FROM Mark Devonish’s, response to my letter, “Unemployment impacts Guyanese of all ethnicities”, as published in the Kaieteur News of June 2, 2011, it is clear that he failed to grasp the point that I was making in that letter. Nevertheless, I will elaborate, so as to avoid any further misconception. Editor, that letter was written with one specific objective, and that objective was certainly not to belittle any person’s or people’s experiences. My letter was written with the intention of showing that unemployment in Guyana is not confined to only one ethnic group. Unemployment is a serious problem in Guyana, but it is not exclusively experienced by or limited to only one ethnicity. Unemployment is an ongoing phenomenon that transcends all ethnicities.
Editor, Devonish is missing my point. I genuinely believe that if he were to take the time to pay attention to this society as a whole, he would realise that there is a great undercurrent in this society, that the government deliberately marginalises certain ethnic groups through unemployment is false, since unemployment is experienced by persons from all ethnic groups. It is not limited to one particular ethnicity, and ‘blacks’ certainly do not have a monopoly on unemployment in Guyana. It is a fact that all types of Guyanese experience unemployment.