Dear Editor,
TO millennials and Generation X, the world they hear about from their elders will sound much different than which they are seeing today.

This is especially true for Guyana and to get a glimpse of the crucible Guyana was born into, perhaps the book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” by John Perkins could come close to explaining that the dystopian “trials and tribulations” of the early days were not entirely of our own making.

There had to have been an invisible hand at work. Recently, Clifford Krauss of the NY Times alluded to this “Ghost,” if you will, in an article titled: “Oil and New Leadership Raised Hope in Guyana. But Political Rifts Are Resurfacing.” Herein lies a sliver of truth, “The nation’s two founders — Cheddi Jagan, an Indo-Guyanese, and Forbes Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese — vied for control in a bitter battle that led to election tampering, violence and labour strikes, partly organised by C.I.A. agents.”

But the role played by the CIA as indicated here is a huge understatement. Plainly, the CIA of yesteryear is not the CIA of today. It is not inaccurate to suggest that in the 1960s, the CIA must have played Guyana like a fiddle. In fact, the only reason that Guyanese can look forward to a new day with petroleum in its future, independent and free, is because the US was not interested in the country per se– just its unique, strategic location.

Bear in mind that this is the same CIA that relentlessly sabotaged, engineered false flags, waged coups, overthrew governments by hook or by crook, and the list can go on and on.
After all, who is the CIA accountable to? They are literally, “god on earth.”

History is the best teacher and it is by no means scaremongering. It is just a convenient euphemism intended to remind Guyanese about the dastardly past so that, “history repeating,” remains just a song, not reality for a country like Guyana that has suffered for so long. And just in case this is construed as scaremongering, perhaps this line from another song could help with that too: “Don’t believe me, just watch.”

Regards,
Ram Narine