THE opportunists who submerge their realities under many guises proliferate on the social landscape.
They pander to the egos of newly-emerging powerbrokers, who largely ignore the real face of protagonists, new friends and supporters, which are indelibly painted on the landscape of this nation’s history, and abandon their defence mechanisms as they fall victims – willingly- to the inventive ploys structured to win undeserved trust, because the real motivation behind these newly configured, ostensible friendships has the imprimatur of the Bank of Guyana and the map of Guyana.
And they are succeeding – immeasurably, riding the crest within every sector because they know the right words, and even though those words camouflage their real sentiments and intent, honourable people who have proactive, nation-building agendas do not look beyond the surface to find the caricature lying beneath.
However, switching identities to access, even to forge opportunities, is a natural human trait.  In Guyanese parlance it is called “drinking soup.”
These two-legged chameleons are the parasites to be found within every society, but they are extremely hard to detect because they burrow themselves into easy income-access frameworks, and then entrench their presence like so many larvae that give birth to flesh-eating maggots, who transform into resource-consuming parasites that rob any nation, especially developing nations such as ours, of much-needed resources that could benefit the infrastructure of social development and economic growth in a more meaningful way.
A deeper and wider scrutiny by national stakeholders would reveal the true visage of these charlatans and set the stage for the ultimate cleansing of the Augean stables this has become, where pretence has superimposed itself over actuality to an extent where it has assumed a visage of sincerity.
Actually, equating these pretenders with the chameleon is insulting the poor creature, as it  changes colours only to protect itself from predators, whereby the sycophants are the real predators.
Do you know where to find them?  Just look right next to you – and under any rock.