Guyana’s New Immigrants …. are we prepared?
April 07, 2019 Eye on Guyana with Lincoln Lewis,
Widespread news that Guyana is about to exploit her massive oil and gas resources will see people, from all over the world, flocking to our shores.
The promised El Dorado, spoken of since I was a boy, is not only confined to our precious minerals, gold and diamond, but has encompassed our ‘black gold,’ oil and gas. Already, the Brazilians are here. Not for oil and gas, necessarily. Their earlier studied movement and presence, in the last two decades, to our shores, where they have established settlements as in church, supermarket, restaurant, strip club and other forms of entertainment, are demonstrations of permanency.
Then there is the Venezuela political and economic crises. Though in significant part these have to do with external interference, as the USA and Russia test their might and seek world dominance using Venezuela as a guinea pig, we are not spared the impacting effects.
Note is taken of government’s effort in providing some level of comfort and accommodation for those fleeing, but there exists doubt that Guyana has the capacity to address the escalating crises and attendant fallout. We are already bearing witness to criminal elements crossing our porous border and terrorising our citizens in unprotected border settlements.
The Panamanian Copa Airlines is already being used as a conduit by Latin Americans to arrive in Georgetown regularly. Planeloads are coming ever so often from this region, not only for trade as the Cubans are wont to do, but to get a piece of the action in the oil and gas sector.
The studied and focused exodus from China, bearing hallmarks of a form of re-colonisation, in the form of an economic model described as the belt and road initiative, cannot be ignored. Chinese immigrants are assured of the protection of China’s Government in the host countries.
A marked feature is the taking over of the retail sector which for some years has been dominated by East Indians, whose forebears fought indentureship. For instance, the Georgetown retail district and East Coast Demerara (ECD) corridor have been bought out, and where new businesses are not being established, Guyanese are being forced out by the Chinese businesses.
We are facing a pending catastrophe which we must seek to avoid at all cost. To further explain – there is a furniture factory on the ECD owned by two East Indian brothers. In 2017 they employed about 119 workers, but today only employ 17. The brothers said to me the competition from the Chinese left them with no alternative to survive in the business but to let go of over 100 workers.
The above is also likely to exacerbate ethnic tension and division. Where one group is being forced out of his/her traditional economic means, and opportunities are limited in the areas traditionally occupied by another group, competition will intensify, then resentment and charges of being discriminated against will follow. What is happening here is different from the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which has within a structured programme for the free movement of skills throughout the region, including qualifying conditions.
We are a small nation in population size and the only English-speaking country in South America. Unplanned immigration brings with it consequences such as stress on the education and health services, housing overrun, the creation of slums, and our resources exploited by others willing to undersell their labour. We also face a crisis of submerging our culture further, only this time not by imperial powers.
This threat comes from others who do not speak our language and share a common culture. Recognition of this does not make one xenophobic or racist, but seeks to highlight the socio-economic and political consequences of a nation unprepared and on the cusp of economic greatness.
They are coming by land, air and sea. Many are already here. Are we prepared for them? Are we looking at our geopolitical safety, which is critical to our survival as an independent nation?
There exists perception of being sidelined in preference for foreigners, not of the Caribbean Community where we share common history and values, but by others who are moving into our space, taking over and exploiting our resources.
I am not a pessimist by nature, but there is fear for our country, people, laws, and institutions of state. This fear has to do with whether Guyanese will be allowed premier opportunities in determining our destiny and exploiting our finite resources, foremost for our collective benefit.
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Is Lincoln Lewis the Black version of White fascism?
Apr 09, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I read Lincoln Lewis column in last Sunday’s Kaieteur News and the first thing that flashed through my mind was if I was the editor for that day, would I have carried that piece. I probably would not.
As I kept reading this commentary all I could have thought of was how easy it is to fall prey to the virus of misplaced nationalism. Lewis’s presentation is directly out of the songbook of white fascism that is sweeping Europe and the US. When you read Lewis, you wonder if he was in fact plagiarizing the words of the Trump, the Brexit advocates in the UK and those who presently rule Italy, Hungary and other countries that are implementing fascist xenophobia.
Lincoln Lewis has been a friend for more than forty years. I didn’t expect that state of mind from him. I would never have thought that Lincoln could use the kind of canvas he painted to describe foreigners coming to Guyana to live and work.
To quote extensively from his viewpoint would take up too much space. The entire article is about foreigners invading Guyana and would take away our country from us and we must not allow that.
