IN THE THIRD week of July, the University of Guyana would be hosting a “Diaspora Engagement Conference”. This is part of the Renaissance Movement of the University of Guyana which Prof. Griffith has been creatively spearheading. Prof. Griffith, as a man of great perspicacity, had already started building the infrastructure for the Conference.
His initiatives would ensure that the Conference would not suffer the fate of so many other conferences which happen in the Caribbean where participants enthusiastically gather, engage in fine intellectual discussion, disperse with promises to do so many things but in a few weeks oblivion overtakes it all.

In building this infrastructure, this fairly novel idea has had to be disseminated among the stakeholders including the intellectual classes, the business community and Government. This is absolutely necessary to win full local acceptability and support.
The Diaspora has also had to be contacted and alerted so as to bring greater completeness to the whole idea. Had Prof. Griffith and his colleagues concentrated their efforts in Guyana without at the same time involving the Diaspora, it would have been like trying to clap with one hand.

One of the university’s first formal engagements with the Diaspora was last September when Prof. Griffith and a team of University personnel visited New York for a few days. The raison d’etre was primarily to make and strengthen contacts and build bridges as well as to raise funds.
The visit was a success since it secured the success of the Conference and did raise about half of the cost of the visit. The total cost of the visit was just over G$4 million and just over G$2.million were secured in contributions.
Some members of the media and some uniformed persons, mistaking the visit as a fund-raising effort, thought that since there was a shortfall of approx. G$2.million, then the visit was not successful. When one understands the importance and raison d’etre of the visit, we should congratulate ourselves that so much was achieved for only G$2.m.

The engagement with the Diaspora would help to raise academic standards of the University with the infusion of high level academics who would be attracted to the University to meet the challenge of creating a world-class institution. State of the art equipment and ideas would begin to flow into Guyana and academics from Europe, North America, and Asia, in particular India and China would come to the University. In the early years of the University, it was fairly international in that there were teaching staff from Europe, North America and Asia.

Prof. Griffith’s vision is to have, growing out of the Engagement Conference in July, a “Caribbean Diaspora Engagement Centre”. Such would give Guyana a leadership role in the West Indies analagous to the University College of the West Indies when it was established at Mona, Jamaica at the end of the 1940’s. Out of Mona came the Trinidad and Barbados campuses. A Caribbean Centre would make it more amenable for academics from the other Caribbean territories to serve in Guyana. Many Trinidadians, for example would like to serve here and we may even be lucky to have a few oil experts to help in our Petroleum industry.

Prof. Griffith’s vision and positive effort to establish a Diaspora Engagement Centre would have many spin-offs at the national level. Almost all countries in the world with large Diasporas have been making serious efforts to engage them. India and China, two countries with Diasporas running into millions, are good examples of this. The Chinese and Indian Diasporas invest billions of dollars in their former home-countries and contribute many scarce technical and other skills.

Their former home-countries bind them closer by offering them something in return: The Chinese have two categories of nationals- Home Chinese and Overseas Chinese-and they enjoy the same rights. The Indians have NRI’s – Non-resident Indians – who have the same rights as citizens except they cannot vote at elections. PIO’s – people of Indian origin – is a fairly recent category and their facilities are less than NRI’s. PIO’s include descendants of Indentured immigrants. To be recognized as a PIO on has to register. There is also GOPIO which people of Indian origin from all over the world could join. They meet every few years in various capitols, and at the meeting this year, the Prime Minister of Portugal, who is of Goan origin attended as a member.

In Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean, we need to take a leaf out of the book of these countries, and not only seek to ask the Diaspora to accord us help in various ways but to give back something in return. For example, since we recognize dual nationality, nationality could be extended to those former nationals who have become foreign citizens. The same could be done to the children of former nationals. Some educational programes, for example how to buy property or deal in the stock markets, could be mounted by Caribbean governments for their Diasporas. And Caribbean citizens must be given help and protection by Caribbean governments wherever they might be. In this regard, Caribbean governments may learn from Israel, another small state.

The Diaspora Engagement Centre would obviously primarily be concerned with academic matters and support for the University, but during the Conference in July, the wider issues of Guyana and other Caribbean states involvement with and support for and from the Diasporas are bound to arise and could very well provide a positive agenda for Caribbean Governments.