I SERIOUSLY doubt many people read Percy Hintzen’s column for “In The Diaspora (ITD)” which was carried last Monday by the Stabroek News edited by one of the most dye in the wool apologist for Guyana’s Mulatto/Creole class (MCC) – Alissa Trotz. Hintzen and Trotz are two funny persons.
Both left Guyana in the 1970s and perhaps lost their Guyanese accent and perhaps wouldn’t know where Shiv Chanderpaul Drive is located or where Heroes Highway is. Trotz lives in Canada, one of the coldest places on Planet Earth. While Hintzen chose California.

These are two of the most hilarious persons that write on Guyana. Trotz edits ITD and is barefaced to state on the masthead that it is a column for Guyanese in the diaspora who are interested in what is taking place in Guyana.
But Ms. Trotz thinks that the diaspora was not interested in the no-confidence rejection by the APNU+AFC government so she wrote nothing about it in ITD. Ms. Trotz thought that the diaspora was not interested in five months of attempting rigging of the 2020 general election so she wrote nothing about it.
Hintzen is the more extremist of the two in terms of their MCC badge. Here is what Hintzen wrote in 2023: “When people ask me what I am, I reply that I am a Guyanese creole. This is how my identity was forged, and where my interactions have been, and continue to be, most intense.” Hintzen has to be a very serious man when it comes to his class and colour to have written those words above. He certainly doesn’t play (to use an American slang term).

Hintzen in another ITD column suggested that Red Thread, the petty bourgeois Mulatto/Creole women group, could be the social agent that could save Guyana from the current crisis it is in.
I don’t know Guyana is in any crisis and if it does find itself facing a crisis, certainly a working class organisation like the historic trade union, GAWU is more likely to be more effective in rescuing Guyana.
Hintzen is indeed a seriously loyal man to the class to which he belongs. He singled out a middle class outfit to save Guyana. That is understandable because the man publicly proclaims he is an unapologetic Creole.
Anyway, let’s get to the latest outrageous, malignant and despicable pronouncement of Hintzen written last Monday. His column is an acidic condemnation of Exxon capitalism in Guyana and American exploitation of Guyana. He thinks Guyana is doomed.

Here is Hintzen in his own words: “People in the global south have been seduced by a promise that the route to development is GDP growth. They willingly gave up their precious resources, accommodated themselves to conditions of sheer life, low wages, and vast inequality while becoming increasingly dependent on goods and services that they were not allowed to produce, could not afford, and did not need. In the face of inevitable failure, many abandoned their countries to provide cheap and exploitable essential labour to the Global North.”
But guess who was among those than ran to the Global North – Percy Hintzen and Alissa Trotz. Poor Percy has been living in the heart of capitalism since the 1970s. Having reaped the benefits of the economics of imperialism, having benefitted from the oil industry of the United States, poor Percy is now cussing down Guyana for relying on oil and gas.
I couldn’t believe Percy was still living in the US after he wrote the above quote and his anti-capitalist, anti-American essay last Monday. So I did a check on Percy and found out that Percy has retired from his university job in California and is now teaching at a university in Florida. Percy, it must be noted is in his late seventies. So Percy has no intention of teaching at UG. I feel sorry for the economics students at UG. They do not have the benefit of having Percy in their classroom.

Finally, Mr. Hintzen mentioned the role of Clive Thomas in the 1970s in trying to steer the Caribbean away from the dependency syndrome that leads to its underdevelopment. Poor Percy!
He does not keep abreast with what is taking place in Guyana (the man left over 45 years ago). Anti-capitalist, Clive Thomas and his revolutionary colleague, Rupert Roopnaraine in 2015 became part of the Government of Guyana at the level of serious power.
But both gentlemen were happy to be part of a neoliberal government that so failed the working class that the working class kicked them out of government in 2020. Percy, please write about the USA where you live and leave Guyana alone. Please!

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.