Usually I come to this space with a column percolating in my mind; occasionally something crops up that catches me. In recent days the latter happened when Alan Fenty’s column appeared questioning the value of our national motto – One People, One Nation, One Destiny. He wrote that the groups who came to Guyana “brought their distinctive behaviours from whence they came…and displayed their ethnic customs, habits, language; they were distinct, diverse peoples throughout slavery, indentureship, colonial rule, Independence and up to the present time.” He went on: “For example, 179 years after the first Indian contracted immigrants set foot upon Demerara and Berbice, their descendants still cling tenaciously to the history, religions and practices inherited from ‘Mother India’. I’m told that they ‘could not begin anew’ in the Caribbean-Guiana vacuum they found. (Where the earlier ‘native hosts’ made them feel alien – and, some claim, still do.) The other majority – African-descended – can claim everything the world has to offer….I say accept and respect cultural differences and life-style preferences, even within a group. We are different. That’s good. We are only ‘one’ in mottoes
