You don’t have to take what commentators in the print media and in the electronic media say in a world dominated by the internet. If you think the commentator is wrong, just Google the subject.

Two examples should suffice. If a bigoted intellectual tells you that refugees are overwhelming Europe, Google the question: “Which countries take in more refuges?” You would be surprised to know that non-European countries take in far more refugees than Europe. You read the Western press and you would believe that all refugees are heading to Europe.

The second example is the Guyanese attitude towards Venezuelans coming here. Guyanese are bound to look at you with incredible eyes if you tell them than Guyana’s diaspora is the largest in the world. Let us repeat it so it can soak in; of all the countries in the world, Guyana’s number of foreign residents compared to other countries is the largest in the world.

You don’t believe it, then Google it and Forbes magazine would give you the list of countries with the highest numbers of residents outside their homeland. Per capita, Guyana tops the list. Which country Venezuelans are running to? Google it and you will see Guyana is nowhere near the top. Of all the refugees from Venezuela, Guyana received a mere 1.8 percent. You don’t believe me then acquire common sense and let someone show you how to Google a question.

After this long preamble, I am guessing the headline of this column will be met with a reaction that puts me as government propagandist. But Google should be used before you jump to conclusions. Before and after Independence, and up to this day, the US, and EU officials lecture Third World countries on what democracy is, a free press is and other democratic values like accountability etc.

This country has far more enduring democratic institutions than many of the nations that boast to us that they are the bosom of democracy. In Italy, you can go to jail for libel. In Guyana, that is legally impossible. In the US, Supreme Court justices are selected using open political criteria by the president. In Guyana, since March 2020, the state has won only two cases involving constitutional/political matters in the Court of Appeal.

One was the decision on July 30, 2020, which dismissed the Misenga Jones petition against GECOM’s decision to accept the recount results. The other was last Monday’s verdict that dismissed the APNU election petition appeal.

The Israeli perpetration of genocide Gaza has laid bare for post-colonial people to see who is more democratic and who is less democratic. I remind you again to Google the viewpoints that I will now make to see if they have factual foundations. In the US, corporations, and media houses have sanctioned employees with suspension or dismissal who have criticized or condemned Israel.

Universities in the US and Germany have expelled several students who have condemned Israel. In the US and Germany, many foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian marches have had their visas cancelled. In Germany and France, you are liable to be arrested for shouting, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

In Guyana, no foreign UG student who defends Israel’s action will be deported. There is no political party in this country that will approve of a foreign Jewish student being deported for supporting Israel. There isn’t a newspaper in this country that will not carry a defence of Israel. That correspondence will be published. I read one such publication in the Stabroek News by Mr. Robin Singh.

All over the US, EU, and UK, journalists are being censored by their media houses for criticizing Israel. One of the newspapers I respected for over 40 years was the Guardian of the UK. Now Google what I am about to write if you don’t believe me. The Guardian has fired its cartoonist of over 40 years for doing a drawing depicting Netanyahu in a less flattering light.

Google what is happening in the US against those who support the Palestinians or condemn Israel. You are in big, big, big trouble in the US if you refer to Israel as perpetuating genocide in Gaza. A US congressional representative endured a parliamentary censure by a majority vote for using the words, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The year is about to close, and next year Guyana and the post-colonial world will get its fair share of lecturing from the Western world about what democracy is and how a democracy should function. Israel is a fine country that has a right to exist but from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.