Dear Editor,
Poor economic conditions in Guyana ‒ high cost of living, poor standard of living, unemployment ‒ is one of the reasons why Guyanese emigrate to different parts of the world. However, it is not the only reason why we emigrate. A lot of us migrate for other reasons, such as the high level of crime, long-term security for our families, a better quality of education and educational opportunities for our children, bullyism and discrimination, the quality of social services, and the poor functioning of many institutions in Guyanese society.
Crime has always been the second most cited reason why people leave Guyana. We have seen a large number of crimes solved in the recent past, but that does not appear to have made a dent in criminal activities as yet. What good is it if someone grabs your bag of money and runs off, only to be caught a few days later with three-quarters of what was stolen unaccounted for? The friends and family of a person who is murdered would never be able to have their loved one returned, no matter how long a sentence is handed down to the murderer.
Apart from crime, a large number of people also emigrate because they are concerned about the future of their family in the event that they die, or may not be able to be around. In some countries, if parents die, the system takes good care of their family. I have seen the children of many successful people who are now deceased going through difficult times in Guyana. The children become victims of fraud, corruption and exploitation, and the money their parents have left behind for them gobbled up overnight by lawyers, police, con artists, and so on. There are many stories also of some siblings being bullied and cheated because the institutions in Guyana do not function as they ought to.
What makes a society a democratic society? We often hear people referring to some countries as democracies, and some societies as democratic societies. Is Guyana a democratic society? No! We can have a democratically elected president, but that does not necessarily mean that we are living in a democratic society. Democracy is about the institutions that exist within a society, institutions that guarantee the rights of each and every one of us. Guyana certainly has a very far way to go.
What about the quality of education in Guyana, and the opportunities available for our children? Not all Guyanese are satisfied with what is being offered locally. Some may argue that with the advances in technology, the quality of education offered here is no different from other parts of the world, but unless you have had firsthand experience of what education is like in some other countries, it is very difficult to understand. For example, a student leaving high school in North America is acquainted with almost all the major ethnicities around the world, a good knowledge of the geography of all the countries around the world, and all the areas of tension around the world, and the primary reason for this is that in most of the schools in the large cities of the developed countries, you can find students from every corner of the world.
Is it safe for a female student to travel home all by herself from college at 12 midnight? Certainly not in Guyana, but I have seen teenage girls walking along lonely streets late at night after college or university in Ontario.
In every multi-ethnic society there is a dominant culture and sub-cultures. Serb and Croat, Tamils and Sinhalese, Turks and Kurds, Hutus and Tutsis – there are many examples. Some people in Guyana see emigration as a non-violent form of resisting domination. There are no written laws in Guyana that permit discrimination and domination, but there are certainly implied rules in the Guyanese society as to what the mainstream culture is and which the subordinates are. Vulgar Jamaican music is seen as part of our mainstream music. Christianity is seen as the mainstream religion. I am beginning to hear talk about who has more rights to Guyana than other Guyanese, who came first and who came last, who contributed the most and who the least. This is the direction we are heading towards, and I am almost certain that in the coming years we are going to see a mass exodus of Guyanese who see Guyana as a land where opportunities for them are no longer available, and whose only crime is their resourcefulness, their industriousness and the aggressiveness with which they pursue the accumulation of wealth.
One People, One Nation, One Destiny. Are we truly one people? Not all Guyanese feel this way, and the person who is responsible for our motto certainly did not have the concerns of the six different people that make up the Guyanese society at heart.
Yours faithfully,
Fazal Gafoor
