Whose millennium, whose future?
by Alissa Trotz
As a recent, relatively young and - many would say - neurotic mother, my thoughts on this new millennium are about the sort of places that I want my daughter to inherit as she makes herself and her way in this confusing world. I am struck by the irony of my own desire that she recognises herself as Guyanese and Caribbean with contributions to make, even as we occupy spaces in other parts of the globe. So many of us continue to be bound to Guyana by many threads of connection. With this in mind, these are my reflections on what the new year can bring for us Guyanese, wherever we are. The new year. Happy New Year. Welcome to the new millennium. Easy to say, yet not so simple. I recently read a moving piece by Eduardo Galeano outlining his vision for the new millennium. He prefaced his comments with a reminder that today is neither a new year nor a new millennium for all peoples and religions, a fact that seems to have passed most of us by. And yet, even if we don't celebrate this event, none of us on this planet has any choice but to be defined by it, to have our time counted by it, our value measured by it. Such are the workings of power. Such are the contradictions that globalisation has brought from its inception. So when I say 'Happy New Year' it is with the acknowledgement that, innocent as it sounds, it is a term that does not include everyone on an equal footing. That was the main point of the protests on the streets of Seattle during the recent deliberations of the World Trade Organisation. The challenge that we face in Guyana and the region is how to position ourselves in a world increasingly inimical to our interests, whether symbolised by the flight of human capital or in the form of a battle between multinational banana companies and the small Windward farmer struggling for a livelihood. In this respect, what is really worrying is that Guyanese youth, our future stakeholders, are left out of a world that will ultimately be their own (many would argue that this is the case across much of the Caribbean). Our politicians pay lip service to the potential of the young, but for the most part they are absolutely disinterested in harnessing that promise. Instead of mentoring the leaders of tomorrow, rather than facilitating a transition, they want to control the status quo.
I remain convinced that part of the problem lies in the fact that those who will inherit both the problems we face and the responsibility for their resolution continue to be sidelined through lack of opportunities and access to decision-making. Lest I be mistaken for being ageist, let me emphasise that I am absolutely not discounting the worth of what the old can teach the young. At the same time, we should not romanticise the results of a certain brand of wisdom and experience. For instance, both the PNC and the PPP now share – perhaps out of necessity – a policy of opening the country to foreign capital. I am also quite sure that neither party would be opposed to the notion that such investment deals must be negotiated on terms that are advantageous to Guyanese. Yet it is impossible in present day Guyana to imagine the political parties collaborating on ANYTHING in the national interest: a common front regarding foreign investment; a united stand vis-à-vis the WTO; a shared agenda regarding Lomé. Instead, the old guard remains largely mired in the past. Guyanese are held hostage to an eternity of political navel-gazing, finger-pointing and zero-sum positions parading as points of principle. We disagree with your position because it is your position. Do we really think the world will wait for us to resolve our stupid internecine squabbles? Two days ago I went to a store where the clerk, a young high school graduate, could not calculate how much change I should receive. Welcome to Guyana's global workforce of the future. This is what we have been reduced to, the price that most Guyanese have had to pay. Which is why, in a country particularly adept at recycling ideas and people (primarily men, but that is another story altogether), it is a hopeful sign to finally have a President whose political involvement is relatively recent and to see young people beginning to find their voices in other parties as well (and I have heard this opinion expressed across the political and racial spectrum). I have heard several criticisms of the President, one of which is that he talks well but does little. Style may be no substitute for substance in the long run, but frankly speaking, even to have someone speak a different language is a refreshing break from the fossilised attitudes and discourse to which we Guyanese have become so accustomed. In the final analysis, it is an act of supreme arrogance to assume that people want the 'same old same old' that has resulted in the situation in which we find ourselves today. And it is an act of humility to stand aside to allow a younger generation to chart a fresh direction. Free to work together, to disagree together, to navigate the global terrain in a millennium as yet undefined by us.
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