That macabre story catapulted Guyana into world headlines in such a fashion that some Americans know Guyana only as the site of the Jonestown massacre.

Jim Jones was a cultist of no mean order who brainwashed mostly poor Afro-Americans to follow him and his dream of a jungle utopia in Guyana, while he enriched himself on their social welfare cheques and other worldly possessions.

He was a cunning, petty jungle king from all that has been unearthed about him since the awful fate of the Jonestown community he put down in Guyana with the backing of the then Guyana Government but without the knowledge of the population.

But he also surrounded himself with women, including beautiful young women. There was a beautiful blonde among his chief lieutenants who survived the Jonestown murder-suicide pact, but who was found dead later in a Washington apartment with a senior Guyanese diplomat.

When it became necessary to raise funds for his so-called church, Jones had beautiful young women moving around Georgetown soliciting donations through house-to-house visits. He did not leave that to men and I am sure the girls got quite good donations.

Jones was a demon but he knew how to do his thing.

Now, another American homegrown church group is in the news here, although the attention is nothing near the same scale as that of Jonestown. Thank God.

The Guyana Government has reiterated that the 50 members of the United States Mormon religious organization, who overstayed their visitors’ permits and whose work permits have expired, have to leave the country within a month. And this made the news here and overseas.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, stressed that the Mormons were asked to leave because they broke the law.

“…if the competent authority advises you, an intended visitor, or you a visitor whose permit for stay in Guyana has expired and is not being extended or renewed then, like everywhere in the world you subscribe to the law and you leave. This is the norm…that is the issue”, Luncheon declared.

He yesterday said that claims by the main Opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and others that this was anything more than an immigration issue was “idle speculation”.

To me, it seems quite a clear-cut case and nothing near the calamities that accompany Guyanese caught overstaying their legally appointed time in the US.

Those hapless Guyanese nabbed by US Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents are usually thrown into jail and kept there until they can be flown back to the land of their birth. But that’s another story.

The Mormons and the Home Affairs Ministry have come to a settlement over those missionaries who found themselves on the wrong side of the law but I still wonder what’s happened to the Mormon girls?

I have seen only Mormon men walking the highways and byways of Guyana – white shirts, tie and black pants.

Where are the girls? Are there no pretty girls among the Mormons willing to spread their gospel and do charity work among deserving political parties and other groups here?

Is Mormon preaching only for the men?

This looks like a clear case of discrimination and sexist behaviour and the Labour Ministry, the Human Services Ministry and women’s organizations (is there still a Women’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement in the PNCR?) should demand an investigation.

This also looks like a deserving case for those so-called investigative reporters in the local media, or am I the only one wondering where the Mormon girls are?

What’s that you say? Some local male investigative journalists are interested only in men?
I am out of here. I am looking for girls.