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SUCCESSIVE PPP governments — even from the first PPP government with Dr. Jagan then designated premier, and those post-elections of 1992 — have always reached out to Guyana’s indigenous communities, and have tried to empower them in efforts to bring them on stream within the developmental landscape of the country.
Former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo honoured them by conceptualising his Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) from a base of the Amerindians’ sustainable usage of Guyana’s rainforest, and the government concretised their rights with various pieces of legislation that gives them rock-solid protection; thus hinterland initiatives in any shape or form are guided and driven by Amerindian rights and needs being paramount.
Chairman of the Kaieteur Park Board of Directors, Mr. Shyam Nokta, has outlined a comprehensive Park Management Plan that encapsulates the entire Kaieteur Park and is projected to be a key transformative factor in the tourism industry.
But key and critical to this formula is the integration of Guyana’s indigenous community into the developmental format which, as he describes it, “…is the provision of wealth-creational opportunities for indigenous communities by providing markets for their unique arts and craft,and maximising their potential for growth and development within their own natural habitat so that their traditional mores and existential systems are not jeopardised.”
Shyam Nokta, as Head of the Climate Change Unit, could hardly think out of that box, because he has been moulded and guided by no less a personage than former President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has revolutionised the development strategies of the hinterland, empowering Guyana’s first peoples as they have never been before; and they express their appreciation in many ways and at various fora.
At the celebratory ceremony held at Guyana’s Convention Centre to honour the UNEP Champion of the Earth, then Guyana’s President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, former Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council, Ms Yvonne Pearson, extolled the qualities of the architect of the LCDS as she spoke “on behalf of the National Toshaos Council, and all the Amerindian peoples throughout the length and breadth of Guyana.”
Alluding to a special presentation to Dr. Jagdeo of a hand-carved sculpture made from wood by the Amerindian community on that occasion, Mrs. Pearson said that the gift to Dr. Jagdeo from her organisation and all Amerindians is a representation of their continued commitment to working with the government to bring improvement to the lives of the Amerindian peoples.
Among the many laudatory things that Mrs. Pearson expounded on that evening was the immense satisfaction of the indigenous community on the conferral of the UN’s highest award for environmental leadership in recognition of Dr. Jagdeo’s unwavering efforts in combating climate change, and in developing and presenting to the world a model on low carbon development. She also used the occasion to pledge the Amerindian people’s continuing support for, cooperation with, and participation in, promotion of the awareness and education of Amerindians by the government.
In Linden, Phillip Bynoe has said much the same things, so has Mboya Wood in Buxton. These persons, formerly bitterly opposed to the current regime, have seen beyond the rhetoric and the semantics of the opportunistic divisionists in the nation, and are recognising that development in the country can only evolve through cooperative efforts, and not through attempts to destroy the unity of the country through nebulous accusations of administrative impropriety bordering on — if not outright — theft of national resources and/or distribution of the country’s resources along discriminatory lines.
The opposition’s successive budget presentations have been rightly condemned as lacking in depth and honesty. They are full of accusations and insinuations of many anomalies in governance, without providing one shred of legitimate and verifiable proof to substantiate their accusations. Every accusation has been debunked by the government side, which has been able to substantiate their claims in every instance.
But while the opposition is playing the race-hate card, and trying to undermine the government in a multiplicity of ways, national development continues apace; and Guyana’s indigenous peoples are no longer standing on the periphery, but have now taken their rightful places at the leadership levels in the national construct. Amerindian children are now reaching for the stars, grabbing them, and shaping them to form destinies that have made them stars shining brightly in the galaxy of brilliant achievers in the nation’s framework of brilliant professional success stories.
Former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo honoured them by conceptualising his Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) from a base of the Amerindians’ sustainable usage of Guyana’s rainforest, and the government concretised their rights with various pieces of legislation that gives them rock-solid protection; thus hinterland initiatives in any shape or form are guided and driven by Amerindian rights and needs being paramount.
Chairman of the Kaieteur Park Board of Directors, Mr. Shyam Nokta, has outlined a comprehensive Park Management Plan that encapsulates the entire Kaieteur Park and is projected to be a key transformative factor in the tourism industry.
But key and critical to this formula is the integration of Guyana’s indigenous community into the developmental format which, as he describes it, “…is the provision of wealth-creational opportunities for indigenous communities by providing markets for their unique arts and craft,and maximising their potential for growth and development within their own natural habitat so that their traditional mores and existential systems are not jeopardised.”
Shyam Nokta, as Head of the Climate Change Unit, could hardly think out of that box, because he has been moulded and guided by no less a personage than former President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has revolutionised the development strategies of the hinterland, empowering Guyana’s first peoples as they have never been before; and they express their appreciation in many ways and at various fora.
At the celebratory ceremony held at Guyana’s Convention Centre to honour the UNEP Champion of the Earth, then Guyana’s President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, former Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council, Ms Yvonne Pearson, extolled the qualities of the architect of the LCDS as she spoke “on behalf of the National Toshaos Council, and all the Amerindian peoples throughout the length and breadth of Guyana.”
Alluding to a special presentation to Dr. Jagdeo of a hand-carved sculpture made from wood by the Amerindian community on that occasion, Mrs. Pearson said that the gift to Dr. Jagdeo from her organisation and all Amerindians is a representation of their continued commitment to working with the government to bring improvement to the lives of the Amerindian peoples.
Among the many laudatory things that Mrs. Pearson expounded on that evening was the immense satisfaction of the indigenous community on the conferral of the UN’s highest award for environmental leadership in recognition of Dr. Jagdeo’s unwavering efforts in combating climate change, and in developing and presenting to the world a model on low carbon development. She also used the occasion to pledge the Amerindian people’s continuing support for, cooperation with, and participation in, promotion of the awareness and education of Amerindians by the government.
In Linden, Phillip Bynoe has said much the same things, so has Mboya Wood in Buxton. These persons, formerly bitterly opposed to the current regime, have seen beyond the rhetoric and the semantics of the opportunistic divisionists in the nation, and are recognising that development in the country can only evolve through cooperative efforts, and not through attempts to destroy the unity of the country through nebulous accusations of administrative impropriety bordering on — if not outright — theft of national resources and/or distribution of the country’s resources along discriminatory lines.
The opposition’s successive budget presentations have been rightly condemned as lacking in depth and honesty. They are full of accusations and insinuations of many anomalies in governance, without providing one shred of legitimate and verifiable proof to substantiate their accusations. Every accusation has been debunked by the government side, which has been able to substantiate their claims in every instance.
But while the opposition is playing the race-hate card, and trying to undermine the government in a multiplicity of ways, national development continues apace; and Guyana’s indigenous peoples are no longer standing on the periphery, but have now taken their rightful places at the leadership levels in the national construct. Amerindian children are now reaching for the stars, grabbing them, and shaping them to form destinies that have made them stars shining brightly in the galaxy of brilliant achievers in the nation’s framework of brilliant professional success stories.
