On May 26, 2011, Guyana celebrated 45 years of independence from the British. Guyana, despite its virgin forests and land, is rife with government corruption, lack of accountability, deterioration of infrastructure, regressive politics, and mass emigration of skilled and educated workers. A contributor for Stabroek News, Guyana’s main paper, writes:

[I]t has to be a massive slap in the face of the Burnhams, Jagans and other Guyanese who railed against the colonialists as exploiters of the working class, imperialists and inimical to the interests of colonized descendants of slaves and indentured servants, now that Guyanese are fleeing to live in countries being run by the same ‘white people’ who were castigated in the worst ways possible as no good for Guyana.

So, instead of celebrating our 45th year of political independence, we should engage in solemn introspection to find out where we went wrong and what we now need to do to change direction. Thankfully, this independence anniversary year is also an election year, and if we are convinced that we screwed up ourselves in the last 45 years, then this election year is an opportunity for us as a people to finally take away the keys of government and become the masters of our own destiny.

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