WE Guyanese live as a free, democratic nation, playing our role in the 21st century global village, tackling our challenges and rebuilding our society after decades of socio-economic crisis that crippled us after Independence. And we must work hard to position ourselves on the global stage, to increase our geopolitical influence and enhance our place in the world.We cannot be myopic and look inwards only, but most enlarge our vision, lifting our eyes to see what’s possible for the Guyanese people.
Developed nations see themselves as nation-brands, and this explains why American, Canadian and European countries work to build healthy images of themselves around the world.
Americans make movies, publish books and share the American way in a branding culture of glitz and glamour. Now, with the rise of the BRICS countries in economic and social power on the world stage, we see India and China adopting glitzy global campaigns to market their image.
In the Caribbean, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean countries work hard to sell themselves as stable, solid societies, and we see the rewards in their tourist societies, with people flocking to these places from all over the earth.
Guyana stands as a land of incredible natural beauty and wonder: our vast rivers and waterfalls, our fertile soil and paradise of birds and forests filled with astonishing fauna and flora.
Guyanese live in one of the most peaceful, progressive and pastoral lands in the world today. What a joy it is to see our children traverse to and from school in our communities, dressed in neat, clean, cute uniforms, laughing and playing and interacting in our multicultural blessedness.
As much as we need to work on developing a healthy self-image for the Guyanese nation, we must radiate to the world our true state of being, making the story of modern Guyana an inspiring fact on the world stage.
As we face an elections season, we hope national leaders would lift our vision, show us what we cannot see, awaken our consciousness to what it means to be Guyanese, in the context of the world today.
We’ve got so much to be thankful for as a nation. We’ve come a far way, overcoming so much poverty and socio-economic backwardness and conquering enormous challenges. In the early 1990’s, we faced even the Demerara Harbour Bridge collapsing into the Demerara River. Now the Harbour Bridge functions with such efficiency and works so well that we drive over it, taking it for granted.
We’ve fixed a lot of our problems, even as we tackle new ones.
But one problem we haven’t yet fixed is this penchant for beating up on ourselves, for national newspapers and TV stations and social media discontents to demotivate and demoralise us with rampant negativity, telling a lie, for example, that Guyana suffers as a crime-ridden ghetto.
While we must constantly tackle pockets of criminal activity, much of Guyana is peaceful and progressive. Take a drive along the stunning beauty of the Essequibo road, or along the Corentyne and in the hinterland, and be awakened to the breathtaking beauty of our nation.
Many of us wake up and get active in our mundane routine, unaware and unconscious of how blessed we are as Guyanese, to live and dwell in such a lovely country.
It’s left to journalists and the media to bring into our homes the story of modern Guyana, and they seem to do their utmost to make Guyana out to be a basketcase of backwardness. Maybe we need serious media reform legislation to see this situation transformed.
The onus is on Government to develop a national policy to see that the Guyanese people could access stories and information that uplift, inspire, motivate and engage the soul of the Guyanese people, to see that our people become conscious and awake to their blessed homeland.
Too many Guyanese lack the ability or sensitivity to comprehend the aesthetics and wonder of their own landscape. For example, to enjoy the sun setting over the savannah along the Corentyne highway, on that straight stretch of road where a sparse population of farming families have lived for generations, to walk along a flowing canal aback of Parika and feel the earth mold one’s toes to the fertile clay land, to sit in the hammock under one’s home in Essequibo and watch the waving branches of coconut palms and the mango tree and star-apple tree bear with magnificent lushness in one’s yard; to drive to Linden over the hills and watch the calm sweetness of the Wismar river as boats ferry people; these make our Guyanese homeland.
But we face this problem: our people generally lack the consciousness to comprehend the picture-postcard beauty of our national landscape, and we lack appreciation of who we are as a people, of the outstanding nature of our multicultural society, of the socio-economic miracle that we achieved over the past two decades.
Not only do we take it all for granted, but we twist our story and turn our nation into a grotesque monster, demoralising ourselves to the point of dread.
The nations of the earth who attract our admiration in this 21st century learned how to build their global brand, how to energise their citizens, how to construct their nation’s stories.
That’s easy for us Guyanese to accomplish. In our building the story of the Guyanese nation, we motivate our fellow citizens to rise up and give of their best to the cause of national development, but we also showcase to the world the magnificent beauty of Guyana.
Of these things we must be conscious today, and talk of and encourage each other to take seriously.
We’ve overcome the primary concerns of mere survival as a people, conquering our severe poverty that bedevilled us as recently as 20 years ago. Now it’s time to move on, to transform our conversation, so our goal is higher, greater, nobler; we look to lift ourselves so the world sees that we, the Guyanese nation, make up an outstanding, model society in the 21st century global village.

By Shaun Michael Samaroo