WHAT is allowed to pass in this country cannot be described as incredible or surreal. These words do not adequately capture signs of philosophical failure in a country named Guyana.

Can you imagine a man who is the head of the Trade Union Congress, an important civil society group, made a public demand that the charges against the accused in the Mahdia fire that cost the lives of 20 persons be withdrawn?

Now a lawyer can make that request because that is his raison d’être. Not one trade union in the TUC made an objection to what their head asked for. How can any trade union accept such leadership? Can you imagine a group of educated people has publicly called for the stoppage of oil production? And those who demand that oil money be used for the elevation of the low-income classes and for fair ethnic distribution of oil wealth to date has not issued one word in rejection.

I was deeply disappointed in Mr. Christopher Ram when he interviewed Lincoln Lewis, the TUC Generally Secretary on television with regard to my condemnation of a xenophobic utterance by Mr. Lewis. Instead of chastising Mr. Lewis, Mr. Ram shaped his take on my criticism of Lewis when he smilingly told Lewis in reference to me: “But he is yuh friend nuh.”

Here is what Lewis wrote about people coming to this land to seek life’s existence for them and their families, and as you read it remember these words are coming from a Guyanese: “We are a small nation in population size and the only English-speaking country in South America. Unplanned immigration brings with it consequences such as stress on the education and health services, housing overrun, the creation of slums, and our resources exploited by others willing to undersell their labour.

“We also face a crisis of submerging our culture further. This threat comes from others who do not speak our language and share a common culture… we also face a crisis of submerging our culture… we are facing a pending catastrophe which we must seek to avoid at all cost.”

Interestingly, Mr. Ram holds citizenship of another country and both he and Mr. Lewis have close family members who live in other lands. Perhaps, all of the leaders of the individual trade unions that make up the TUC have family members and relatives who live in other countries. They have never condemned Mr. Lewis for his vocabulary that has tones of xenophobia.

Now in the newspapers last Monday, we saw snippets of thoughts that resemble Mr. Lewis ramblings. Here is what PNC parliamentarian, Annette Ferguson wrote: “The landscape has since changed drastically. We now have hardware, clothing and general stores along with restaurants, all run by Chinese.

“Familiar stores along Regent Street have also been replaced by businesses run by Chinese. Supermarkets have also sprung up in almost every village along the East Coast of Demerara. South Georgetown is no exception. Chinese-owned companies have also been awarded many huge contracts to build the airport, at least one hotel, roads, and bridges. They are also in forestry and mining in a few regions”

Can you imagine that is coming from a Guyanese parliamentarian when Forbes magazine list the diaspora from Guyana as per capita the largest in the world. If you do not understand what Forbes meant, here is an explanation. Of all the countries in the world, when you take into consideration the numbers in the population of the countries that send people abroad, Guyana has the largest numbers that have left the country.

When Venezuela announced its referendum to annex the Essequibo region, the government did a fan-out exercise which took the form of speakers going to public institutions to explain the falsity of Venezuela’s claim.

Speaking to a gathering of high school kids, one child asked Mr. Carl Greenidge about the too many Venezuelans in Guyana. Mr. Greenidge, without any emotional twist on his visage just politely told her “In every part of the world you go, you will see a Guyanese.”

In New York, an entire district is nicknamed, “Little Guyana.” What problem Ms. Ferguson has with Chinese coming to invest in Guyana in both the retail trade and large industries. The Guyanese authorities need to monitor Chinese to ensure they observe the laws of Guyana. They appear delinquent in many areas. The small Guyanese businesses that they have displaced should be given state assistance.

We should welcome our CARICOM neighbours, including Haiti, the Chinese, the Venezuelans and Palestinians fleeing Israeli committal of genocide against them. Guyanese owe it to the world and humanity to so do.