Imagine if all we creatures in the world were the same, how dull life would be!! Heck…we wouldn’t even be able to tell the differences between us. the hyenas and tigers! We’d be like some massive, humongous undifferentiated ocean of living things!! Excepting we’d be losing body parts regularly to creatures that may look just like us, but have their own needs! And maybe that suggests why we LOOK different!!
Fact of the matter, variety ain’t just ”the spice of life” – it’s the foundation of life. Each living creature forms a part of this world and plays a part in making it go around. So today, folks have finally accepted that diversity in the plant and animal kingdom is something we should work at to preserve – if not actually increase. “Bio-diversity” is the going thing – and we’re even getting paid for it!! We’re told the more diversity there is in any one species, their chances of survival increase.
But when it comes to us humans – somehow everyone’s complaining that there are too many differences!! Take today’s Emancipation Day celebration. There’re actually folks asking why should we emphasise cultural differences. We’re supposed to be “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”, weren’t we?” they asked your Eyewitness.
Well, yes and no. “One People” doesn’t mean that all peoples have to be IDENTICAL to each other. We’re all “people”, aren’t we? Well, in that sense, we ARE “one people”. In Guyana, it should actually be seen as a blessing there are people practising so many cultures in our “One Guyana”. Like a rainbow, these cultures may be different but together what a beautiful sight it is to behold!
The real problem is that when folks talk about all of us being “one people” – and complain about differences – they want everybody to be like THEM. As such, they’ll then be in a superior position because everybody else outside of THEIR GROUP gonna be trying to imitate them as the “uniformity” brigade. The bottom line, as it usually always is, Dear Reader, comes down to the question of power and privilege.
When the Europeans dragged us from all the continents of earth – Australia ain’t REALLY no continent, innit?!! – they insisted we gotta become like them. In cricketing terms, we were automatically placed on the back foot!! No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t never become them. When we got close, they simply moved the goalposts!! In cricket, for instance, when our fast bowlers became too good (dangerous!) for them – then they forbade more than two bouncers per over!!
Anyhow, back to our Emancipation Day in Guyana. Let’s now salute our good fortune in being the “land of six peoples”!!
…and Chinese
Some folks are getting their drawers in a knot over Prezzie visiting China. Heck!! Have they forgotten Chinese are one of our six peoples?? Well, maybe it’s because their arrival has been shoehorned with the Indians on May 5 as “Arrival Day”??! Let us be reminded on this Emancipation Day that the Chinese arrived on January 2, 1853! They ain’t no Johnny come lately!!
Now the Chinese arriving weren’t that many…but boy, did they make their mark on Guyana!! What’d we (or every Policemen asking for a raise) do without fried rice??! But seriously, very early one the Chinese showed the nation what hard work and perseverance can do. If the factors of production are land, labour and capital, the Chinese showed how to leverage their labour and time into capital!!
And because they had almost no women in the early days of their indentureship, the Chinese also intermarried with the local freed African population.
Guyana’s been made far richer(and beautiful) for all descendants!
…on Haiti’s tragedy
Meanwhile, Haiti, the first Caribbean island to seize Emancipation on its own, continues its downward spiral. There are meetings on top of meetings but we’re nowhere closer to assisting our fellow Caricom citizens out of their morass. Gotta be wheels within wheels!!
