Dear Editor,
I have been trying to follow the illegal-Guyanese-in-Barbados brouhaha and I have come to this conclusion: It is a wake up call for Guyanese at home to change the government in Guyana so that instead of Guyanese running away, they will be running back home.
Last week, I wrote a letter that SN captioned, ‘Why is Suriname better than Guyana?’ in which I laid out the path Suriname took to become a successful country compared to Guyana, even though Suriname is smaller in geographic size and population than Guyana, and also has less natural resources than Guyana. The gist of my letter was to show that Guyana lacked a visionary leader.
Today, the focus is on Barbados, and I want to cite the World Bank as my source. Barbados is 166 square miles compared to Guyana’s 83,000 square miles and has a population of 281,968 compared to Guyana’s 700,000. According to the World Bank, Barbados is a high income economy while Guyana is a developing economy. In fact, the WB says Barbados’ human development index is consistently among the top 75 countries in the world and that in 2006, it was ranked 31st in the world and third in the Americas behind Canada and the United States.
Though it historically depended on sugarcane, in recent years Barbados has diversified into manufacturing and tourism, with solid foreign-exchange earnings support from offshore finance and information services. The government has been described as business friendly, encourages direct foreign investment and is economically sound, and since the late 1990s there has been a construction boom, with the development and redevelopment of hotels, office complexes and homes.
Traditional trading partners include Canada, Caricom nations (but especially Trinidad and Tobago), the UK and the USA. In 2003, the island nation saw a Can$25B in investment holdings, placing Barbados as one of Canada’s top five destinations for Canadian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Now here is the kicker: According to the World Bank, while 90 per cent of all Bajans are of African descent, there are other smaller ethnic groups that make up the population. “The Indo-Guyanese,” says the WB, “[are] an important part of the economy due to the increase of immigrants from partner country Guyana. There are reports of a growing Indo-Bajan diaspora originating from Guyana [and India]… but they are smaller than the equivalent communities in Trinidad and Guyana.” The report also said Hinduism is one of Barbados’ growing religions.
So when Guyanese, including the President, start ‘kicking up a stink’ against the Bajan authorities for rounding up illegal Guyanese in Barbados, it is imperative that they be fair and balanced in their raucous ruckus. While we may not like the methods employed arresting illegal Guyanese and their post-arrest detention and treatment, the truth is, there are thousands of Guyanese in Barbados – legal and illegal – so if the Bajan authorities are rounding up a handful of illegal Guyanese while leaving thousands untouched, that is enough proof that the Bajans are not on an anti-Guyanese crusade to purge the island nation of our countrymen and women.
I close by reverting to my opening line in which I say the brouhaha in Barbados should make us realize that we have a country that is blessed with rich resources but cursed with poor political leaders, and the only remedy is to kick the poor political leaders to the curb.
Our Indian Guyanese brothers and sisters who have traditionally voted for the PPP should be at the forefront today leading the fight to change this government in 2011; after all, when the World Bank says Indian Guyanese are an important part of the Barbadian economy due to increased migration from Guyana, it is for Indian Guyanese to see that they cannot keep voting for the PPP and then run to other people’s country, leaving their own country behind at the whims of poor political leadership.
If the President and the PPP have not shown leadership to Guyanese while at home, how can they show leadership to Guyanese caught in a dilemma in another country? Wake up Guyana!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
