Attorney at law Nigel Hughes has posited that ethnic relations in Guyana can be improved through the collection and analysis of data on the impact of government policies on each race and ethnicity.
“There are huge arguments where we throw assumptions at each other. Where we hurl perceptions at each other. None of these perceptions is based on data or accurate history so in effect we are arguing assumptions…in the absence of data it is difficult to begin any analysis of statements made and propagated on the issue of race, power, distribution of national good and the availability of opportunities…you cannot really have any form of rational or scientific discussion about race and its impact because, otherwise, all you are doing is running opinions in the absence of national data,” he said during a Conversation on Ethnic Relations hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC).
The two-day virtual conversation which continues today was held in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the University of Guyana (UG) under the theme “Understand, Respect, Unite”.
