I didn't want to go to GUYEXPO this year. Not because of the mess Manzoor Nadir made of it last year, but because it brings home to you the brutal realisation that we are a rich country yet so hopelessly poor. Tuesday evening, my daughter asked me to take her. I had bad memories of last year's event when I took her and two of her friends and witnessed people being crushed all over the place.

This year it was an inviting ambience. GUYEXPO is a Guyanese process every Guyanese should experience. Once you do that, then you know that this country is sincerely begging for a chance to develop what it has got. And it has got a lot going for it. As you look at what is on display the first question that strikes you is why are we running to Barbados that is 132 square miles. Guyanese are frantically heading to that place, some of whom (like carpenters, furniture maker and masons) are living in conditions that are fit for chickens and cows.

It is downright shameful that a huge school of Guyanese can be found in both Antigua and Barbados, yet Guyana has so much to offer its people. Of course, one has to qualify that statement. Guyana has exciting potentials but they keep eluding its citizens. GUYEXPO was truly a paradoxical experience for me. I saw the inventive, visionary side of my countrymen/women, but I was sad because I know they will continue to leave even though they saw at GUYEXPO what we are capable of.

I bought several items including a bottle of sorrel jelly. It reminded me of the self-reliance philosophy of the Maurice Bishop Government in Grenada that I served under. After extracting the nutmeg from its outer flesh, the Grenadian Marketing Agency used the flesh that was discarded before the revolutionary government came into being and manufactured nutmeg jams and jellies. The Guyanese sorrel jelly was great. I went home and immediately had it with some biscuits.

It is really exasperating to shop in the supermarkets to see how Guyanese (really stupid people, and I make no apologies for saying so) grab up all the foreign stuff even though there are Guyanese substitutes which are superior in taste. And the hurtful thing about it is that foreign people living here frown on our products. But we, like Pavlovian dogs, run quickly to the shelves to satisfy our foreign tongues. Do you know this country imports cabbage?

It is not as succulent as the home-grown one and it is chemically treated. But guess who buys it? Not Guyanese who cannot afford it but foreigners who live here. They don't want to eat our cabbage because they desire the ones that come from their country even though our own is healthier. Of course you have the colonial-minded Guyanese who would love to buy the foreign cabbage because it gives them a sense of belonging to another race in another country. In Marxist philosophy this is called false consciousness.

You know I believe that if the supermarkets import foreign sugar, it will find local buyers here. Guess what is a slow seller in Guyana? Our ground coffee. If you percolate our coffee it has a wonderful taste. It is not the best in the world but it is one of the best. Guess what? Foreigners never patronise our coffee. Guess who are close behind? Our colonial-minded middle class.

Now here is a point to ponder. The foreign people who frown on our local coffee and patronise the American lines at least know something about coffee. They don't know how good is the local brew because they feel the foreign brand is better. And they are accustomed to the foreign names. Alright, you may say that they are too-narrow-minded and they should try the local stuff. But at least they know about the beans. Our local imitators of western culture have not reached any level of sophistication in the world of aesthetics but they still will buy the foreign coffee. Why? Because it is below their dignity to buy the local brand.

We here in Guyana have cultural charlatans. They do not know who Monet is. Ask them and they will tell you that she is a singer from Jamaica. He was one of the finest European painters. Ask them who is Maria Callas and they will tell you she is Jennifer Lopez's rival. She was one of the best opera singers and was dumped by Onassis for the widow of President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy. Ask them to tell you what the Holocaust is about and they will tell you it was a hurricane that once hit Florida. Such people have money and nothing else. So they pretend they are aesthetically endowed. You see them shopping at the mini-market (in the gas station) or in the supermarket and you laugh because you are watching the great pretenders.

GUYEXPO showcased the products that this country is replete with. Our furniture has to be the best in the world. Show me better furniture from another country and I will call you a liar. What a pity we have to buy local interior designs because wood is so expensive in this country. There was one aspect of GUYEXPO that was a big damper – the PPP had a booth. What for? The good thing about it was that nobody visited it. I passed at the booth four times and on each of those occasions, not one inquirer was present.