Destination Guyana
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
March 2, 2007
WITHIN the next two months, Guyana will be hosting two vastly different events: the Rio Group Meeting and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.
The first, beginning this afternoon, is the more staid of the two – a meeting of heads of states and senior diplomats discussing important, yet unpopular, topics such as development, regional health strategies and closer regional cooperation. During their breaks they will be treated to some nice dinners, cocktails and cultural presentations before going back to the business of running their respective countries.
CWC is a totally different kettle of fish. Whether they are booking into the recently opened four star Buddy’s International Hotel or somebody’s downstairs apartments posing as a bed-and-breakfast, the cricket fans flocking Guyana for the Super Eight matches to be played here are going to be an enthusiastic bunch, screaming themselves hoarse for their favourite teams during the day and partying themselves senseless at night.
Whatever their individual themes, both events will be bringing a hitherto unprecedented amount of international focus on Guyana – the largest in terms of coverage since, both arguably and infamously, the Jonestown massacre two decades ago.
The Rio Group meeting is going to bring us to the attention of a world that we have both been an integral, inseparable part of yet equally divorced from. Guyana and Belize, both members of CARICOM, are the only two non-Latin American countries within the regional grouping.
In the case of this country, linguistic barriers, historical border disputes and our vast hinterland have prevented us from both identifying and being identified with a group of countries we share a closer, more contiguously defined, geographical connection than any CARICOM country, with the exception perhaps of Suriname.
CWC 2007 finds us in familiar cultural territory, yet one in which there is a great deal of room for closer exploration and deeper knowledge. While we have had close historical linkages with the other eight host countries for this mega sporting event, the deepening of the integration process at the level of the individual governments and state bureaucracies has been accompanied by a discernible fragmentation at the more fundamental level of the people. Hence, with the CSM now officially one year old, we are still ironing out issues of the ill-treatment of Guyanese nationals at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados. This event, this massive cultural spectacle and phenomenon that is CWC 2007 offers the opportunity for the real Guyana – not the starving land of drug dealers and petty thieves and con artists – to be showcased to the entire world yes, but just as importantly to those sister nations in CARICOM who continue to view us through a dark glass.
To the dozens of persons who will be here in Guyana for the first time today, many of whom are from our continental neighbours yet know very little about us – and to the thousands expected to pour into Guyana around the end of this month, we hope you enjoy your stay.
We are all eager to prove that Guyana is a destination you will want to return to.