Dear Editor,
Guyana is a small nation, very small nation. Its wealth is huge! Therefore, Guyana will experience an invasion most likely to the extent that the native Guyanese will be outnumbered. Getting the diaspora home will help to create the population shift to swell the nation numerically. So, get the diaspora home. Create a data base of what they can offer before they get to Guyana. Categorize their skills. Mine their skills. Offer an incentive package based on conditionalities of specific contribution to the social and economic growth of Guyana. If they come home and dangle like leaves in the wind, they are no use to themselves or to the country. They may become burdens on social and economic systems because there is no place for them.
Welcoming returning Guyanese makes for good national planning in the face of an influx of people from around the world. These incoming people do, as Guyanese have done in their migration choices. They are following the wealth. Since the Guyanese nation is small and has achieved, or is about to achieve full employment, some say, then Guyana is at a critical point of national management. If those elected to leadership, and those aspiring to leadership do not close ranks then Guyana will be overwhelmed by the innumerable persons who must come, who will come to work in Guyana if Guyana is to make use of its vast resource base. The new population will find a fragmented nation. It could be so easy to exploit this fragmentation because there is a readymade divide and rule system in place.
In this urgent national scenario there can be no mother PNC, no mother PPP, no mother et al. At this critical phase of national survival, there can only be mother Guyana. There is need for effective national management, dignified management. This requires a national identity of togetherness, appreciation, respect. Certainly, different perspectives can flourish, different ethnicities provide descriptions of the Guyanese nation. The face of the nation will change, but it has to be managed and inclusive change. Survival of a nation! The task at hand is huge. If the Guyanese are biting at each other, if the pushing and shoving politics does not end then the leaders, and all those who aspire to leadership, will be authors of national implosion. A small nation with such indescribable wealth must display a kind and quality of creative leadership, and aspiring leadership, that ensures protection of the present small population, preserves its rainbow identity and displays a generosity of spirit and love of Mother Guyana that inspires incoming populations. So I say!
Sincerely,
Gabriella Rodriguez
