Product Description
Discusses the land, the history, the economy, the people, and the festivals of Guyana. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Metegee
In a nutshell, Metegee is a treasure chest of Guyana's who, why, when, where, what and how. Abrams covers Guyana in all aspects of our history and culture. On a scale of one to ten, Metegee is a big, fat ten. A must have for every Guyanese or anyone else who may wish to know as much of Guyana as they possibly can.

Roxanne De Cruiz-Shung(...)

Plane spoken and informative
Metegee is a metaphor for the people of Guyana, and for this book by Ovid Abrams, both are a mix. Mr Abrams has a very lucid and plane spoken style, and his collection has much to offer. I did find it enjoyable and informative, and would certainly recommend it.
I do take issue with a few things Mr Abrams said.

(1)Secondary education was readily available in Georgetown, and was not so costly as to be exclusive. It was also better, or at the very least as good as anything I've seen in both Canada and the US.
(2) I don't think that the British ever considered the "indentured" Portuguese their equals. The Portuguese came mostly from the little island of Madeira, either because of famine or political instability, I don't really know, however I do know that both commerce and agriculture were well developed there, and I'm sure that when they came their intention was to work out their contract and go into bussiness for themselves. This is what they did, and they prospered.
(3) As far as Obeah is concerned I never knew it as a religion, but rather as something akin to witchcraft. In fact in the late forties there was a famous case in which three people were tried and hanged, because they had sacrificed a young child in an Obeah ceremony.

Evidently Mr Abrams is very keen on language and folklore, and that's fine, but there's too much. I didn't find the proverbs and saying so interesting, and many of the customs, beliefs, superstitions I wasn't familiar with. I do wish he had spent more time saying something about other ethnic groups like the Portuguese and Chinese. I also wish he had said something about the cattle ranchers in the Rupunnuni District.
Lastly though I know there was nothing altruistic about it,it should have been mentioned that but for Dutch engineering, Georgetown and the entire Atlantic coast would have been uninhabitable. Further though British colonialism was thoroughly detestable,it is worth noting as Mr Abrams points out that the exchange rate on the BG$ was 2 per US$ in 1960, and that after the Jagan-Burnhasm nightmare it stood at 140 BG$ per US $.

The book badly needs editing, but that is a minor distraction

The Classic Guyanese
Ovid Abrams did a super job with this piece of writing.It takes discipline to work very hard.In my opinion, in general, Guyanese people should support writers.Writing requires courage.Metegee is now a powerful asset and resource for the aspiring writers in Guyana.I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Thank You Mr. Ovid Abrams.

Bravo!
Exceptional!A metegee is a traditional Guyanese dish with everything included and that's exactly what this is.As a daughter of Guynana, I was blown away.This will be my gift to all family members for the next year.Metegee includes culture, politics, sayings and was a fascinating study of life in a British post-colony.I was never bored reading it and suggest not only that all Guyanese families own one, but all Caribbeans.For a self-publishing volume, this book was very well done.I would love to take a class with the creative and gifted author.

Why didn't someone PROOFREAD this text before printing??????
I bought this book with great expectations of sharing it with non-Guyanesefriends, and then keeping it in my personal library. I was sorelydisappointed........The colonial history and more recent political historyare long on factual details, but superficially analyzed....and the"culture" element of the book is more about folklore than culturein a pure anthropological sense, with dozens and dozens of pages of localsayings and idioms, but no story to hold them together.... But my greatesthorror about the text itself is the absolutely abysmal quality of theproofreading and editing....EVERYWHEREthere are typos, and mis-spellings,and incomplete ungrammatical sentences, and parts of sentences repeated insuccessive paragraphs, etc. etc.....to the point where it is so totallydistracting that I put the book away in disgust.....it was disappointing tothink that this text could have been cleared before printing by the authorwho is a professional journalist. For shame!!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
Guyana has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Dr Jan Carew's contribution to the book launching ceremony
Jan Carew, Professor Emeritus, University of Louisville- novelist, anti-colonial activist and thinker.

Carl Greenidge, in his meticulously-researched work, entitled, 'Empowering a Peasantry in a Caribbean context," follows in the tradition of Walter Rodney's "History of the Guyanese Working People."Greenidge brings into focus the land settlement schemes in Guyana between 1865 and 1985. One must bear in mind in looking at this seminal work, that the British controlled a world-wide empire and central to their manipulation of the 'divide and conquer' axiom, was the way in which land was distributed and controlled. For, along with the control of arable land went the control of irrigation systems. In short, the land 'empowered' those controlled it.

