THERE is an ongoing feud in the U.S., where two diaspora groups appear to be going head-to-head just around the time when both bodies are scheduled to host events celebrating Guyana’s upcoming independence anniversary.
The Guyana Chronicle understands that on June 9 and June 11, the Guyana Unity Movement Inc is scheduled to host two events in New York. Flyers purporting to be from the organisation say that a “Presidential Unity and Soul Black Tie Gala” is scheduled at Antun’s Banquet Hall, Springfield Boulevard, Queens Village, New York, for which tickets would cost US$150.

The other event, a show to be held at the Thomas Jefferson High School Football field, Fountain and Flatlands Avenue, is promoting President Granger as being present to deliver greetings and remarks. The show it is said will be featuring Jomo, Adrian Dutchin, Terry Gajraj and Lisa Punch, charging patrons US$10 for entry.

However, a circulation from a NY-based online news site, Diaspora Times, which says it provides Guyana News and news for Guyanese associations worldwide on its website, has described the events as a “scam.” In the missive, the news site warned Guyanese and West Indians to: “Beware, that the events promoted in these (Guyana Unity Movement) flyers, which we found in circulation, are a scam to exploit the Guyanese people for money. Greedy people want to full their pockets with your money,” it charged.

The news site warned that President Granger would not be attending the events, and urged that persons make contact with the Ministry of the Presidency here in Guyana, even providing a contact number for the office. They said that no one in the Guyanese (overseas) community seems to know the organisers, but, “They are using the President’s name to draw a crowd, so that they can charge an entrance fee to make money…”

While the Guyana Chronicle was able to confirm that indeed the president would not be attending the NY events, it was also related by a NY source that the online news site is promoted by another Diaspora group, the Guyana Independence Celebration Committee, also hosting a number of events around the dates the Unity Movement events are scheduled.
Presidential Communication Director Mark Archer has told the newspaper that the president is not scheduled to attend the unity movement event in NY. He said that the events “are not on his [President’s] schedule,” but was unable to say whether the President was indeed invited to Unity Movement celebrations.

The Guyana Independence Celebration Committee is however scheduled to host Independence celebrations from May 26 to June 11. They are hosting an Independence Day flag-raising service, which will be held on May 26 in the Courtyard of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, 1 Bowling Green, Manhattan NY 10004 (at the Broadway/Wall St Bull). A cocktail reception & awards ceremony in the Rotunda of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House and, an Independence Service at God’s Battalion of Prayer Church are among many others. On June 11, when the Unity Movement show is scheduled, the committee would be hosting its Mashramani parade. However, another missive circulated stated that Mr Rickford Burke, President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), has instructed his attorneys, “to take legal action against Patricia Trim and Sherif Barker Fraser, affiliates of a Brooklyn group which calls itself “Guyana Unity Movement.”

The statement said that, (an attached) legal letter was sent to Patricia Trim between June 2015 and May 2, 2017, “for numerous false, reckless and defamatory statements made about Mr Burke on social media and elsewhere.” It just so happens that Burke is also the Chairman of the Guyana Independence Celebration Committee and allegedly closely tied to the online news site, Diaspora Times.

When Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge was recently questioned on updates regarding the diaspora, he said that one of the problems the government was having is that all the groups were claiming to be the “The real McCoy”; the real representative of the Guyanese diaspora. He said difficulty was being experienced as a result.