Dear Editor,
Yesterday I had a fishing experience off the Kingston Jetty. Brought my Diaspora fishing rods and lures (bait). I thought the folks with their cast nets would have an advantage over me, however technology proved them wrong pound for pound. Two sizeable Gillbacker, one humongous flounder (Sole) and a 30-pound shark in under 60 minutes for me, not bad, not bad at all.
I checked to see if any of the fishes were stamped Burnham, Hoyte, Jagan, Jagdeo, Ramotar, Granger or even Freddie Kissoon, none! So, they were headed to my grill, as faded glories! Hot oil and coals put them to rest peacefully. “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime” -Aristotle.
Guyanese, our Politicians and naysayers have kept us conditioned (operantly) fooled, got your $25 thousand yet, in the belief we are in paradise, that is after half the country is overseas (most will never come back). The cows, bulls and calves, kicked down the barbwire and escaped. “Instead of Politicians, let the monkeys govern the country at least they will only steal the bananas!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan
I am a product of the great escape, nonaligned to any Party, and wish whomever in power, well and success. This is our country, so I returned to a prison of naivete, corruption, lackadaisical behaviour, gross misinformation and “kerfuffle” (confusion) the foundations of poverty. Some of us need to stop behaving poor and thinking poor, Government cannot help you, selling dog food and plantain chips is just a daily grind to stay alive. Interestingly the plantain chips sold at CJIA were made in St Lucia, there you go! “Don’t shoot the messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths” — Julian Assange.
Most folks bury their heads in the sand and do as their Leaders tell them, do not! Rise-up, speak out, peaceful disobedience, free speech is our elixir (medicine) for change. Guyanese overall are poor (World Bank Report 2020), but we are rich with ideas, that are stifled by our politicians “resistance to change”.
Some suggest encouraging the Diaspora to return is a good idea, get ready for a revolution on their part if they do return en masse, because most of them will not entangle themselves in the utter nonsense we allow to happen daily here. Yes, some locals do have negativity to Guyanese “Foreign” once the perfume, new cellphone and whisky wears off. Classic phrases “you think you better than me”, or “you don’t understand”, resistance to change. “The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations” – Adam Smith.
Life is a journey, with each successive generation aiming to be better off than the previous, however in Guyana it is measured in inches not yards. Still waiting for your house lot? Our oil discovery, agriculture, mining, timber, tourism, and human capital should be the engines of our organic growth. Look around you, those that are rich get richer (filthy rich) and most of you do a daily hustle to stay above water. That’s Socialism for us, drink it! “Capitalism is using its money; we Socialists throw it away” – Fidel Castro.
Most of our Leaders made terrible decisions related to our oil, bauxite, gold, sugar and even rice, now with the liberalization of the technology sector they are about to make more mistakes. We can create thousands of jobs in the next five years in technology. However most do not understand technology and how to execute. As I lay on my bed and made a payment to a company 7000 miles away on my laptop at 1am, Freddie still believes walking in to Sure-Pay or perhaps standing in a Bank/Western Union/MoneyGram/Post Office line is good enough technology, time passed him by!
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have enough; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Yours faithfully,
Everton Morris