Greenidge has done the kind of detailed research that Rodney did not have time to do prior to his assassination and has, thus, opened new venues for meaningful academic studies. It is interesting that he uses quotes from novelists, like Janice Shinebourne and Pauline Melville, at the beginning of each of his chapters. This shows a certain prescience that some of the most profound insightsinto the history of the Caribbean and its people, can be found in novels and not in academic treatises.

It is to the credit of the University of the West Indiesthat they published this seminal work which provides us with new insights of the legacy of racial divisions that now plague the Guyanese body politic.

The case of land settlement schemes in Guyana, 1865-1985
This book makes very interesting reading for expert and layperson alike. It is a study that portrays Guyana as a set of physical and political contrasts and contradictions - contrasts between the beauty of the land and of its rewards, between coast and hinterland and, contradictions between pronouncement and intent, between opportunities and their exploitation. Among the many interesting pictures found in the book is that of the beautiful, but little-known, Chinakuruk Falls on the Essequibo. The falls have the appearance of a chimera or mirage - a theme of the book!

Carl Greenidge worked as a research and teaching economist in the UK, Africa and Guyana prior to taking up the post for which he is better remembered in the Caribbean - Minister of Finance and Planning of Guyana in the 1980s. The style of the book reflects that varied background, especially in teaching, and makes for easy reading.He writes about land settlement schemes but does so through the lens of the wider political, economic and social developments over the last 120 years.

Land settlement schemes were initially established for Chinese emigrants but they primarily benefited East Indians. Their objectives have changed over time, which means that in time they affected other ethnic groups also. They touched, and were a contrast to, early the village settlements. Subsequently, they too spawned villages. Initially, they served the sugar plantocracy, then the rice barons and the managers of `Cooperative Socialism'in different ways with many, often hidden, consequences for the politics and social life of Guyana.The stated objective of these schemes has been to establish a peasantry but life beyond settlement has always been precarious and the economic stability of small farming has never been assured. The story of this sector and of the attempts at its modernisation is told against a historical background but ironically the lessons remain pertinent today.

So, although the book is about agricultural policy, its triggers and its consequences, it is of much wider interest. It is about Guyana, its policies and economics, its struggles and ethnic tensions as well as its prospects. The book is meticulously footnoted, draws on a wide range of primary, as well as secondary sources and, contains an extremely extensive bibliography on Guyana. The latter alone would be welcome to many students due to the paucity of current, well-researched material on Guyana.

Mr Greenidge draws on the works of a number of well-known Guyanese novelists, current and past- Melville, Shinebourne and Mettleholzer, for example - to illustrate his theme of contradictions and mirages and of the link between the physical and social. An extensive foreword has been provided by Dr Professor Cedric Grant, head of the School of Caribbean and Political Studies at Clarke University. Grant positions the book in the setting or context of the current political debate on Guyana and highlights the significant academic importance of this contribution to the debate on public policy as well as ethnicity in the Caribbean.

This is highly recommended reading and a worthwhile purchase for both the expert and the intelligent observer of Guyana and Caribbean affairs!!

14/6/2001. ... Read more

Product Description
This work discusses class- and ethnic-based explanations of troubled race relations in Guyana. It examines the influence of class and ethnicity on political affiliation, specifically focusing on the development of political consciousness in adolescents of Guyana. It uses oblique strategy and local conversational mode to maximize informants' involvement and avoids subordinating their perspective on their society's problems. ... Read more

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Conflict between Africans and Indians has undermined social and economic development in Guyana. Virtual civil war in the 1960s, rigged elections, authoritarian government, and economic collapse has led thousands of Guyanese to emigrate. Seecoomar shows how Guyana has arrived at this impasse, arguing that those who control the state have ignored the interests of the losers and that this failure to satisfy the human needs of all ethnic groups is the root cause of the conflict. Only their satisfaction will harness the whole nation's energies. The book argues for a process of conflict resolution through collaborative problem solving, offering Guyana the means of finding constitutional arrangements acceptable to all eethnic groups. It outlines the theory behind such an approach and provides case studies of conflict resolution in action. ... Read more

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This volume examines the politics and government of Guyana from World War II to the present. Professor Singh ably describes the downfall of a nation which, when it became independent in 1966, had good prospects, ample resources, and a relatively educated population. He examines how a liberal democracy succumbed to authoritarian tendencies, resulting in a defacto one-party state. Next, the author demonstrates how economic development became a casualty of over-centralilzed political and economic decision making. He argues that the persistence of underdevelopment in ex-colonies such as Guyana is traceable to domestic causes. ... Read more

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Text and illustrations introduce the geography, history, government, people, and economy of the South American republic once known as British Guiana. ... Read more

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