State of The Nation
In the life of Nations Guyana should be considered no more than a toddler.
As with any nation there are challenges. Yes, Guyana’s challenges are numerous but not insurmountable.
Briefly we flirted with socialism but then came a course correction and like a newborn on rubbery legs we staggered towards Democracy.
Still, for a while we seemed rudderless, caught in the eddies of life, unable to find a worthwhile course. But Perhaps, suddenly and only barely there is the sense of a brisk headwind. Real change seem to be on the horizon.
And what of this feeling of optimism? It seems it springs from the recent discoveries of petroleum. Let us hope that in Guyana’s case this potential wealth would not simply keep us in the catatonic state of simple survival as with sugar and rice and gold and bauxite and timber but that it would propel us into daylight of modern State.
Socially, Guyana is perched on a powder keg that must be deftly handled by the powers that be. The faultlines are (1) The growing and potential class problem of “The Haves and the Have-Nots” and (2) the very palpable distaste of Racial Divide. That the country should be allowed to fall into the ever widening fissures of these two contentions it most definitely will be consumed or self destruct into smithereens. And finally, every citizen’s participation is paramount in the acceptance that HUMANITY is about LOVE regardless of superficial differences.
Guyana’s leaders must be clear eyed enough and be publicly seen to be enacting policies of fairness and inclusiveness which no doubt must include active power sharing and economic opportunity from the very top to the very bottom.
Simply put, a disenchanted populace will in the end be the ruin of any Government. The onus remains strictly with the Financial and Moral accountability of those in positions of authority.
Guyana is uniquely positioned for upward trajectory. It has the necessary resources for this pronouncement. It has minerals, It has boundless agricultural potentials. And now it has Oil.
And although Guyana’s coastal regions have not been blessed with white sandy beaches, its rich bio-diversity has been providing an alternative in a fledging Tourism Industry.
All in all, yes the challenges exists but with keen, insightful governance and a vibrant population, although small, there is much to hope for in this fairly new and promising Nation.
