Stolen Hope and Stolen Dreams

Almost half of this book, Stolen Hope and Stolen Dreams, is dedicated to explaining power and politics in Guyana especially since independence. This country is now the third poorest nation in Latin America behind Haiti and Nicaragua. This book explains how this came about and who were the major architects of this disaster. A large portion of the country's population has left the place depleting the nation's most critical and important resource which is its human capital. Many Guyanese in the diaspora still have relatives, friends, acquaintances, and other needy folks, etc. in the country who they are supporting via remittances and they are concerned about the state of affairs in the nation. When people visit the land of their birth, they are troubled by, and fearful of, the high crime rate in the country. This is discouraging visitors to the nation. When people don't travel there and spend money, it is further depressing an already poor economy. Things are getting real hard in the nation. Almost one-third of the population live in poverty and it is tough to eke out a living in the country. The sad part about this whole thing is that people are not optimistic about the future. That is why this book is titled: Stolen Hope and Stolen Dreams. People are just not hopeful that things are going to get better. Bad politics and poor governance have contributed mightily to the beggaring and pauperization of this once thriving country which a Guyanese writer once described as a tropical paradise. How did Guyana went from a tropical paradise to being a place from which everybody there wants to leave? Guyana's post-independence politicians are the culprits who caused this disaster. These fellows are a group of bad actors who are not interested in learning from their mistakes. They keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. Right now these chaps are expecting a huge windfall from oil discoveries. We shall see if that really materialize. In the meantime, they are just mucking along hoping and waiting. For me, it is sad to see what happened in this country. I love the country a lot but I do not like what is, and has been, going on there. Friends say it is a great place to visit but you can't live there. In a place of such lawlessness, you can never tell what can, or will, happen there if you visit the country. It is certainly not like it used to be. Someone described it as follows: This time na lang time, bai. Very true. Very true indeed. Read this book to get a better understanding of what has happened, and is happening, in Guyana. Would you like to know why everyone is trying to leave Guyana? Who you like to know who engineered this disaster in Guyana? Read this book and you will find out. Even though you no longer live in Guyana and do not ever plan to return there to live, you should be curious with regards to what is going on there.