Today, the nation of Guyana is 55 years old, an age at which people tend to contemplate (though quite a few abstain or procrastinate) the status of their lives; get that long overdue physical check-up, make preparations for retirement, begin the first drafts of their wills and generally put their affairs in general order.
Fifty-five years is relatively young for any nation, but nonetheless, it is an opportune milestone to conduct a summary review of where we find ourselves. Today, Guyana, previously referred to as the magnificent province, once a bubbling, confident nation on the rise, finds itself at the crossroads of time, trapped between a dismal past and a promising future.
Massive oil finds in the Atlantic have garnered new international geo-political interests and renewed hope among the citizenry for the development of a country that will provide a high standard of living for their children and their future grandchildren. Based on the current situation this might be seen as just a pipe dream or a delusion, since successive governments have failed to provide or sustain the basic tenets required for strong nation development, and one fears that we will inevitably succumb to the dreaded Dutch disease.
There has never been a comprehensive national long-term financial plan agreed upon by the main political parties; one that is constantly reviewed and modified as the circumstances evolve. Today, we are a nation with a weak, but relatively stable currency struggling to service an ever increasing massive debt load, (the overdraft of the Consolidated Fund was estimated at $262.327 billion, equivalent to US$1.258 billion as at 31st December, 2020), and banking heavily on the anticipated oil wealth to gain prosperity. With rapidly declining health and education standards, and a virtually non-existent foreign affairs presence — lest we forget we once held a seat on the UN Security Council and the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General for four consecutive terms – one can only imagine where we, as a country, are headed.
Our country’s motto of One People, One Nation, One Destiny might as well be the catchphrase or sales pitch presented to potential tourists seeking to escape to an imaginary utopia. It is certainly not representative of today’s situation where the two political bases continue as they have for the length of our existence to subtly, and directly push to ensure that we are a sharply divided nation, with total distrust for the ‘other side.’ This harsh underlying reality which lies perpetually bubbling under the surface like a dormant volcano came very close to erupting after last year’s general elections.
Future anthropologists and historians searching for clues as to how a society can be teetering on the brink of disaster after so much promise, will discover that in the short span of a single generation we underwent a metamorphosis, becoming a society with an almost non-existent middle class, and no fabric to hold the values of a society together or provide the equilibrium to balance the two extremes. As the capital flight – money and brains – gathered momentum in the early 1970s during times of impending political doom which perpetuated all manner of fear, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s compounded by the descending living standards, several cracks gradually appeared in our society. The middle class void was reflected in all facets of our society, most notably in the reduction in the numbers and memberships of the service clubs and organizations, such as the Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis and Jaycees, to name but a few, and sports clubs and religious organizations.
Today, the essence of our once promising nation, now scattered across the globe, but mainly concentrated in regions eleven and twelve (the United States and Canada), and their offspring have been, and are utilizing their talents to the continued development of their adopted homelands. The diaspora, as the migrants are referred to, now find themselves between a rock and a hard place. In many instances, their genuine offers of wanting to return to their native home, are met with skepticism, resentment and mistrust from both the citizenry and the powers that be.
This mistrust, a critical element of today’s society, has wound its way into every nook and cranny, and seems to rear its ugly head even in the most unlikely of places. Now ingrained in our daily lives like the growth rings of one of the Samaan trees lining the avenue on Main Street, it continues to drive us apart while the master puppeteers manipulate the strings of our society for their own vested interests.
Fifty-five is definitely an age at which we need to take a hard and honest look at ourselves. It is time we stop repeating the same mistakes; the more time that passes, the more difficult it will be to correct them. In order to grow, we have to heal.