Caribbean Oil Capital Guyana President New Mandate against Dutch Disease
Dr Kris Rampersad 
Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali receives an overwhelming mandate, winning 8 of 10 regions and 36 seats (see election results below). It sets the stage for him to continue his track in developing the small nation with its windfall oil discoveries. Here’s a close look at how he is confronting the challenges and changing landscapes of governance in the New World Order. It is framed within more personal musings on the leadership style of my knowledge of Dr Ali. Incidentally, it expands the section on my close encounters and real and metaphorical “Tea with Presidents” in ongoing development of my Autobiography LIFEHoleheartedly that connects to musings on our State of Independence!
In this shaded secluded sanctuary of unhushed birdsongs, rustling leaves, and untamed wildlife … time loses consequence and the harsh march of politics polling people, of people reaching for recognition, for global acknowledgement of their erased existence, have no place. Here just being, breathing, is enough.
Dr KRis Rampersad
A Taste of Culinary Diplomacy
A spoon clinks against a pot, laughter and chatter drift out.
My nose tickles from the subtle scents of a pot cooking up the Caribbean, teasing my tongue to water.
The air is warm and alive in a cozy chitter chatter of blended Caribbean accents, voices hushed as if in tandem to the steady winds sweeping from the hills.
President of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali walks out of the kitchen behind the bar, towards me, a small towel in hand. Before I have time to extend my hand, he throws open his arms in a wide bear hug, as if we are long-lost friends or relatives.
Such is the ease of encounter that I begin to wonder if we might have met before. I assume he would have been aware of my previous visits and engagements with Guyana, when Guyana was scraping to maintain an active place in global developments, so maybe I am reuniting with a friend, or familiar neighbour of sorts.
Building strengths with people
Guyana had been an occasional stepping-stone through the decades in my capacity-building efforts in the region, some highly-publicised. The Guyana Ministry of Culture had invited me in to help its efforts in preparing its path to UNESCO recognitions, firstly for ratification of the UNESCO Culture Conventions and to bring its diverse communities into the process to cultivate appreciation of how it can smooth jagged social relations similar to other prep work I have been conducting in the region.
New Culture for Agriculture
At the regional levels, with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute and Inter-American Institute of Agriculture to strengthen the regional agenda for food security, I teamed with agriculturalists to cultivate a new culture and attitude to farming and its industries. That perhaps would have brought to the President’s attention some of my development efforts in that arena as it was a subject close to his heart.
I had led the Caribbean contingent of Caribbean journalists, including from Guyana, to the EU to transform the agenda as the organisers wanted me to implement a mode of easy engagement. I had developed the method for the Caribbean to throw off the imposed alien colonial models of policy engagement and instead bring people together peoples from their different superficial hierarchies to minimize mistrust and promote respect among very many levels, understanding and interests to cut through differences and arrive at common positions for actions forward. The EU and regional organisers, technocrats and funders were impressed that grassroots barefooted farmers were made to feel comfortable in a room of policy makers and diplomats, minimizing the sense of difference, to build trust and consensus. Yea, they wanted me to plant that style within the stiff uppercrust Brussel House deliberations of Europe -a mode that we inherited with our governance systems, imposed on our natural amiable modes of engagements – as Louise Bennet would chuckle, colonisation in reverse!
We seemed to share the perspective that it would require as much resourcing as culture-shift to inspire next generations to the sector.
Changing the Culture of Agriculture was the tagline to my guided campaign for those institutions to reverse the conditioning. An embedded culture of recoil from the fields planted with the harsh memories of slavery and indentureship made working the lands repulsive to most. This is being reinforced both in formal and non-formal education systems of media and intergenerational influence. It was only one dimension of changing mindsets that I have championed as the same persists across most sectors and is the common thread in my outreach work, that many think is disjointed, but only because the systems I am trying to bridge are so demarcated and fragmented.
Women intimidated by violence in politics
I had also been to Guyana, as across the region, training women to poise them for leadership and prepare them to manoeuvre the choppy, treacherous and downright hostile political landscape as leading agents of change. So it heartened me to see that some of those eager women were even absorbed into the new government and Cabinet, moving forward our goal of increase visibility of women in political leadership.
In those close door sessions, the women had shared experiences of personal trials, and the trials of breaking the mold of violence that has shadowed Guyana elections over time.
If poverty was Guyana’s bane, elections that splinter the society along political and racial allegiances, brings it to its wobbling knees. No wonder there is a particular focus at this time in policing peace in the region. The political culture, there as here, is our nemesis, and of this the opportunists in the region are well aware.
That culture of violence, as we see in this unfolding election season, seem to have been relegated to the shadows in his campaign of vivacity – song, music, dance and camaraderie.
The notion of winning
Even without tomorrow’s (September 1, 2020) results at the unpredictable polls, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali would have won to some degree in smoothing over that environment of hostility and animosity in the transformation he has begun to make to the political climate and culture and new trends in governance as we knew it in the region. This election season has been marked by his dancing, singing, playing music, cooking through the campaign.
His stated intention to focus more on transforming the structures of governance when returned to office for a second term goes directly to the underlying cause of most of his country’s, and the region’s dilemma of development. Those are his stated goals.
Personality vs Preciousss, Oil Pressure!
The machinations for power increase thousandfold with the promise of precioussss petro-dollars. It had marked Dr Ali’s own baptism of fire as President, forcing a post-polling legal battle against election-rigging for close to six months before he could take his place in leadership, for this, his first term.
