If Guyana has not quite acquired the level of positive international attention that derives from accomplishments associated with robust physical infrastructure and playing host to significant regional and international gatherings, there are indications that we appear to be getting there.
The choice of countries to host significant regional and international gatherings usually have to do with, among other things, considerations of conviviality linked to possession of tools associated with organizational skills, physical infrastructure and resources allied with the physical accommodation and recreation for visitors. It stands to reason, too, that international gatherings that attract persons of a particular perceived level of importance also (in their planning) engage in exercises in risk analysis that have to do with guest security, including common crime and socio-political stability.
For some/most of the aforementioned reasons, Guyana, over a protracted period, had missed out on playing host to many international fora, including regional ones, the line of reasoning that attended the country’s exclusion from such assignments being that in one respect (or even in several respects) or another, Guyana simply was deficient in a great many of the aforementioned criteria. Haiti, for reasons that are quite well-known across the region has been, over a protracted period of time, even among CARICOM countries, written off as an appropriate host for major regional and international gatherings. We, too, had been pretty low in the pecking order.
Transformation of international perceptions in the matter of Guyana’s suitability to playing host to regional/international gatherings of a particular standing has, in a handful of years, been occurring incrementally. Indeed, when compared with the rest of the region it might even be said that we are beginning to get there briskly, and perhaps more significantly, that our rise on the totem pole of the list of preferred countries for the hosting of international gatherings has been impressive. It is unquestionably, for the most part, the music of the petro ‘sirens’ that now draws global attention to Guyana. If our foreign policy experts will doubtlessly proffer a more long-winded rationale for the current condition of visitors flocking to Guyana, the reality is that countries, per se, as well as collectives styled regional and international organizations now consider Guyana, for obvious reasons, to be a country to be close to.
It is, hardly by accident that the headquarters of the vast majority of international organizations are hosted by countries in Europe and North America. It is a matter of both convenience and conviviality. In the particular matter of global petro policy, the oil-rich states of the Middle East, not least Dubai, have, over time made an undisguised ‘pitch’ for an enhanced level of global (diplomatic?) recognition commensurate with their status as petro ‘super powers.’ Here, one might add that Dubai’s success in hosting COP 28 exposed both its now considerable global diplomatic petro clout as well as its ability to persuade both the West and the collection of poor/developing countries that even among the most hardcore of environmental ‘hawks’ a case could be made for oil and gas to thrive ‘cheek-by-jowl’ with measures that could, simultaneously, ease the concerns of the climate changers.
Contextually, the issue of Guyana and its bona fides to host regional and international conferences, also arises. While much has been said and written about the role that political wobbliness and (to some extent) a paucity of the requisites/resources necessary for ‘delivery’ of worthwhile international gatherings, our circumstances are not even remotely close to Haiti’s. They are altogether different. Allied to this is the fact that Guyana, overwhelmingly on account of its oil wealth, has, in recent years, made its own case for its admission into the club of the favoured as an ‘approved’ venue for hosting distinguished visitors. Having been ignored for decades as a venue of choice for personages usually described as global political leaders we have recently had reasons for a visit here by South America’s most high profile Head of State, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose global profile matches that of any First World leader. So that if we are still to realize a visit here from the Heads of Government of the those countries commonly referred to as ‘global giants’ (the United States, Britain, China and Russia) not only have we seen visits here by other high officials from those countries, we have also seen an increase in the number of high-profile visitors from Africa, the Caribbean and more recently, the Middle East.
Very recently, in a matter of a handful of weeks, Guyana hosted its third Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo (February 19-22) which, over a relatively brief period has become a ‘must attend’ event for high officials of government (including, in some instances, Heads of Government) from across the world, high-flying investors and oil and gas ’big wigs’ all seeking to either ‘cut deals’ or to consolidate already established bridgeheads here. The traffic resulting from this event had hardly subsided before the regional political ‘high fliers’ arrived here for the 46th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads. Mind you, there is a great deal of evidence that even though Guyana may be on the ascendancy insofar as the hosting of international gatherings is concerned, much of the controlled activity revolves around the venues where these public events take place, like the country’s two ‘blue ribbon’ hotels and the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. Here, one might add too, that we are promised an imminent and significant increase in the number of hotels in the country.
Mind you, almost all of the capital and its outskirts in every way are caught up in the chaos that attends the ongoing ‘makeover’ which, these days, manifests itself in traffic knots, the resulting inconveniences being mostly a combination of the vast number of vehicles that are now part of the inventory for the overall infrastructure rebuilding and renovating effort. In this regard, the primary frustrating manifestations are, mostly, traffic pileups and diversions, occasioned by ongoing makeovers. It need hardly be said that what used to be some measure of urban tranquility associated with non-peak hours, has become a thing of the past. In the capital, a ‘gingerly’ pace is the only rate of speed on offer. At the height of the recent slew of international visits, the movement of delegates from one location to another in an already cramped and encumbered capital collided with the routine traffic in the capital creating snarls that were only eventually unravelled by traffic cops and out-riding, siren-blaring VIP vehicles compelling the routine traffic to give way.
Nearing the end of the current flurry of regional and international gatherings, one gets to wondering how much longer it will take for Guyana, and particularly Georgetown, to draw a line under what, sometimes, appears to be a complete makeover (rather than a substantial renovation) to which there is no seeming end in sight. All of this, the pundits say, is part of Guyana eventually ‘growing up’ seeking to embrace its rightful place amongst the pantheon of nations and doing so, hopefully, without leaving us sufficiently shocked and awed to wonder just where we are going. These past few weeks we have had to pay a price for the transition though the reality is that in the eyes of the rest of the world, oil has made Guyana a country to be reckoned with. The encumbrances, we are told, is the price we must pay.
