Fighting hard to keep hope aliveBEST ON TUESDAY
ONE sidebar story that surfaced in the extensive Press interview Carl Hooper gave about his decision to retire from international cricket, gave a poignant insight into life in Guyana and explains what comes through often as a sense of hopelessness among many in that country. Hooper revealed that he had given one of his teenage Guyanese cricket fans an all expenses paid trip to Barbados to witness the two One-Day clashes between the West Indies and Australia last month. This gesture on his part revealed a side of him that is separate and distinct from any impression he has given about his outlook and approach on the cricket field. But even more telling was the reason Hooper gave for his gesture towards the lad. Hooper said that the teenager, apart from being an ardent fan of his, had shown some talent as a cricketer but that he was among the underprivileged in his homeland. So he decided to give him new hope by bringing him to see how people live and play cricket in Barbados. It is Hooper’s expectation that the young player will be inspired to press on with his game in Guyana, despite the obvious constraints that might encourage a sense of hopelessness. The aim was to give the teenager a learning experience that will etch in his mind the realisation that life can be a lot better than what he has been experiencing in Guyana. The possibility is that if he can continue to hone his skills in the game of cricket he might well be able to fight his way towards a more promising future in this game of life. The Barbados experience was intended to spur him towards this achievement. Long way to go Those who read that part of the Hooper interview, will wish that teenager all the best in the years ahead, but they will be doing so with the realisation that he could have a long road to travel and a long, long way to go. Barbadians are too often complacent and take for granted much of what we enjoy as living standards in our country. But it is cases like that of this Guyanese lad, who benefited from Hooper’s generosity, that should jolt us into realising that others in the region see us as a people who have achieved a way of life that can give them inspiration to better theirs. It is most unlikely that any promising Bajan teenage cricketer would consider going to Guyana at this stage, to be inspired by life and living there. Life in Guyana is not anything to write home about. It was not always so. There was a time when Guyana was seen as the one territory among those in the region, stretching from Jamaica in the north to that country in the south, that had the potential to be a leader in Caribbean development. Not only that, Guyana was at one time also speaking of fulfilling “its continental destiny”, seeing as how it is part of the South American continent. In some ways, Jamaica, too, had shown signs earlier of flexing a degree of developmental muscle that is far from what the country is experiencing these days. Not so long ago neither the Guyanese nor the Jamaicans would have envisaged that what their two countries are going through these days would have been part of their lot. Their lot Some circles might claim that it is a lot that they both encouraged, if not chose, by pursuing policies that had more ideology than commonsense. Maybe so. But it still comes as a shock to realise that both in Guyana and Jamaica so many people are living in depressing conditions that threaten to destroy hope. That is why in Jamaica the recent move to put more taxes on the people through fuel price increases led to rioting and death for some nine Jamaicans. Many felt they could take no more. The irony of it all is that a supposedly caring government apparently had to be confronted with this unrest to realise that it had pushed its people too far this time, as they remain saddled with a heavily devalued currency. Jamaica, already strapped for funds, must now spend an estimated US$1.5 million in trying to repair the damage that the unrest has done to its tourism industry, the country’s main money-earner. However it is viewed that it is a costly setback. Then we have Guyana where a loaf of bread costs GUY$130 and where one Guyana dollar is equivalent to less than one Barbados cent. It is a country where the lowest house rent is around GUY$10 000 a month but where the starting salary of a policeman is around GUY $15 195 and that of a public servant GUY$11 445. In these two countries it must take a knowledge or the belief that life can be better for people to keep hope alive. • Robert Best is a former managing editor of the Advocate. 
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