But any successes his leadership may claim are not just in the accomplishments of public works that is the dominant focus of the party campaign, nor just in his steering the ship of state to safely navigate the treacherous seas of governance; it is in less obstrusive factors. His personality and personableness – amiability, affability, agreeableness, warmth, and charm – are what make him stand out among contenders. In his walk-the-talk approach, he is converting the model of inherited governance of alienation, absenteeism, apathy and indifference that successive leaders of the neocolonial mode adopted, by practices that do not need policy to pronounce to legitimize.
That might not have been the focus of his party’s campaign, a dualism and distinction that the party may be failing to make, which will determine the results of the election I will unfold further on this later.
Caribbean Classic Casebook City of Dutch Disease
We are standing overlooking the Caribbean’s golden city, built not the lure of gold that brought European marauders trudging through his land and ours, but on black gold, which his own country has just discovered in abundance.
From the overlook, the night spills open on the city that has become the poster child and bodily host and inheritor of the highly contagious Dutch Disease, that sprung from misuse of such abundance.
Below, the lights of Cascade and St. Ann’s wink in descent from the hillside like fireflies caught in a slow, deliberate drift, blinking into the silhouette of the watchful Northern Range, a Jurassic sentinel of the city, its layered spine weaving, merging, surrendering to the Gulf and beyond that the Atlantic Ocean that twin our colonial paths.
Port-of-Spain is washed as an illuminated tide, hugging the Gulf, a skyline of brightly-lit skyscrapers breaking the sightline to the harbor and coastline.
The beams of recorded narratives, focused on the visible contours of land above water, having drowned the umbilical ties binding us over time, its lack of visibility has washed over the city’s memory too, clogged with gold of a darker density.
The city splattered over the bones of native peoples, spawned in colonial contention and native genocide, sprung up from land claimed from the sea which anchors it to the continent, the Amazon, lands originally known as the Guianas.
Mingled Waters
The mingled waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean nourished by Guyana, the land of many waters feed marine life that traverse freely across borders twinning our shared biodiversity and ecosystem and the streams of migrants since, buoying a common destiny founded on a common continental shelf. Our twinned states have more in common than what lies above.
Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali is signaling his helper, who walks over, holding a plate out to me.
‘I hold up my hand. I have already had dinner.
‘Try it,’ he coaxes, leaning his head sideways, “My cook-up,” the President of Guyana is proffering what we call here, his sweethand. I take the plate.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he says, and moves off to make the rounds to his colleagues.
Savoury Symphony of Scents
I banish my imposed curfew on dinner, for this second dinner, even without his urging, unable to resist the savory symphony assaulting my senses. The smoking blend of rice smothering meat and beans, saturated with the flavors of fresh herbs and spices is peppered with his personal flair.
I dip in. The first spoonful explodes in my mouth, evoking the communal after workshop evenings of learners-turned-friends, sharing Guyana’s hospitality extended through its carefully concocted culinary diplomacy.
Warm steam curl-up from the plate of familiar flavours of Guyana.
Grassroots Sovereignty
It is the kind of moments I enjoyed with the friends I made during my outreach – the women who would become leaders, the community and cultural representatives – after I convinced them to sheath their machetes (figuratively yes, and a little bit real, too – lol!) as some came out in fiery spirits to find out why they should look to UNESCO which they saw as an imprint of colonisation, for cultural recognition. Yes, the grassroots protect sovereignty too, and then, as I showed them the areas of mutual benefit, I get invited to similar fireside warmth as this one.
Voices around fade as I immerse in the warm aromas and tastes. With each mouthful, the nostalgic tastes of Guyana that lent lyricism to my time with its people in communities – of agriculturalists, of craftmakers, heritage enthusiasts, cultural creators, educators, policy crafters, indigeneous peoples and grassroots migrants whose parades I joined over the preceding decades trying to cultivate with them beyond their annual Mashramani, chances for a life of creative opportunity.
Earthy Sweet Turbulence
Each mouthful awakens new memories – warm, spicy, earthy, sweet, and herbal all at once, stirring memory of the turbulence of canoeing down the Berbice, heart and hat-in-hand, clinging to my audio-visual gear on a research mission a decade earlier, into the hinterland’s prehistoric heritage. The turbulent thrusts of the gigantic river toss the crudely crafted vessel from bank to bank. My congenital condition that might have cautioned against such an exhilarating experience, was yet undiscovered, as these lands were to Europe before those invaders. That does not mean it did not exist. Oblivion allowed me to revel in the exhilarating experience.
Serenity of Hushed Hinterland Sanctity
My tongue settles to the flavours of the cook-up, just as my senses had been lulled into complicity with the serenity of the hushed sanctuary I found within the womb of the Guyana Amazon.
Earlier, before the turbulent downstream descent, I had slipped out of the canoe where the water lap lustily against land still pristine and undisturbed by development. I bobbed with the river, rhythmically breathing in tandem to the inobtrusive tempo resounding from wildlife and the forest’s foliage swaying teasingly at the sun in a dance of light splattered leaves on water.
In this shaded secluded sanctuary of unhushed birdsongs, rustling leaves, and untamed wildlife, I soak up the river. Time loses consequence and the harsh march of politics polling people, of people reaching for recognition, for global acknowledgement of their erased existence, have no place. Here just being, breathing, is enough.
Namastay to Nature
Forest and river appreciatively receive my namastay to nature. Indigeneous village elders beckon me into their sacred and secret rituals. Shy children peep out, then gather around, curiosity dissolved, to share a native game, or hold out an insect, a flower, a fruit flavoured with memories of my childhood village, now extinct from our landscape.
