
“Social Cohesion Day is about creating a sense of belonging and combating exclusion. It is based on the belief that citizens “…share a moral community, which enables them to trust each other,” [according to Christian Albrekt Larsen’s “The Rise and Fall of Social Cohesion”]. He added that Social Cohesion Day celebrates and appreciates people’s different backgrounds and circumstances. Social cohesion recognises that our nation is now, and always will be, multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Miscegenation is forever,” he said.
Prayers from the Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Baha’i and Rastafarian communities were offered, the release said.
It added that the event was also attended by First Lady, Sandra Granger, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and his wife, Sita Nagamootoo, Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, Minis-ter of Public Infras-tructure, David Patterson, Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes, Minister of Indigenous People’’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, Minister within the Ministry of Education, Nicolette Henry and Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes.