Here is some pretty obnoxious ranting from Lincoln. This quote here is identical to the mind- set of the fascist leaders in Italy, Hungary and Donald Trump; “We are a small nation in population size and the only English-speaking country in South America. Unplanned immigration brings with it consequences such as stress on the education and health services, housing overrun, the creation of slums, and our resources exploited by others willing to undersell their labour.
“We also face a crisis of submerging our culture further. This threat comes from others who do not speak our language and share a common culture… we also face a crisis of submerging our culture… we are facing a pending catastrophe which we must seek to avoid at all cost.”
I definitely selected this particular quote because of how identical it is to white fascist speakers in the US and Europe. Pay attention to words like: “They do not speak our language and share a common culture.” Those words have become deadly and dangerous because White fascists egged on by Trump have adopted those words as their Bible. Hispanics are constantly harassed in popular American cities and told to speak English.
Pay attention to another cluster of words by Lincoln Lewis which make you want to believe he has been copying from Trump and the Brexiters. Lewis said that if we allow these people to come in as they are presently doing Guyana will have a catastrophe. This is what Brexiters told the UK after Rumanians and Bulgarians joined the EU and went to the UK. This is what Trump has been telling his supporters every day.
But here is the section of Lewis’s column that makes me feel that he read Trump and plagiarized the American president; “We are already bearing witness to criminal elements crossing our porous border and terrorising our citizens in unprotected border settlements.” Having you been reading what Trump says all the time about Hispanic refugees? Those are the words Trump uses.
Does one need to educate Lewis by telling him there are more Guyanese living in the combined territories of the CARICOM countries, the US, UK and Canada than the current population of Guyana? Does Lewis know there are substantial numbers of illegal Guyanese in Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad, Suriname, US and Canada?
Does Lewis know that perhaps every Guyanese now residing in this country has a parent or sibling or cousin or aunt or uncle or niece or nephew living in another country?
I will offer the final quote from Lincoln which present day fascist leaders around the world are wont to use when they reject foreigners coming in. Lincoln wrote that there people are pouring into “our” country (Lewis doesn’t speak for me on this issue, I want him to know that) at a time when “we are on the cusp of economic greatness.”
This is pretty sick stuff coming from a citizen who lived in the days when foreign nations have been nice to us and have use their “economic greatness” to provide a place in the sun for untold numbers who fled Guyana.
I don’t know if you share the same sentiments as Lewis but I welcome those who come to Guyana in search of a better live. I will always thank Canada for putting its “economic greatness” at my disposal.
A poor fellow like me with no future in front of him got a Masters and a doctoral scholarship from that country. I never looked back
This is what Brexiters told the UK after Rumanians and Bulgarians joined the EU and went to the UK.
And the UK wants to set up a military base near the Eastern part of the Venezuelan border, in Guyana.
I beg to differ, but isn’t Guyana, just as former colonies Suriname and oh wait, (French Guiana is still a colony of France), a part of the continent called South America?
Doesn’t he know that us Blacks, the Amerindians and the Hispanics all faced Eurocentric colonialism?
Do you prefer a country ruled by white America, Indo Nazis and cliquish Chinese billionaires?
Venezuelans and Brazilians are the least of our worries.
Today, if you are not for Open Borders, you ARE A RACIST! Guyana has a right to control entry, and to remove any outsider, from the country. The conversation is nothing but a distraction, as we sit/stand here right now, the Chinese probably implementing slow pace immigration. Check em before you let em.Guyana has everything to lose.
As Martin Carter said ” All are involved and all are consumed”.
The seeds were planted years ago for foreigners to reside permanently in Guyana. There was never a plan to stop that train. The news of oil is old.
Lewis’s point are valid. To articulate the immigration issue is deep and immense. So many bad changes directions that lead us to this present day debacle.
While the future is somewhat glowing, the remnants of Guyana in the next twenty years will be a sad one
Bannuh don’t Eva fugget, nah bad day tell me bout you didn’t ‘immigrate, or refugee to duh piece ah d planet, yes yu did(ancestral) get haul AND plant in wuh is somebody else place an’ without beg please or pardon yu getting on like is you ‘bone’..Yu getting on like dem dat refugee to a place when dem commit genocide claim is dem own an’ call um ananda name afta some Spanish explorer man. Bannuh tek ‘Jacko’ Suggestion talk to the man in the mirror.