Now that I fall under the category of ‘Diaspora’ I feel a type of way when they come under fire for daring to have opinions on Guyana. Simultaneously, having lived the majority of my life in Guyana, I could empathise with the aggravation that those back at home might feel towards the Diaspora, considering their day-to-day frustrations with the lack of basic services and safety measures from the state in particular.
Sometimes the offered solutions don’t feel applicable to all the inner workings of the system or consider the energy it takes to dismantle such systems. The two groups exist in two different realities, but are forever bound by shared nationhood that simply can’t be annexed despite one’s location.
For those who have remained, the Diaspora is generally viewed as those who have somewhat upgraded in life economically and managed to rid themselves of their problems and frustrations; in other words ‘living the life’ (though challenged by differing obstacles). For those who have remained, some members of Diaspora view them as not dedicated enough when it comes to challenging the status quo and fighting the odds. This is a point of view that is easy to have when you are abroad and most likely have access to incredible social care and robust institutions to ensure that challenging them are met with equity for the most part.
When the news of the one-off $200K – now $100K – grant broke, I read so many comments and hot takes on who was more worthy, despite all of us being Guyanese. The commentary was framed in a way which revealed that we didn’t necessarily consider each other as equal despite sharing the same place of birth/nationality. It felt quite cut throat almost; as if because you left and chose not to “suffer” as many put it, you couldn’t be equated with being Guyanese. There was a ready assumption that you were fortunate or so fortunate that you weren’t deserving. But this in itself isn’t the bigger picture, just symptoms of a larger problem.
At the very core, so many of us have grown comfortable with the ‘links’ culture and participating in a classist system that it has removed us from seeing each other as equals. It is almost the same way of thinking that has gotten so many of us to simply forget or not consider Guyanese right at home, particularly in the far-flung regions that are harder to access. We have become so entirely individualistic through a growing capitalist beast; we do not question why systems are working the way they are despite the money being there. Instead, it is much simpler to transform into baby participants for the system by vilifying them or categorising who is eligible based on whether they have participated in the suffering Olympics.
We have become so consumed that we have forgotten governments work for the people. It should alarm us that conversations aren’t focused on disbursement, security, mismanagement and dare I say more debate about whether all of our budget allocations make sense and the ways in which government contracts are issued. It’s hard to challenge systems, not only does it require patience but the ability to be okay with withstanding isolation and the knock-on effects. One thing I can guarantee is that the challenge isn’t about our countrymen and women wherever they may be but rather the systems designed to make us think that a one-off $100K is a long-term viable solution to dealing with growing inflation in one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a population of less than one million people.
