Note is taken of great-uncle Sam A.A. Hinds, former top dog in Guyana, now prowling about in the glitzier corners of Washington, DC, but still finding the time to care and write home. Thank you, Excellency Sam for “Let’s feel good for what we are getting from our oil” (SN October 02, 2024). If that is not compassionate care from one of Guyana’s most loyal sons, then nothing else is. A man and an ambassador with a heart and, if it may be said, a mind that works in some ways that are not usually followed by those with patriotic intentions.
The question has merit: Is Excellency Sam Hinds still Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, or has he mutated into Exxon’s chief envoy and cheerleader to Guyana? the question is both timely and relevant for it has been that kind of year, just made immensely better by the touchy-feely, feel-good era that the venerable Uncle Sam reminded all Guyanese about. In Ambassador Hinds’ world, it is not so much what Guyanese are missing, it is what they are collecting. Hooray for highlighting the high notes and putting a positive spin on a sticky wicket. Guyanese should go down on their knees and be thankful for small mercies, which are really big ones, according to Excellency Sam.
“Let’s feel good for what we are getting….” Who is the “we” in the getting that Ambassador Hinds wrote so richly about? It certainly can’t be the ordinary people in Guyana, with teachers and public servants standing at the head of the line. Nor can they be the little people of Guyana crying out week after week in SN about how what they are getting is not enough to help them live at a healthy standard, maintain a dignified existence. Ambassador Hinds can be excused for forgetting that such people exist, since it is known from firsthand experience how numbing the Washington winters can be.
The head is the first part of the anatomy that gives up some of its prior robustness, that keenness which allows sober parsing of circumstances in sun blistered Guyana. The Americans are having a feast in Guyana, and Guyanese get to console themselves with Exxon’s pittances, while having to make do with famine. Has the passage of time, the distance he is from Guyana, eroded Ambassador Hinds’ done something to his mind?
The liquids can be strong up on DC, call for great discipline, should there be any dabbling with the spirits. Guyanese are catching hell in the richest town in the world (Washington, DC included) and the man in Uncle Sam country insists “Let’s all feel good for what we are getting from our oil.” Somebody did more than lost touch with reality; that party lost touch with life, no matter how well-meaning their position. The children of slavery and indentureship (serfdom) should know better, know the new exploiters who grab all the treasure, while leaving the shavings for the dominant local tribes. Feeling good about that is rank betrayal.
Here is a consideration for Excellency Hinds: while he is helping himself to another batch of Maryland crabcakes: there are Guyanese left adrift here, who would welcome some crab shells to keep them going. No, Excellency Hinds, not as sturdy bed of shells on which to walk, but the brittle sections of the carapace his downhome brothers and sisters would use to prop up a meal. Though thousands of miles now separate from his roots, Ambassador Hinds is not the kind of man to abandon his people. The politician in him and its gnarled PPP roots may prompt him to so consider, but not the man, Samuel A. A. Hinds, CCH and XYZ. This is dismal. If Sam Hinds today, who is next on the ‘we must all feel good’ bandwagon?
On another note, it seems that it is the season of writing for plenipotentiaries and luminaries and other Guyanese with a wide swath of the uneven in them. Dr. Hinds was not the only ambassador who graced Guyanese with his singular grandness spiced with good words. One who was here and was the epitome of skulking secrecy broke the veil with some sugary offering over a book. It was a panting, drooling encomium to those with the power to put such folks at a safe distance from Guyana. Burnham used to do that with people who needed shelter. From him or other interested parties.
Jagdeo may curse Burnham, but he has been one of his best imitators, if not an even better one. Given where Guyana is today, and the great interest that it generates, this country’s ambassadors should have their hands so full that they don’t have a spare moment to start typing on a keyboard about anything. That would include how all Guyanese should be gratified with what the oil is giving; or whose penmanship is a testimony to greatness. It must be either the foreign air, or the spring water, or they have too much electricity. It could also be that they have no work to do and are at a loss about what to do with themselves. It is the evidence of who is getting and who has it good in
