Is that abomination, the “Guyana Bench still at Sir Grantley Adams International  Airport?”

Mar 18, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

These days I can’t  ignore  the  omnipresent  headlines  about the  “Bilateral  Cooperation” between  Guyana  and  Barbados. Not long  ago (pre oil Guyana ),  I had  to sit on “the  Guyana  Bench” on a  vacation  to  Barbados, albeit  a  naturalized American  citizen  because  I  was  told  my US passport noted my country  of  birth  as being  Guyana. Notwithstanding, I was being  charged   $4 USD for 3 slices of  toast bread that  was until  I  announced  I was  born  in  Guyana  resulting  in  a  price  change  for  members  of  the  Caricom, which  I could  pay  in Eastern  Caribbean  dollars or exchange my cash for  EC dollars.

Now that Guyana is oil rich and its GDP per capita has exponentially increased from 2009, and the trajectory is expected to  continue  for  at  least  the next  quarter  of  a  century, I would  like  to  think  there should  be  media  coverage  of  the  dismantling  of the  “Guyana  Bench” moreover, there should  be  repatriation  for  being  taken  as a  potential  ” indentured/migrant” labour at the  time .

For those folks who are not  aware,  my paternal great grandparents Marie  St. John and Joe Schwiers were true Bajans from  Bath, Barbados, so no  hidden  agenda  here…I just want  to  know  if  that  bloody  bench  is still  there! If it is still there, we should relocate it to the back of the Botanical Gardens…!

Sincerely,

Keith Bernard

• Bench, EC dollars, Guyana, Joe Schwiers, Keith  Bernard, Sir Grantley Adams International  Airport