Faces wrinkled as the spirited forest, lean close, weaving a living heritage older than memory, unblemished by the relaying and raleigh-ing of distorted and concocted documented official timebound history of mistruths. Their recounts, embedded in the landscapes, flow with the river’s timeless truths of our interconnected destinies stretching into prehistory entwined in wilderness.
I am suspended between memory and intuition. I have long held of our primeval umbilical link before history deposited new streams of migrants that created the dish proffered by my host, now fully ingested.
This occasion now joins by chronicles of ‘Tea with Presidents’ with a little meander to dinner.
He returns, breaking my reverie.
‘You do not like it?’ He tilts his head as if daring me to contradict him. I showed him the plate, now clean.
‘It is very very good!’
Truth Dared
‘Truth!’ He commands, as if daring me to say otherwise.
I assure him that as a journalist, Truth is my watchword!
He smiles, conspiratorially.
‘Cooking relaxes me. These long meeting days….’ He is in confessional mode. Warm. Open. Sharing. Relaxed. It is easy to forget he is President of one of the emerging most powerful countries in the world!
He had ducked out of the State dinner to concoct the meal I just enjoyed for his entourage and himself.
His ditching the official dinner, is the selective discernment he would apply to Guyana’s rejection of the Trinidad and Tobago model of development with its over-reliance on oil and gas that perpetuated. Guyana, he insists, would craft its own to avoid the blackout Trinidad and Tobago’s petro-infused brains has wrought on other sectors like agriculture and creative industries.
Curry Notes
Earlier he had tickled his audience with his closing quip, acknowledging the friendly rivalry and ribaldry between our peoples.
“I end on a good note for my friends in Trinidad and Tobago: Whether it is curry chicken or chicken curry, we will have curry!”
It is not curry, this cook-up. But it too smooths and soothes towards cultivating respectful relationships, erasing the rough edges of officialdom. The world in its basic simplistic comfort of a plate of hot rice, meat steaming off aromatic herbs and peppered with nationalism.
Returning the Flavours
For the flavourful dish, I return the favour from my accumulate knowledge reservoir. I hand him one of the last remaining print copies of Finding a Place which traces the cultural settlement and adaptation of his ancestors and mine to the Caribbean from India with its close view of the intricate process of society forming -the makings of our diversity and multiculturalism which I am now trying to reinvent into multimedia form with new material from my recent life-altering sojourn in India.
The small bundle I in turn present, post meal, also includes my book, LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction – the official commemorative publication of the jubilee anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence, meant to redefine our approach to development through creative heritage industries, including cultural tourism and education. I do not have to do proposal or strategy. These token speak for themselves – development with a new twist.
Atop them is a commemorative cap from the Year of Derek Walcott – a tribute I had concocted, the precursor to the LiTTributes that grew out of LitTTscapes. The Year of Derek Walcott, which culminated in the phenomenal offer of prizes for creative storytelling I proposed and which Walcott promptly supported , albeit all bashfully, to enhance each of the publicity to attract sponsors and build momentum around the production of Walcott’s musical Steel while celebrating the Nobel Laureate’s 75th birthday. That I have had close association through my literary
Capping Accomplishments
The President immediately and appreciatively puts on the cap, waves his photographer over for a photo-moment, then sits down with me, thumbing through LiTTscapes.
‘I want this for Guyana! he says emphatically.
Warmed by his interest, I explain the vision of connecting written and oral histories to lived heritage experiences that would encourage flagging literacy and interests in reading while stimulating an overlooked sector of heritage tourism.
He pauses in flipping the pages, stopping at the picture and passage that evokes Samuel Selvon’s Those Who Eat the Cascadura, Trinidad and Tobago’s quintessential dish guaranteed to bring any back to Trinidad for their final hours in the NosTTlgia section of LiTTscapes’ heritage lifestyles.
‘It’s like your dish, the Guyanese cook-up, eh!’ I too ditch the formality to tease.
‘I want this for Guyana,’ he says, this time more to himself, continuing to flip the pages.
Tributes to the Continent
Clearly LiTTscapes’ reputation had preceded this encounter, and why not. Immediately after its launch at White Hall and the first LiTTribute – To The Republic hosted by our First Lady Jean Richards, I took the LiTTribute – To Our Intrinsic Interconnections to the Mainland in Guyana, hosted by Moray House, the Guyana Drama Guild and its Director Paloma Mohammed, whose cast interpreted passages from it in song and dance and Head of the Guyana Prize for Literature.
It set the ball rolling for other LiTTributes. They include in Antigua and Barbuda the LiTTribute to the Antilles of Epic Memory, with world writers at UNESCO Paris, in North America – LiTTributes to the Americas in the USA, LiTTribute to Toronto in Canada and in LondonTown in the UK.
They engage different communities around appropriately different subjects, relevant to multilateral engagements as proof of concept to demonstrating the value for realizing viable diversification through one of our most succinct yet overlooked assets – our literary and creative heritage as well as our cornerstone of reversing colonial-drenched education that erases self-respect with imposed dependency.
