Dear Editor,
I think that that announced gathering slated for several months hence, and to be held at UG involving the diaspora is a good thing; and that the opportunity should be used to clear some air. I would hope that it is less about empty cheerleading and showboating and more about hard honest reality checks for all of the interested and involved.
To begin with, too many in the anticipatory diaspora are filled with impractical visions. These are visions that speak to an ingrained and comprehensive self-centredness. In a nutshell: What is there for me? What can I get? What is there for the taking? Take a look at the last two decades, and to a large extent, that was the dominant mindset. It was where individuals emerged from the deep shadows of the diaspora, and looked out for themselves only to the detriment of this society. Where are some of them now? The influx is a continuing exodus.
I do not think it is much different today either. I doubt that personal visions are radically different today, when a new set of aspirants are straining at the bit to be part of the perceived action; lush action that apparently lines the streets here and is begging for the taking. In all of this, I struggle to locate that increasingly non-existent word, concept, and pulsating sacred strain. Long ago it used to be called country; there was such a thing that was prioritized a long time ago. Where there should be the fertilizer of fresh new blood to enrich and uplift, there are only the shifting sands of fierce individual calculations and ambitions on how to capitalize.
Editor, I believe that calculations and ambitions were what rightly propelled almost all who left, and now form that formidable body out there termed the Guyanese Diaspora. The urgent promptings came from lack of opportunity, lack of mobility, and lack of those progressive situations that cause soaring and soothing. Well, those same areas that were found lacking in the past are either still too scanty, or still too overcrowded on the local scene. There is little space, just like before. Thus, the diaspora people must be realistic.
One of the harsher realities is that while some skills are in short supply, unemployment is still stubbornly unacceptably high. Places can be found to occupy some of the interested (and highly qualified), but as for the rest of those clamouring, there is only the blank slate of nothing.
In terms of the qualitative aspect of life here, there has been much disregard for the rule of law, and any canons of ethics; an overwhelming number of citizens wish for that chronic disregard to be perpetuated. There is an ongoing uphill war against certain heavily entrenched mentalities and behaviours; it is a war resisted at every point and from behind every subterfuge and ambuscade. The good old days were so good, that very few (if any) want today with its disciplines, its responsibilities, and its sacrifices. The dirty and underhanded are preferred; in the domestic vernacular, it is admired as ‘runnins.’
To extend another nutshell to excited diaspora members, it is a different Guyana than the one they exited; but in some respects, it still possesses some of the same self-limiting boundaries. It is why I urge frankness in any appeal from here, and sober management from overseas as to expectations. This is best to avoid current and later disappointment.
Some other things come to mind. In the insistent calls for recognition and accommodation of the diaspora, I detect some of the old drowning man condition and desperation. Sometimes, it sounds as though Guyana is a rope to be seized, as if it is the last rope available for personal salvation and amplification. Nowhere in there do I hear anything about country, or about building it through giving and sacrifice.
If Guyana is a lifeline for a plum job, a juicy contract, or a luscious second lease on life for those waiting in the wings, then it is déjà vu again. I must go farther and say that if Guyana represents a step up, then this question has to be tabled: what was the level of achievement and progress at the individual level in the years spent in those rich dollar-powered Elysian Fields overseas?
It should have been enough to position many of those calling for a place to give of self as entrepreneurs, and volunteers, and advisers and helpers in one form or another; or several. Those seeking to extract a pound of local flesh will find that there is no domestic fatted calf waiting to deliver. There is only an emaciated one that needs building and builders.
I have no issues with concessions and other considerations to smooth passage and re-entry, but the interest and priority of the diaspora has to be about giving. Giving and not taking. Giving and not squeezing and grasping, as matters were in the good old days of just yesterday. To the conscientious members of the diaspora, I say: come back to Guyana. But come clean and travel light. Travel bright, too. This country is overdue a break, many breaks. And to the well-intentioned hosts at UG, I offer two words: be honest.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
