Stories abound across this blessed nation of ours, of Guyanese living well, thriving, developing and building their dreams.
Indeed, the Guyanese nation has moved beyond the primary concerns of mere survival, and now seeks secondary and tertiary concerns, those higher aspirations of the human soul. Today, we want to design beautiful homes, drive nice cars, build solid careers, educate the future generation.Our days of scrambling for basic food, hunting for meagre shelter, walking about in old rags and patched pants and hustling to squeeze unto a minibus to get to and from work are long gone.
The evidence of the macroeconomic development of nine consecutive years of GDP growth, of a resoundingly solid banking sector, of efficient management of the Guyanese economy, despite pressing problems in a few sectors, like sugar, shows up in the ordinary life of the ordinary Guyanese citizen.
Walk about any village or town of this nation, and the evidence of development springs up with fresh wonder. We just have to be aware and conscious of our context.
Development of a people, just like the process of an individual self-developing, happens below the consciousness: we don’t, for example, realize that in reading literature we’re developing our minds, until we start to notice that we talk and write and read with ease.
The same thing happens with development of a nation. The impact of socio-economic development of the Guyanese society happens with such mundane routine, so unceremoniously, that we take it all for granted.
We see our neighbours building their house, upgrading from a wood cottage to a glass-front concrete, stylish modern home, and we marvel, yet it takes a while to register to our minds that this is Guyana developing.
We see sparkling new banks, like the Citizens Bank branch that opened earlier this month in New Amsterdam, Berbice, and we pass it without a conscious thought that this is our town undergoing development, that this transformation of our skyline and landscape is us moving forward.
Development might be akin to the phenomenon of the boiling frog, whereby a frog would stay in a pot of water unaware that the water is gradually heating up, and would boil: the frog is unconscious of the gradual rise of heat.
This parable comes to mind when one ponders the constant complaining of people, who live unconscious that Guyana is fast rising as a modern, 21st century society. We’ve overcome so much, moving from the worst off nation in the Commonwealth Caribbean to today being the fastest rising.
We must awaken our people to become conscious of our rise in standard of living, of our development. In Guyanese knowing that we are advancing, is our motivation, self-esteem and inspiration as a Guyanese people. Indeed in us knowing of and being aware of and conscious of our progress, is our sense of identity as a Guyanese nation.
The State media plays the crucial role here, in the face of irresponsible Journalism in the private media, to showcase the amazing stories of ordinary Guyanese living and thriving in the new Guyana.
When the ruling party won free and fair elections in 1992, the late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, announced our nation had embarked on a “new dawn”. Today, we live in that new day, whereby the average Guyanese could walk into the US Embassy in Georgetown and pick up a visa and go for vacation to New York or Florida. Today, we could walk into an auto dealer and, like our relatives in America and Canada, own a new car. Today, the average Guyanese could secure a house lot from Government and walk into the bank and get an affordable loan and build their home. In fact, today, President Ramotar’s vision is for every Guyanese to own their home. That’s the new Guyana. And it’s reality every day.
Even those who voice vociferous opposition to Government live in lavish homes and drive luxury vehicles, unlike the days when the ruling party was in Opposition, when its leaders moved about on old bicycles and stuttering motorcycles, while party rank and file footed it everywhere. Opposition leaders and even rank file members live at a high standard of living.
The only thing we’ve got to do to showcase the new Guyana, to lift the spirits of our people, to motivate and inspire the Guyanese nation, is to tell the story of the ordinary Guyanese: farmers ploughing lands with combines and tractors; our students in secondary school and university able to secure text books with ease; the average Guyanese building their dream home; auto companies and banks and furniture stores and grocery stores conducting solid business. We want to see the human face of Guyana, people living and dreaming and building.
As with any human society, Guyana is far from being a utopia, but we are blessed with a paradisiac land, sunny, warm, with roaring rivers and fertile land. Our people development moves along well, albeit there’s need for a national literacy program to bring us decidedly into the Knowledge Age.
Vegetables and fruits abound in the markets across the country, with US$5 able to feed a family of two parents and two kids fresh organic, home-grown vegetables for a week.
Indeed, people in the US or Canada or Europe would pay hefty prices to be able to eat the healthy greens and fruits available to us in our markets.
Whether it’s the young couple with two cute kids who own a bottled-water business on Camp Street, or the 23 year old guy in Berbice appointed as manager of a Trinidad and Tobago furniture store that invested in New Amsterdam this year, or the young lady entering nursing school in Berbice after gaining 10 subjects at CXC, or a young pilot graduating at Ogle to traverse our hinterland, or the young lady from Orealla living in Canje attending the University of Guyana to gain her degree, or hundreds of thousands of such stories abounding across Guyana today, the Guyanese nation lives a new day. In fact, so much has transformed over the years, that our history as a poor, suffering people seem like a distant mirage, unreal and forgotten.
Thus, Government needs no propaganda or public relations to showcase development. All we need to do is tell the stories of ordinary Guyanese living the dream of their nation’s development over the past two and a half decades, of us advancing into the Guyana we dreamed of when we gained Independence 49 years ago.
Written by Shaun Michael Samaroo