Guyana’s preeminent literary critic and head of the Guyana Prize for Literature branded it ‘an innovative approach to literature and landscapes,’ in an hour-long critique, bejeweled with praise in recognizing its potential that has buoyed my spirits when material resources remain scarce and most officials impervious to the transformation it envisions. (See Video Below and linked here)
LiTTscapes is a work of art; but also a documentary, a travelogue, a critical work with visual and literary power… an innovative approach to literature bringing it alive in description of landscape, life, culture and people … considerable visual beauty, what Derek Walcott calls “visual surprise” …
No tourist guide can give a better, more comprehensive introduction to Trinidad. It entices and attracts just as the glossy tourist literature.’
Call To Lead
In our short encounter and conversation, the President shares his interest in equality of women telling of the influence of his very strong and independent grandmothers and mother. He would refine that vision and as a male leader, craft a programme where men become exemplars for next generation youths, to inspire boys to become men who value and respect women. It is called Men on a Mission. Various industry leaders will buzz about its efficacy when I hop over again to Guyana a few months later to pulse the vibe on the ground.
It is the same novelty he injects into his vision for food security that will make Guyana the food basket of the region, at the same time, injecting antiviral medication against any threat of succumbing to the Dutch Disease.
Called to lead Guyana and then CARICOM, lifting the status of women, agriculture, the culture sector, have all become front-burner issues on his Guyana-first agenda that resonate his first words to me, ‘I want that for Guyana.’
Tour de Force
In short time Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has became a tour-de-force not only for his country, for the region. Driving CARICOM out of inertia, his energy and optimism rippling through to inspire its new generation of leaders, who would be well served to take a page or two out of his playbook.
He is the embodiment of Caribbean colour and vivacity. He shook his fist at the empire and was yet invited to tea with the King. See what really happened in Guyana linked here.
He injected a spirit of action and achievement unprecedented in CARICOM, pulling up socks for concerted actions to secure the futures of the beleaguered people of Haiti. He bowed to the elder statesmen of CARICOM who beaconed him to a table already tilted in favour of the belligerent aggressor mor needed the CARICOM bolster as he hung on to dwindling political popularity by shaking his invasive fists at Guyana.
He does not shirk before world leaders. Quite the opposite, they are boys, like him, and would not escape his pranking. A pranking Puck, as their host assuming the Chairmanship of CARICOM, he sets representatives of feuding nations to sit shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed hall, publicly chuckling at his cheek as he also pounds the alram on the impact of dirty lyrics (see article linked here:
‘Only in CARICOM we can bring the US, Saudi Arabia, the UN and Canada so closely together. Ohh come on. Put your hands together. What a picture Saudi Arabia and the US shoulder to shoulder in the interest of a stable and secure world. Let us all put our shoulders together. (Open Address to 46th CARICOM meet).
Food Basket of the Region
In the few short years by tireless drive, building out Guyana as the food basket of the region – South America and the Caribbean, he is repositioning Guyana in regional leadership. How dexteriously he seized from under Trinidad and Tobago’s nose, its underdeveloped and under-resourced notion to market itself as the Carnival capital of the world with his putting-my-money-and-intelligence to work beyond rhetoric and jumping straight to realizing the second-to-none combo billed as ‘Cricket Carnival.’ It became an instant hit and is now firmly embed into the Caribbean’s annual cultural and sporting calendar. Barbados’ Mia Mottley would similarly trump Trinidad and Tobago’s rhetoric with action by purchasing the valuable legacy archives of Banyan, not for its projected commercial value, but because it forms part of the collective memory our region, as Mottley announced. (More on the evolving CARICOM next)
He sang, he danced, he drummed, cricketed. He laughed loudly and raucously. He cried, holding the hands of families of soldiers who lost their lives soaring to Guyana’s defense in the face of threats on its borders, as he did with families of children consumed in a fire set by a teenager. She would easily have evoked ridicule and wrath but his prompt intervention with a Commission of Enquiry, trailed the misguided teen’s actions to still deeply embedded colonial and neocolonial exploitation that inspire anger and extremism, under-resourced rural services and systemized inertia that dallied and delayed the responsiveness of ocial services as the fire prevention services as well.
Indefatigable Political Will
He is transforming governance in Guyana, not by constitutional reform but by political will and work, reversing the deeply embedded practice of absentee leadership with origins in colonial rule, to be ever present work ethic – from as early as 4 am and as late as 2 am – in 22 hour workdays.
The region’s first Muslim Head of Government, he challenges the global stereotype of Islam as fundamentalist, not by lifting a weapon, but by doing his do – singing, dancing, drumming, cooking, in a collective embrace of multiculturalism, living the values of Islam to serve with humour and humility.
He is in Mosques, in mandirs at most festivals and observances as he is in churches and sermoning in evangelical style even at stiff-lipped conferences; and dancing around tribal fires holding hands with grassroots children and indigenous peoples. Thoughout his term he sits with communities hearing documenting and actioning their needs.
His campaign might be trying to sell policies, programmes and the infrastructure built as accomplishments to the electorate to determine his fate tomorrow, but it is in the person that he is that Mohamed Irfaan Ali is Guyana’s golden asset.
His cook-up was a small taste of his focus on food, friendship and fellowship, an experience he also shared with CARICOM leaders when he hosted them, dropping the garbs of officialdom for egalitarian white cotton.
Simple Fixes
These are simple fixes to entrenched dependence that are overlooked in policies and programmes actions, over-costed in budgets, when basic to gestures and actions contain the formula to fix our fractured systems, and unraveling and unfurl the knots of inhumanity imposed by layers of decivilization, dehumanization and pervasive disrespect that feed the mistrust that underly most of our social dilemmas and the defined crises of development, the lack of productivity stemming from debilitating inertia and helplessness.
