…or exploiting Guyana?
Your Eyewitness was intrigued at the launching of the book, “Aspects of European-Guyanese Heritage”. He hasn’t rushed over to Georgetown to grab his copy as yet, so he’s wondering exactly what “aspects” were covered. One aspect, of course, was to look the Indigenous Peoples full in the eye, but yet announce they’d “discovered” Guyana (or Berbice) or whatever THEY choose to call it.
The Indigenous Peoples weren’t fully “people” – how could they, not being Europeans and all??!! Their culture, or lack thereof, made them savages – and how could savages OWN land?? How ridiculous that these savages figured folks could possess land in common and use it with reverence to sustain themselves!! Didn’t they realise civilised people must OWN land, fence it off, and kill whoever’s trying to “trespass”?? That was the civilised way of doing things.
So one European-Guyanese heritage is to deny any right of the Indigenous Peoples to the land and we, who came later, are the real inheritors of the Europeans who must inherit it. And of course, WE’RE the inheritors of the European heritage. Don’t we have their blood to prove it? Your Eyewitness isn’t talking about the Portuguese who may or may not be Europeans. He’s talking about all those of us who’re “Mixed”. Even though we don’t distinguish between Mulatto or Quadroon or the sixteen other gradations of the mixture of white and black that was common in colonial times – we’re all dubbed “Red” – and that’s part of our (colourful) heritage!
Another contribution, of course, was the Christian Religion (in CAPS). Wasn’t it wonderful this religion was flexible enough to move from declaring Africans were “pagans” who had no souls so they could become European “chattel slaves” to the present where the descendants of those slaves can proselytise others who’re now declared as “pagans”?? It’s a sign of progress, however, that unlike beating out the pagan religions from the African Slaves with whips and the rack, these remaining pagans are threatened with fire and brimstone as they are courted with used clothing and trips to Bible colleges in the States.
Another aspect of European Heritage that’s making a remarkable comeback is in architecture. Have you seen the steep, peaked roofs with all sorts of gables on all the posh new houses? These were designed to allow the snow that falls in Europe to run off and not accumulate and crash the roofs on white people’s heads. Obviously, we’re falling back on our European Heritage in light of Climate Change!! Ice skating, anyone?
But, sadly, we’re jettisoning the greatest European heritage of all – the raison d’étre of our existence – sugar!
Ain’t it a shame??
…a PNC plan?
Speaking to all the diplomats they’ve assigned to foreign climes, our Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin confessed he didn’t have any economic projects they could push abroad!! Now it used to be when Burnham was president, he had delusions of grandeur about being a world leader! So he sent his diplomats far and wide – at the cost of millions of US dollars – to spread his reputation – such as it was. While the economy tanked!
So, you’d think, with the economy careening downhill faster than a toboggan on steroids, Gaskin would’ve prepared some business plans – since his Foreign Minister Greenidge had already signalled the need to drum up “foreign direct investment” for Guyana. But no!! And when Opposition Leader Jagdeo, not surprisingly, jumped on his case, he had the gall to complain Jagdeo hadn’t left him a plan!! Imagine that!!
So what happened to all those plans outlined in that slick-looking APNU/AFC Manifesto??
…a return to heritage
One commentator’s miffed that DDL gave their shareholders at their AGM a bottle of “white rum”. Your Eyewitness doesn’t understand why. It’s part of our European Heritage. They introduced rum to the indentureds to ensure the latter were broke on payday, and had to return to work on Mondays!
