Say it again, Sam

Like it is
Sam Hinds is a national treasure. He’s been prime minister for almost 20 years – ever since free and fair elections returned to Guyana after a hard battle against the riggers in the PNC. But that’s not why he’s a national treasure. He’s earned that appellation because he’s willing to be his own man on one of the burning issues in Guyana –the question of African Guyanese empowerment.
On this question he was even willing to disagree with Cheddi Jagan, the man who chose him as his running mate in 1992. He’d been head of GUARD, the civil society grouping struggling for free and fair elections. Cheddi once stated his position on the African Guyanese condition: “they were at the bottom of the social ladder” and they should be assisted upwards. Even though this was the position of every African Guyanese activist –Cheddi was cussed out from the rooftops by those selfsame activists.
Sam on the other hand is the Guyanese answer to Bill Cosby. He believes that African Guyanese should take more responsibility for improving their own condition–social, economic, political or whatever. Just as Cosby wouldn’t take the easy cop-out and “blame whitey” in the U.S., Sam refuses to play the blame game in Guyana.
This came out clearly when he was accosted by a bunch of protesters–including Kissoon, Benschop and David Hinds–in front of his office. Every Guyanese knows of the humility and self-effacing attitude of Sam Hinds and it says a lot of the gauche and crass nature of Kissoon’s character to harangue Sam about an assistant holding an umbrella over his head while he stopped to talk to the protestors in the hot, blazing sun.
Firstly, Sam didn’t have to engage Kissoon and Company–he could have chosen to blithely proceed on his official rounds. The man is almost 70 years old: what’s wrong for the PM of a country to have protection from a heatstroke? Should he perchance not be given a vehicle to travel on official duties? Maybe he should walk? How come Kissoon kept his duty-free vehicle? Isn’t that too bourgeoisie? Maybe he can give it to a poor canecutter like he suggested he would give away Sam’s umbrella!
Kissoon complained that Sam was not being “intellectually straightforward”. How did Kissoon come to this conclusion? Sam didn’t agree with Kissoon on a host of issues! By this criterion, of course, this makes most of Guyana “intellectually deviant”.

Sam’s position
Sam Hinds firmly believes that there is too much “propaganda that suggests Blacks are depressed and dispossessed.” This he feels becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ordinary African Guyanese become apathetic about their ‘dread’ condition and start believing they can never rise out of it. Sam Hinds is of the implacable view that this shouldn’t be so.
In the Muckraker, he is reported to have asserted simply: “… but I have lived as a black man for a long time too.” He said he made it as a Black man and he believes that “the Black communities should use their brains and arms and try to make a living”. The point is that Sam Hinds understands that there are structural features that operate to keep some people poor but he believes that if they focus on making progress – like he did, success can come their way.
Sam frequently points out to the success of African West Indians – including Guyanese – who become extremely successful in the U.S. even though African Americans complain they cannot move ahead. The latter spend all their time, as Cosby bemoaned, blaming “the man”. Say it again Sam!

Sam the man
Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds was born in humble circumstances in Mahaicony. People forget that he won a county scholarship to Queens and then a scholarship from ALCAN to do chemical engineering. Totally self made and no whinging!