Trinidad and Tobago as the poster child of the Dutch Disease in its over-dependence on petroleum revenue obliviating all others is the resounding warning to not just Guyana and all others on a similar path.
It takes more than vision. Dr Ali’s governance is marked by tireless and energetic efforts that leave all in his wake panting to keep up, I would discover. More than just positioning and posturing, he is hands-on piloting as marketeer-in-chief wooing investors, returning from each foreign engagement with loads of new opportunities, weaving the magnetic pull of wealth from oil for equally resilient investments and returns from agriculture, fisheries, tourism, creative industries and other non-oil sectors as I have witnessed (more on this developing case study I am integrating into comprehensive AuththenThink Intel analyses of the turning tides in the Global South – to support, make contact).
Guyana is also spreading its benefits from overconcentrating development on the capital city alone, as occurred in his island oil neighbour, to rural districts and the hinterland through which my canoe had careened in its carefree celebration of life and freedoms ‘behind God’s back’.
It is a playbook the newly-reconstituted Persad-Bissessar regime will do well to emulate, as outlined in the campaign manifesto now adopted as national policy. Beyond that the challenge remains in extricating itself from the scourge of the debilitating Dutch Disease that persist as a canker in the culturized and brainwashed business, policy and decision-making embedded within systems of operations, through the culture-centric models I have proffered over the last decades, and projects too, crafted collectively by our best minds, that represent a radical departure to the accustomed modes of business as usual, we continually fall into – echoing Naipaul’s Nightwatchman’s comic simplistic, ‘nothing unusual means everything usual,’ as we are lulled into mistaking oblivion and inertia for stability. Most, like the LiTTscapes blueprint for propelling the literary and creative sectors, sit unrealized.
The entrenched sameness, the tentacles of the swamp, that swept out her predecessor with its tunnel-vision of revenue as solely from oil and taxes, oblivion to all the other opportunities beyond, indoctrinated into and now being parroted by her predecessors succeeding generation of politicians. It continues to surface nauseatingly in their Parliamentary and platforms – oil and taxes – refusing to take the risks to walk the talk to unleash other opportunities that exist. It is embedded in the public service system that encourage a return to sameness and inertia.
Challenged with removing the cancerous slime that has remade the Dutch Disease into the Trinidad and Tobago epidemic of gleeful Gollum-obsession still enveloping the modus operandi of the former regime, re Kamla Persad-Bissessar was well served to wag her grandmotherly finger at her young charges, warning them off reversion and replication of the failures of the last regime. To sustain that with action is the litmus test.
Backward Glance Forwards
As I had left the scene of the meeting with the President, moving to ground level to the twinkling lights of the city, a city once bathed in wealth, a nation riding the tide of black gold, full of hope optimism and aspiration. That oil borne wealth became our definition of Independence. The coffers swelled and so too corruption. It did not even grow our economic independence as the over reliance on oil made us crawlers, relying on others to feed, cloth and even shelter us in the successive waves of migration and brain drain we have seen. Oil wealth did not bolster our real independence. It aborted it.
I saw the twinkling city lights for what it has become – an SOS on Trinidad and Tobago’s state of Emergency spawned in its decades-long reliance on oil and gas, development concentrated around Port of Spain and pressuring its natural ecosystem. It allowed the foundations of independent ethics to crumble, propelling the debilitating social scourge that emerges from lopsided development, festering criminality, creating and enlarging the gulf between classes, communities, rural country and city that sets us in a state of emergency this Independence sparking laughable debates on curtailing of national posturing and parades.
Revenue challenge beyond oil and taxes
The last government compounded the risk, seeing every revenue challenge only through tunnel vision lens of petroleum, piling on taxes and leaving other sectors to crumble. Frustrated by exclusion and burdensome taxes, citizens dipped their disapproval in red ink.
Dr Ali’s regime has presented a clear view of us and is developing the antidote to our Dutch Disease. With its emerging new and innovative actions to turn the development tide by changing the culture of politics, industry, environment, spending, governance, how people and communities engage with each other. It is building a broader foundation – investing in agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and infrastructure, stabilizing fiscal policy, and spreading development beyond the capital—crafting a resilient economy that can endure even when oil prices fall. It is one of my best-case capsules in this collection of cases of lived experiences.
Guyana is building from an ethos of Dr Irfaan Ali and his team, determined not to repeat history; and not by rhetoric, but by being and doing. In this, is not just the quintessential Caribbean man or a man for all seasons trying to restore dignity to his people, but a world leader thriving to return the world its understanding of humaness in a world fast-surrendering its humanism and humanity to artificial intelligence.
Tomorrow (September 1, 2025) will tell how awakened the citizens are to the dangers of Guyana descending into what Trinidad became in the choices they face in this elections – of reversing an returning to fractured racialized trends of mismanagement and underdevelopment or of continuing to build on the transformative modes in governance, business, culture and restoring the basic simple human values that make this our region home and our neighbouring countries, friends and family.
Glimpse Inside LiTTscapes
To order copies, develop a community initiative, or discuss other topical integrations with your goals make contact. See more about the odyssey of LiTTscapes, LiTTributes and LiTTours in this link here:
See review and sneak inside peak in video below
Explore our Global Interconnections
Guyana Election Commission Announce Results
(News Release) 6th September, 2025 GEORGETOWN – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) at a specially convened statutory meeting tonight, Saturday, 6th September, 2025 declared the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) the winner of the 2025 General and Regional Elections held on the 1st September, 2025 and declared, the PPP/C’s Presidential Candidate Dr. Mohamed Ifraan Ali the elected President.
