Tag Archives: University of Guyana

What Can I Do For You?

05 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by in Guyana, Human Behavior, Relationships

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Capoey Lake - Essequibo - GuyanaCapoey Lake – Essequibo – Guyana
Photo by Marco Basir (Guyana Times International)

 

Have you ever noticed? We forge our most enduring friendships during our years of childhood innocence. During our high school and college years, we also develop close friendships with others who share similar family backgrounds, interests or ideals. We trust our best friends with our secrets. We accept our best friends with traits that others may consider intolerable because we see their beauty and goodness. We give and receive without keeping score or weighing the advantages.

As a high school teacher and an undergraduate, majoring in geography, at the University of Guyana, I met and became friends with Alex (fictitious name), a history major. A passionate political activist, he was influential in firing my interest in Caribbean political history and the struggle of the working class.

After my career as a high school teacher ended, Alex rescued me from my secretarial job at the Georgetown Head Office of a multinational oil company. He told me about an opening for an Assistant Librarian Trainee at the University of Guyana Library. I applied and got the position.

When I left Guyana for Brazil, I lost touch with my friends. Over sixteen years later, after migrating to the United States, I learned that Alex was a family man and had built a successful career in Guyana. His political activism had not abated. Desiring to reconnect with my old friend, I obtained his e-mail address. My e-mail message was brief. Lots of time had passed since we last spoke. He might not even remember me.

Alex’s response was taut. “Hello Rose. What can I do for you?”

Although separated by time and distance, I still hold certain friends close to my heart. Alex is numbered among them. While a friend may create waves in our life, we may be just a ripple in theirs.

What can I do for you?

This simple question from an old friend speaks volumes about who we are as individuals, our relationship with others, and the society we live in. In our capitalist world, we are far too often viewed merely by our usefulness to others: as voters, consumers of goods and services, workers, or the means to some undisclosed purpose.

It is no wonder, then, that we view the actions of others with suspicion. When old friends contact us, after years of separation, we assume that they’re looking for a favor from us.

I never responded to Alex’s e-mail. Some friendships are short-lived, acting as catalysts in our lives. I am thankful for the time shared with Alex.

University of Guyana: Fifty Years Serving the Nation

28 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by in Guyana

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University of Guyana - Turkeyen Campus - GuyanaUniversity of Guyana – Turkeyen Campus – Guyana
Source: Google Earth

Fifty years serving Guyana since its inception on 19 April 1963. A remarkable achievement for a young developing nation with a population of less than 800,000.

The University of Guyana is the legacy of a leader whose mother never went to school and father who left school before he was ten. Ignoring the naysayers, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, an American trained dentist, had pursued his vision for Guyana’s future as an independent nation. Together with other founding members, he initiated evening classes in the country’s top secondary school building and rented buildings around Georgetown.

Dr. Jagan knew that realizing a big dream started with small steps.

From a small beginning of 179 undergraduates, the university has grown to over 5,000 students at its Turkeyen Campus opened in October 1969.

Small beginnings did not mean low educational standards. Socialist scholars in the United Kingdom and the United States assisted in staff recruitment. Academics from renowned universities designed and assessed the curriculum.

The founders of the University of Guyana saw the crucial need for preparing Guyanese to take their roles in developing the nation after its independence from Britain. Very few citizens could afford pursuing higher education overseas. A nation needs qualified teachers, nurses, doctors, agricultural and industrial technicians, high-level public service professionals, scientists, and much more.

They also envisaged the university’s role in on-going research and as a means to creating a group of intellectuals capable of defining the goals of a young nation and finding solutions to persistent socioeconomic deficiencies.

Over the past fifty years, the University of Guyana has indeed played a vital role in the nation’s development.

As a member of the alumni, I can say that my years of study at the university have made an invaluable difference in my professional life and, as a geographer, the way in which I perceive the world and my role in contributing towards a better society for all.

Today, we live in different times. We have different needs. We face different challenges. Since 2008, the world struggles to recover from a global economic crisis. According to a news report from the International Labor Organization, global unemployment rose again in 2012. There are not enough jobs available for all the graduates leaving our universities. Private companies continue to cut labor costs to remain competitive. Governments have to tighten their budgets and reduce the number of civil service jobs.

University graduates cannot apply their knowledge in the service of their communities where job opportunities do not exist. Are they prepared to take control of their own careers? When they fail to obtain job placements, are they equipped to work freelance, start their own sole-proprietor or small businesses?

If high unemployment rates persist worldwide, will our young people still see a university education as a means to achieving their goals in life? Will the University of Guyana still remain relevant in its mission in serving the nation? Will it survive for another fifty years?

Guyana National Service: Sacrifices for Nation Building

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in About Me, Guyana

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Rosaliene in Guyana National Service Uniform, 1976

When Guyana’s first Executive President created the Guyana National Service (GNS) in October 1973, he had a vision for “a new Guyana Man and Woman, oriented towards their role in nation building.” He had envisaged a nation working together, with respect for each other, to develop our hinterland regions and defend our territory (1973 State Paper of the GNS, www.guyanapnc.org).

