This is the Christmas season. This is the time when smiles appear on faces like the sun appearing in the early morning. This is the season when people dream about the things they would like to do on Christmas Day.
It is a tradition. From the time of childhood people were made to feel that Christmas was the most special time of the year. In school, children made decorations; there were the Christmas parties that set the stage for what was to happen at home.
And no matter how poor the family Christmas always provided something special. Many of us know that. Parents saved one way or another to ensure that new blinds, no matter how cheap the material, were bought.
Houses are disarranged and sometimes left so until Christmas Eve. Many a child went to bed only to wake up in a brand new home on Christmas Day because of what parents did through the night.
And for many there are special dishes and cakes. In fact, everything is special. People would call out to their neighbours and of course there was always the smell of food.
These are the memories that bring Guyanese from wherever they are to spend Christmas in Guyana. There is always the longing to be home for Christmas.
For those who leave for a foreign land at this time of the year there are the tears and the lament. Waking up in a foreign land for the first time could be an emotional experience. Many have returned to tell the tale.
Of course, people always leave to seek better. And this brings me to the Brazilians, the Haitians, the Cubans and the Venezuelans. They have all been coming to Guyana. The Cubans were the first to begin arriving. Many settled in whether legally or illegally. Today they are part of the Guyana landscape.
The Brazilians came because of what the goldfields had to offer. They, too, are part of the landscape to the extent that there are Brazilian restaurants in the heart of the city.
The Venezuelans came in droves to escape whatever was happening in that country. With them came hundreds of Guyanese who had gone to live in the neighbouring country. Guyana set up facilities to accommodate the Venezuelans right to the point of ensuring that they benefit from schooling and medical facilities.
The police have not gone around seeking to arrest them except in cases where they once performed for adult clients in hotels. And even then there have rarely been any attempt to deport these people. In fact, after the initial detention they were released and it was back to business as usual.
And so we come to the recent debacle involving the Haitians. These are members of a sister Caricom country. In the same way Jamaicans, Barbadians, Surinamese and Trinidadians can simply walk into Guyana, in the same way the Haitians should be allowed. And the authorities do recognize this.
When the Haitians arrive like visitors from any Caricom country, they are allowed six months stay on landing. But ever since the run up to the elections a certain section of the society began to pay close attention to the Haitians.
In one instance an enterprising businessman hired transport and devoted time to keep tabs on some Haitians. This surveillance began from the time the batch of Haitians arrived in Guyana at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Someone somewhere must have said something to this businessman for him to display such an interest.
The surveillance continued all the way to the city. The businessman had enough people to follow the Haitians to the various destinations. The surveillance did not end there. It continued all the way to the Brazilian border. The Haitians were crossing into Brazil from Guyana.
Newspaper articles began to appear about the hundreds of Haitians who come and the small numbers that leave through the official channels.
Someone, somewhere had a vested interest in the Haitians. Some people had their suspicions about who would want to keep tabs on the Haitians.
The elections came and went but the focus on the Haitians never ceased. A few weeks ago the police swooped down on a guest house where about a dozen Haitians were staying and detained all of them on the pretext that they were involved in human trafficking.
At the time of the raid there were Cubans at the same guest house but the police paid no interest in them. The focus was on the dark skinned Haitians. The detainees were taken to the Hugo Chavez centre in West Berbice and held behind chain-link fences.
The government then sought and got an order to have them deported but Chief Justice Roxane George halted the deportation.
Lo and behold. The government then released the Haitians by depositing all of them outside the hotel where one batch was arrested. The state also returned the passports of these detainees.
This begs the question. Was the detention justified in the first place? Was there any evidence to prove human trafficking? If one is seeking deportation why return the passports to the people out of custody?
Whatever the reason for the release, the government simply decided that feeding the Haitians was not its responsibility. But there were Guyanese who undertook to do so.
When one group went to visit the Haitians, people asked if they too were Haitians. One woman simply replied that she was a woman bent on helping her black brothers and sisters and children.
The Haitians are here. The owner of the guest house where they are staying does not know who will pay him for their accommodation.
Christmas is also here. The Haitians are here and they will get a Guyanese Christmas. Some wish they could say the same for those Guyanese who look like the Haitians but who were dismissed from the public sector.