… Mr. Vishnu Persaud, the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission declared that Dr. Mohamed Ifraan Ali , the Presidential candidate designated in the list of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic has been elected President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) secured 36 seats in the National Assembly, while We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) gained 16 seats, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) gained 12 seats, and Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) gained 1 seat.
Congratulations to President Dr. Mohamed Ifraan Ali and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic. GECOM reaffirms its commitment to working with all stakeholders as it continues to fulfill its constitutional mandate and the people of Guyana for a peaceful poll.
More on Guyana
For more on my musings on Guyana including under the Irfaan Regime see links here and others below
About Dr Kris Rampersad
Dr Kris Rampersad is a Multilateral Relations specialist, global policy influencer and creative content innovator.Find out more:
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Introducing Innovative EPIC Landscapes & Mindscapes of World Heritage & History where heritage is more than monument, history more than date and decree.. find hidden and lost interconnections of our global heritage from the Caribbean to the world with startling insights and ask about creative partnerships … - Caribbean Oil Capital Guyana President New Mandate against Dutch Disease
Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali took office five years ago, relatively unknown to World Leadership, now five years later his country polls its verdict …. Multilateral Policy Influencer Dr Kris Rampersad reflects on the Caribbean’s new oil capital and the changing tones of the leadership and governance in the region and the Global South - Ahoy Matey! Navigating World’s Wickedest UNESCO Heritage City
Swashbuckling through tumultuos seas, vessels manned by corrupt pirates, massive bureaucratic blocks and resource limitation Caribbean Queen of Culture Dr Kris Rampersad lands on World’s Wickedest Heritage City to unearth treasure chest for economic diversification identity retrieval and social cohesion and transformation - LAC Awesome foursome enter UNESCO World Heritage List
our New UNESCO World Heritage Sites for the regio… Maurading the High Seas of Heritage, clutching the lost map retrieved from the depths of the World’s Wickedest Heritage City, the swashbuckling Queen of Caribbean Culture & Heritage, Dr Kris Rampersad, is hot on the trail to unlocking the code to the treasure troves for economic diversification, identity retrieval & social transformation…like & follow for more F krisrampersad.com krisrampersad: youtube, instagram, linkedin - My World Heritage footprints on UNESCO sites
Swashbuckling Queen of Caribbean Heritage Dr Kris Rampersad navigates the treacherous global waters of World Heritage to leave a trail of footprints to a treasure trove for economic diversification, identity retrieval and social transformation … follow this trail to our interconnected global heritage - SOS! 2025 Security Emergency reopens forgotten Diary of 1990 Coup-bid
A State of Emergency, a government confronting criminality & corruption, weaknesses in justice systems and law enforcement agencies with weary and blood-thirsty citizens demanding guns and arms. Dr Kris Rampersad deep dives into the roots of social violence, experiences of the 1990 coup attempt & legacies States of Emergencies - In the News: Life-Altering Journey Through India
Spread the loveIn the News: Heritage educator Dr Kris Rampersad on mapping India’s development 180 years after ancestors - Inside Pulse of A Civilisation – Tracing Ancestors’ Footsteps in World’s Largest Diaspora
With a blank creative canvas to turn audio visual light on India’s development thrust while retriacing ancestral footsteps, I hurled into the vortex that is India – beyond its racial, religious and geospatial walls - Knowledge Exchange on Daughters of World Largest Diaspora – A visit with the India Ambassador
He might be busy getting in placethe nuts and bolts of the visit of Indian Primce Minister Narendra Modi to Trinidad and Tobago but India High Commissioner to TT, Shri Pradeep Rajpurohit took the time to welcome me back to TT from India and to do this .. - Sopari Mai Reboot! PM Kamla’s 2nd historic election victory to shatter Glass Ceiling
Sopari Ki Mai, Kamla Persad-Bisessar victory at the post is the stuff of legends that resonates from this twin islnd republic across the region to our interconneted diaspora. What’s next on the road to development as a Woman Prime Minister, for the Caribbean as she joins Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and for the diaspora and the Global South? Dr KRis Rampersad’s AuthenThink Intel Analyses pinpoints key benchmarks… - In The News: Reshaping Inclusive Development at World’s Largest Diaspora Gathering
Spread the loveAs we face explosion of crime and as the world explodes in conflict and wars, local - Cultures Converge in Historic MahaKumbh Mela Pravasi in Prayagraj
Spread the loveThe locals believe that those who show up for the Maha Kumbh Mela that takes place - My Date with Narendra Modi – revisiting India in the West reshaping a New World Order
Prelude to a closer look at the India-Caricom Summit, coming on the heels of the Brazil-hosted G20 Summit, and some new AuthenThink Intel AI AnalyEthics and insights into what this should mean for the region, the Americas, the Global South and the emerging New World Order! - Toxic Politics Petticoat Obsession US Election Knickers A-Twist in Race To The Polls A Woman’s Place When America Sneezes
