Shaun Michael Samaroo

From deep inside the belly of our society, like a quiet hookworm eating away at the core of our country, a devastating social decay is overtaking our people.

By the year 2020, our current primary school kids would be young adults and the new working generation.

Loud touts at the international airport at Timehri, and at bus parks in Georgetown, present a graphic picture of the social decay afflicting our Guyanese nation.

Two interesting facts define this unfolding 21st century, and both work in our favour as a budding nation.

Quite a few Guyanese live extraordinary lives, with outstanding accomplishments and wide-ranging community impact, many on a global scale.

Our land is such a blessed place to live. This country provides a real opportunity to build an amazing lifestyle.

Since political Independence, this nation built a society on the pillars of peace.

Our nation searches for the kind of leadership that lifts us, that causes us to delve deep into our character and believe in building our society, community by community, village by village.

Words we speak, write and design shape this land, our social space.

Day by day we live out our routine, functioning in that monotone daily grind of “making a living”.

Tomorrow our leaders gather in the polished Parliament to pontificate about a national budget to build this country over the next year.

Life is about stories. What story do we harbour about ourselves?

Playing on the global stage calls for professional, world-class posture. We exhort our leaders that this nation now stands ready to become a global player.

Given our history, geography and the context of our world today, what’s possible for the Guyanese nation?

Private businesses struggle to lead in generating our economy. Despite lots of thriving private businesses, and a new class of nouveau riche with questionable origin of wealth, the national economy struggles firmly in the grips of State bureaucrats.

People need, want and aspire for good leaders to lead them into a good future.

Moruca-born sisters Stephanie Wall and Jean Rodrigues travelled from their Canadian homes in the heart of winter to traverse their beloved Guyana with one hope: to bring joy to the hearts of Guyanese children.

Nine boys and their families, maybe more, live today as victims of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of someone they trusted and emulated.

Dave Martins embodies the unique Guyanese culture. Our body politic, after nearly 50 years of political independence, has developed a culture that identifies us as a distinct nation in today’s global village.

Our nation stands as the only Cooperative Republic in the world.