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STOP IT!
Minister Carolyn Rodrigues had the cohones to tell those who strategically
marginalise their supporters by inculcating and infusing into their
collective psyche the fallacious contention that they should not strive,
they should not endeavour, that everything should be handed to them at the
expense of the State, not to mess with the heads of the people for whose
welfare and protection she primarily holds the portfolio, as well as the
mandate covered by that portfolio, to represent their interests in the
highest law-making forum in the land.
And she should rightly be lauded for her unequivocal stand that she does not
see it fit that they should be encumbered with the profile of beggars or
bullies in the national social, political, or economic framework.
The indigenous peoples of this land are resourceful and resilient. They have
lived and thrived without any real national recognition of their needs and
have historically been sidelined within the context of Guyana's nationhood.
However, with the establishment of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs within
recent times, they are now taking their rightful place within the national
collective.
Their products, culture, and their knowledge of the flora and fauna peculiar
to Guyana's rainforests and the topography of the hinterland have proven
invaluable to Guyana's drive in eco-tourism.
Derisively labelled "Buckman," the Amerindians have been stigmatised as
backward and social misfits. Today, with equal access to education,
healthcare, communication and other facilities Guyana's indigenous peoples
are proving that they can hold their own in any area of endeavour, so it
would be a tragedy if this merger and cohesion into the national dynamic
goes in tandem with the simultaneous removal of the peculiar qualities that
contributed to their survival in Guyana's jungles.
While teaching a man to fish he needs to live until he learns the technique
adequately enough to survive on his own skills, so allocations to the
indigenous communities are not intended to encourage a culture of beggary in
their expectations; but to aid in and facilitate the transitional process
whereby the doctors, lawyers, engineers and other skilled and trained
professionals will emerge to serve their communities and the nation.
Government should not blame in totality the misguided Guyanese who prefer to
sit in idleness and complain, or even worse, take a gun and kill and rob
someone else who preferred to work and earn his keep. Entire communities
prefer to complain and lament about marginalisation and discrimination
because the leaders they trust and respect have taught them to think in this
way as this is conducive to having at their disposal enough disgruntled
people with perceived injustices to create trouble in the land when called
upon.
The people in these communities have access to the same facilities as other
communities, with an added advantage. Many have extensive yards which are
taken over by weeds. No one with that amount of land should go hungry, but
laziness and indolence can lead to real poverty. People from other
communities augment their incomes by cultivating kitchen gardens and rearing
poultry, the excess of which they sell.
Our ancestors cleared jungles to create farmlands with the most rudimentary,
if any, tools. Today, when there are support systems to encourage
agriculture and a voracious and expanding global market why should people
with so much land cry marginalisation?
All the communities on the East Coast corridor should be allotted backlands
cleared (not dams) for agricultural purposes, even if in a co-operative way,
in partnership with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) and Ministry
of Agriculture. The opportunities for self-employment would be greatly
enhanced in this way.
So kudos to Minister Rodrigues for attempting to nip in the bud attempts to
infuse a culture of slothfulness, beggary, and bullyism into her people
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