In the cut and thrust of a toxic political culture with a petticoat obsession that leaves many-a-knickers-in-a-twist, how is the USA treating with skews, biases and prejudices that persist in the political playpen and reflecting in its polling analyses, media outputs, advertising and campaign prospects? Dr Kris Rampersad, AuthenThink AI AnalyEthics Development Strategist punches at the appearances in the USA Election Campaign. - High Stakes in US Elections Leadership Matters to Emerging New World Order – When America Sneezes
No matter how vehemently the USA sneezes, virally spreading its cold, flu and pandemic ailments across borders, it is not the whole shebang of the Americas that is our Hemisphere, struggling to assert and affirm myriad identities in a panoramic cultural mosaic - Future AI SciTech Learnings Passport To A Brave New ImaginedNation
Spread the love‘Oh brave new AI world that there’s so much data in’t!’ Missed me since the Data - What Is A Woman Power Shift in Musical Boardroom Sydnie Transcends Sinatra’s My Way the Hi-Way
Spread the love Sydnie pitches Sinatra’s famed cocky melody onto a new path as the potential female anthem - The Lights that Spark Us! Between Birthdays & Death’s day Shine On! For Denise In Tribute
On Birthdays & Death’s Day: We have is this one instant to spark, to negate the ever-present darkness, to shine our pinpricks of light in the endless stream of sparks that connect our floodlight to the satellite of Cosmic Stars. more at www.krisrampersad.com - Bloody Hell! Toxic Power in King Charles’ Portrait of Planet … Confronting the Colonial Mindset
If Machiavelli and Lady Macbeth had a baby he would look something like the Portrait of King Charles III – a karmic depiction of human ugly, toxic power at its most macabre, noxious and nihilistic, the apocalyptic legacy of Empire inherited and claimed as he morphs into the role of Monarch on whose shoulder sits planetary doom, hands and faced stroked with blood. Art defies artistic intent, sitter’s expectations to define its own truths Dr Kris Rampersad explores art artist sitter and society.., - Pieces of Ma MotherContinent village inspires a global village Happy Mothers’ Day
You do not need millions of followers to Impact the World. How our mothers did it Message to Girls gripped by social media syndrome Happy Mothers Day! - What Really Happened On the Road to Guyana? Wanted! A New Journalism for A New Development Agenda – With BBC Gone#3
Spread the loveSo if I have resisted jumping on the bandwagon of media shares and commendations, it is - Mayday! Mayday! Mutated Tech-Savvy Sharks Invade Roadways new Tonton Macoutes Open Letter To Minister of Transport et al
New Tech Savvy Mutant Shark Species Take over Roadways share kinship lineage withe Haiti’s Tonton Macoutes Open Letter to Minister of Transport & Commissioner Roots & Routes of Anarchy Satire & Allegory - Confronting The Colonial Mindset & Systemised Bias With BBC Gone Who Goin Tek Over Town II Happy Girls In ICT Day!
With escalating evidence of the persistent colonial mindset inhibiting the development agenda introducing a new Demokrissy Series to confront the Colonial Mindset, media bias and bias in tech Happy International Girls In ICT Day - Cover Story Dr Kris Changing The World With Ideas Impact the Future IWD Reflections
Reflecting the Journey to Impact the Future called Wonder Woman Reflections on International Women’s Day Cover Story Changing the World With Ideas - Creating From Chaos Arresting the Tears for Us and the Haitian Earth
Creating from Chaos insights into the Haitian democratic dilemma rooted in an atrocious Colonial past and what artistry may be needed healing and recovery Eye … Haiti …Cries…Everywhere - Dirty Lyrics CARICOM@50 Guyana President jams on opaque data culture-Impact the Future Women Techmakers Happy IWD!
This startling disclosure by Chair of CARICOM, Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali has repercussions for culture of governance, Data Driven Development, cultural actions for change and gender empowerment Happy International Women’s Day from this Woman Techmakers’ Ambassador - In the News Digital Dilemma in Caribbean Education Culture New Directions Needed for ICT Planning
How internet and the technological advancements are causing us to loosen our grip on cultural traditions and heritage, critical to our national and cultural identities and what we can do about it! - A Carnival Memoire Jus call me Cooligan! Bois and Bacchanal in meh blood One Fine J’Ouvert Morn
A Carnival expose of the hidden gems of the multicultural mosaic of the Caribbean as we enter the bacchanalia of the season - Pokney From the Pyre PM Panday Patni/Wife Progeny Poke Patriarchy
Presence of Panday’s Patni/wife and Progeny at Hindu pyre cremation implications for cultural practice, discrimination and violence against women and boys’ education - Prime Minister Panday’s Last Parlance – Final Fiery Journey Comes Full Circle to Reconnect with Ancestors
Former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday’s final journey to cremation pyre recalls other journeys to root and anticipated welcome on the other side – Dr Kris Rampersad reflects on his journeys - People’s Prime Minister Panday’s Parting Punch in prep for Tell-All Memoire – mutating orator into author In Remembrance
Behind the scenes confessions on honing the authorial skills of the Silver Fox the orator Prime Minister Basdeo Panday - Silver Fox Who Dared Lions – former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday – Passes On
Silver Fox who dared Lions Prime Minister Basdeo Panday passes on News Year’s Day farewell - When Your World View is the World’s View! Happy New Year!
Spread the loveWhen You World View is the World’s View! Happy New Year! As we say goodbye to - Peace Talks to Change LAC Agenda – Region Poised For New Era of Development?
