Crime in Trinidad seems to be worse than in Guyana yet our analysts don’t mention this

Dear Editor,

Trinidad & Tobago has been touted as a very developed country, self-sufficient in all things, with the highest GDP in the Caribbean, and with an unemployment figure of almost nil, to the extent that the Government is seeking workers (labourers) from the Phillippines to cope with the building boom. But is that publicity campaign telling a true story.

In Guyana the self-proclaimed political analysts and experts in the economic arena berate Guyana as a lost state, a failed state that depends on the drug and money laundering industries.

They say the criminal activities are a consequence of drugs and money laundering. In my perception of world affairs, the article in your edition of January 14 headlined “T&T gang violence set to spin out of control” speaks volumes, and makes the Guyana situation seem insignificant. The article speaks of criminal gangs fighting for space in the war dealing with drugs. It makes me wonder whether the high-profile economy of T&T is not drug-based just as our Guyanese experts are postulating Guyana’s economy to be.

We find also that the Governments of the USA, Canada and the UK have been advising their nationals to keep away from T&T. And yet, to date, our political pundits have not yet analysed the situation there or made any comments. Had such advisories been issued concerning Guyana we would have been told that Guyana is a lost cause.

The political analyst of the UG also found time to do articles daily trying to convince that Guyana is a failed state because it had no traffic lights, but when the lights were set up and working, and were vandalized we heard not a word of comment or condemnation from him.

I often wonder, Breathe there a Guyanese with soul so dead that never to himself could say, “This is my own, my native land”, and be proud of it?

Yours faithfully,

Sherwin Campbell