Over the next twenty six years of the paramilitary organization’s existence, thousands of Guyanese youth spent a year or more at GNS hinterland centers cultivating and processing cotton, black-eye beans, peanuts, and other cash crops. For young men and women without job prospects, the GNS provided an opportunity to learn and develop new skills.

When the first GNS hinterland center began operations, I was a second-year undergraduate at the University of Guyana. In my final year, completion of one year of national service became a requirement for obtaining a university degree. Caught in the change, graduates 1976 were required to complete only three months of national service.

With reservations about my safety, I resisted the requirement of spending three months in an isolated location in Guyana’s jungle interior. Moreover, I was a high school teacher, already doing my part in preparing our young people for their place in our young nation. Even though I had sacrificed a lot to attend university classes in the evening while teaching during the day, I was prepared to forfeit it all to avoid placing myself in harm’s way. I was not ready for such a sacrifice. Then the good news came. We would be serving in Georgetown, the capital.

The first weekend that we assembled at the GNS Center in Sophia, we formed a unified mass in our parrot-green uniforms issued by the GNS. My name badge bore only my family name: Fung. Divided into four units, each under the command of a GNS Officer, we spent our weekends studying cooperative socialist policies for nation-building; doing marching drills and physical training; and engaged in agricultural activities.

Mondays to Fridays, we served at various government agencies. I worked with six other graduates at the Guyana National Service Printing Center, setting up a staff library and executing other duties.

Under the tutelage of army sergeants from the Guyana Defense Force, we had to conform to military modes of conduct. I was relieved that we did not have to train with rifles. Our platoon had a tough, buxom, female sergeant with a booming voice.

“Fung, fall in line!”

Within three months, from July to October, she transformed our platoon into a marching unit for a top-notch performance at our Passing out Parade – held in October at the University of Guyana Turkeyen Campus.

Completing those three months of national service was an achievement for me. I had survived the marching drills, physical training, and agricultural work under the merciless Sun. Later that October, when we assembled in the auditorium of the Guyana National Cultural Centre for our graduation ceremony, we were no longer strangers.

“Fung, to the front!”

Rosaliene receiving Chancellor’s Medal – University of Guyana 1976

 

Guyana: Politics in the Workplace

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in Guyana, Working Life

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University of Guyana Library (Photo posted on http://www.koorneef.net)

After the Jonestown Massacre on 18 November 1978, it became increasingly dangerous to criticize or oppose our dictatorship government. A new opposition party emerged under the co-leadership of Dr. Walter Rodney, a distinguished Afro-Guyanese historian, threatening the Afro-Guyanese government – put in power since 1965.

On another front, the Roman Catholic Church, through its weekly newspaper, continued to expose and attack the government’s human rights violations.

On 14 July 1979, during an orderly public demonstration, three thugs in the crowd attacked the Assistant Editor of the Catholic newspaper. A short distance away, Father Bernard Darke – a British Jesuit, teacher, and photographer for the Catholic newspaper – photographed the beating. On seeing Fr. Darke, the three thugs turned on him. After beating him, one of them stabbed him. Later that day, he died in the hospital from ruptured lungs.

The night of 24 October 1979 marked the end for the Minister of Education, Vincent Teekah. His shooting remains a mystery. Then, the following month, on November 18, the police gunned down a prominent member of Dr. Rodney’s party. Three months later, on 18 February 1980, two other members of the party escaped death at the hands of an unknown gunman. Ten days later, another activist was not so lucky.

During this period, I was working as an Assistant Librarian Trainee (1979-1980) at the University of Guyana Library to gain my certification in Library Studies.

As Dr. Rodney enjoyed great support among the academic staff and students, the University of Guyana became a stage for political activism and dissension. As a government-run institution, the university also had a strong government presence. It soon became evident that I could not trust my work colleagues.

For upholding the library regulations, activists of the two major opposition parties labeled me a government supporter. This attitude mystified me. Caught in a photograph (published in a local newspaper) sitting next to a government minister at a cultural event did not help my precarious position. On the other hand, my criticisms of government policies made me an enemy of our Comrade Leader’s supporters in the Circulation Department under my supervision.

My tolerance limit reached its peak after I took a stand for fairness and justice in the workplace. I joined the strike of academic and other staff and students in protesting the contract termination of one of the university’s top lecturers, a vocal activist of Dr. Rodney’s party. As for other colleagues who participated in the strike, our workplace became treacherous – a political cesspool.

On 13 June 1980 came Dr. Walter Rodney’s turn to meet his maker. A remote controlled car bomb took his life. To this day, his assassination remains unresolved. I joined the procession of an estimated 15,000 Guyanese of all races to pay tribute to a man willing to risk his life to free us from tyranny and chart a new course.

My hope for a better Guyana – where individuals of all races could contribute their talents and skills towards building our nation – died with Dr. Walter Rodney. Four months after his assassination, I dropped out of the Library Training Program and returned to working as a secretary in the private sector. I joined the ranks of university graduates marginalized in our native land.

In January 2012, the University of Guyana Council terminated the contract of its most vocal academic critic of the ruling Indo-Guyanese party – in power since 1992. Academic staff, workers, and students are on strike against the victimization of academics for their political stance or opinions and the government’s infringement on the university’s academic and administrative freedom.

We change our shoes but continue to trample the same beaten paths.