Not many Guyanese, I am sure, think much about it but we have a National Trust whose high and shining objective is to preserve the national heritage. The Trust exists, its remit is wide and important, the task it undertakes goes to the heart of safeguarding the nation’s identity. But, as with so many agencies, institutions, and associations in Guyana, the Trust for want of sufficient funding and lack of enough qualified and dedicated people cannot begin to do all the work it should and would very much like to do to conserve the soul-material of our land.
When it comes to our history, who can doubt that much more should be done to identify, preserve, interpret, catalogue and publish what is valuable and significant in creating a sense of ourselves as a people living within a recognizable and cherished historical perspective.
G.K Chesterton might have been referring to Guyana when he wrote the following in one of his essays – entitled, appropriately I think, “On Love”: