Dear Editor,
THE Diaspora is a valuable part of the Guyanese economic, cultural, and political environment. They are taken seriously, as they must. All this is well and good, excepting that a significant section of the Guyanese Diaspora is either ill-informed, or not informed at all about what is going on here.

I am not referring to the usual suspects in the letter sections of KN and SN. That bunch is informed; their business is politics. My concern is with those good but clueless people who think their Canadian and American residence confer special knowledge and authority on them by the simple fact that they live “outside”.

We get heavy doses of advice on what the government should do from people who left here 40 years ago, have never read a policy document, have never listened to a budget debate, or have only been back here for a few days.

Close to 100 per cent of what they say comes from abstract moralism, meaning speaking so-called truths while being clueless about the conditions on the ground. Others think that their intelligence, or a big position in Canada or America necessarily makes them experts on everything here.

The current teachers’ strike demonstrates the claims above with forcefulness and clarity. For instance, numerous Facebook experts keep calling for talks between the government and the GTU. None of them seem to know that the Ministry of Education and the GTU had been meeting for quite some time over a list of about 40 items the GTU presented.

The last meeting was as late as January 31. A meeting was scheduled for next week, but the GTU decided to walk out all the same! Mind you, about 30 of the 40 issues raised by the GTU were successfully addressed through those (Wednesday) meetings.

Editor, I expect the political supporters of the APNU+AFC will write and speak in support of the strike. That is politics, and this is both acceptable and normal. We live in a democracy.
But for goodness-sake, I urge the moralising diaspora to cool off with the clueless but vitriolic heroics and do some much-needed homework instead. Read before you write! Listen before you speak!

Sincerely,
Dr. Randy Persaud
Adviser, Office of the President