Promise of change of course for development in Latin America and Caribbean as feuding leaders Guyana’s President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro meet for peace talks around border controversy more details on Boredr Wars www.krisrampersad.com - A New Agenda for Guyana-Venezuela Talks – Open Letter to Comrade Gonsalves & Peace Brokers from Limboing to Parranda-ing & Junkanooing on the Borderline
An open letter to Peace Broker Dr Gonsalves et al addressing talks between Venezuela and Guyana Border Wars III with a revised agenda and a unique perspective on the ongoing conflict and actionable steps to foster peace and understanding. More at www.KrisRampersad.com - Prompt Action Needed as UN Security Council, CARICOM hold Emergency Meet on Venezuela; Maduro’s Land Grab threat to Guyana may escalate 8m refugee crisis in LAC – the Border Wars II
Prompt Action needed from Region as Repercussions set in from threats by Venezuelan President Maduro to Guyana, defiance of the ICJ provisional order and growing repercussions for Venezuela Refugee and displacement crises, regional insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean. - ICJ to pronounce on provisional request by Guyana Dec 1 2023International Court of Justice
- Brokering the Border Wars – LAC limbo on barbed lines of demarcation as Venezuela-Guyana dispute heightens
Political stability and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean sits on a fine filigree of loosely-knotted territorial disputes. What are the implications to the wider region of the Venezuela-Guyana Dispute Dr Kris Rampersad takes a broader and deeper view of fermenting feuds…www.krisrampersad.com - When Kerry Met Kris – Negotiating Caribbean Development with US Secretary of State
he USA rejoining UNESCO and its significance for bilateral and multilateral arrangements with Caribbean countries. - UNESCO actions and funding under scrutiny, says Trinidad representativeSpread the loveProviding focus to centering the agenda needs and agendas of the developing world, Global South and
- SIDS education culture agenda before UNESCO Executive Board
Understanding the mechanisms of global governance and how to use the instruments to effect change is one of the challenges facing the region and ways to redress with Dr Kris Rampersad - T&T Offers Multicultural Experience To UNESCO’s New Humanism Thrust – In the News
Spread the lovePositioning small islands, the developing world and the Global South on the international agenda requires concerted - Critical Creative Triggers to social and economic development
Why we are failing the next generations and sending them into trigger-hapy youth and street gangs - Exclusives with Miss World! Behind the Glamour Glitter & Glow! Beauty in Gender Empowerment
ehind the Scenes on the world of glamour, glitter and glow of representing Trinidad and Tobago. Anecdotes with the First Miss World from Trinidad and Tobago, Giselle La Ronde, the first woman of colour to win the Miss Universe Competition, Janelle-Penny and the second Miss Universe from Trinidad and Tobago, Wendy Fitzwilliam. more at www.krisrampersad.com . - World Heritage Calendar Girl!Spread the loveYes! There is such a thing. Working in Heritage you could find yourself featured as a
- Thumb’s-up from the Duke of Sussex. Prince Harry reaches out
Why is Prince Harry Duke of Sussex, reaching out ? Behind the secret chuckles and squirmis of the satirical, lyrical and blunt truth-to-power,to holders of high office .. more at www.krisrampersd,com - Nobel musings – Guyanese who should have, Caribbean woman who may bring in Nobel for Literature
Nobel musings – Would a woman bring in the Caribbean’s third Nobel Laureate for Literature and this Guyanese writer who should have won Nobel - In the News Gender Justice and the National Awards
At a time when there is global focus on gender inequalities, gender inequalities persist in national awards here’s how … - Epicurean tectonic clash stir Tsunami currents across southern Caribbean
Tsunami currents sweep Southern Caribbean in an epicurean clash that tectonic upheavals ripple across the Atlantic from the southernmost island to the continental mainland of Guyana more at www.krisrampersad.com. - Abused by a moody & angry AI on World Folklore Day! Taking on the Tech Giants!
On World Folklore Day When Open AI is Not Open Minded! Dr Kris Rampersad takes on the Tech Giants and gets into a head butting with a rude and angry AI Bot! - Happy Birthday to Sir Vidia Naipaul, epic Laureate who made neo-colonials squirm
Sir Vidia Naipaul would have been 91 today with a legacy of probing the colonial condition read more www.krisrampersad.com - Happy world Lefthanders Day Here Where the Air is Rare
Top three reasons science celebrates the artistry of leftehanders read more www.krisrampersad.com - Look Whey Pan Dey! Happy World Steelpan DayHappy world Steelpan Day August 11 Intercultural Education through our musical and other traditions with Dr Kris Rampersad CEIBA-EDUtainment more at www.krisrampersad.com
- Digital Deletion – challenges to Education and Cultural Survival in the digital age
Spread the loveThis week we said farewell to iconic Caribbean historian Professor Brinsley Samaroo. Although well into his - Rebranded ‘Caribbean Queen of Culture’ under the World Intellectual Property Tree
Spread the loveI stood under the World Intellectual Property Tree massively displayed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s - Say Cheese! Small Island at International Chemistry Olympiad Congrats To Our LiTTle Geniuses
Spread the loveYou might not think that Cheese has the Chemistry to foster togetherness, but the International Chemistry - Happy Birthday Independent America
Happy Fourth of July American Day of Independence our interconnected heritage join us - Happy World Reggae Day Redemption Time to Emancipate from Mental Slavery
Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery! The immortal melodies of Bob Barley resonate today as we celebrate World Reggae Day. - A Father’s Legacy a tryst with AI & Chat GTP where traditions nets technologies
The storyteller extraordinaire in the age of AI – the Clash of Creative Cultures with Dr Kris Rampersad navigating the Digital Age - Of Princes Presidents Prime Ministers & Paupers – A Caribbean PM’s Secret 90 Bday WishAs the Silver Fox Prime Minister Basdeo Panday celebrates 90 he confesses his secret birthday wish. Now what may that be?
