Rooted, Not Trapped: Why Our Communities Must Become Their Own Republics

 

592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

 Rooted, Not Trapped: Why Our Communities Must Become Their Own Republics

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OPINION BY: Hem Kumar October 2026

“Rooted”: An idea  is born to support Guyanese at home  from the diaspora “

There are moments when I wish I had never had to leave.

That feeling is not a rejection of the life I have built abroad. It is an acknowledgment of what migration costs. When we leave, we may carry our country with us, but we also leave behind family, friendships, familiar places, traditions, and a part of ourselves that no new passport, address, job, or achievement can replace.

That is why the story of Ismely Álvarez de Cubas and his  initiative, “Arraigados”—“Rooted”—resonates with me. His message is not that people must be prevented from leaving. It is not that those who migrate have failed their country, or that the countryside should be romanticized as a place where people must endure hardship in silence.

His  message, as I understand it, is that a person should be able to build a dignified life at home.

Conceived around these three strategic pillars 

The project operates as a supportive community framework built around : 

•   Agricultural Training: Described by Ismely as the “DNA” of the project, education is used to cultivate both professional skills and personal growth.
• Global Network Exchange: The project is designed to bridge geographical distances by connecting local Cuban farmers with professionals, business mentors, and peers in countries like Spain, Europe, Chile ,Brazil, and the United States. 
• Two-Way Mentorship: International mentors offer technical expertise, resources, and business testimonies. In return, the exchange provides those coming from wealthier global contexts a perspective on human resilience and material realities in Cuba.
• 3. Long-Term Vision

Rather than functioning as a standard top-down charity, Arraigados is modeled on faith, community cooperation, and shared human values. Ismely’s declared long-term target is to scale the initiative over the next decade into a self-sustaining global community unified by work, continuous training, and spiritual values. 

That should not be a radical idea. It should be the basic obligation of every country to its people.

We Must Stop Waiting

For too long, Guyanese and Caribbean people have been trained to think of national development as something that must come from above.

We wait for a government announcement. We wait for an investor. We wait for a grand project, a new road, a new contract, a foreign company, an election, a ministerial promise, or another speech about prosperity that never reaches the street, the village, the farm, or the household

We have become accustomed to looking at the national picture and measuring our hope by what takes place in Georgetown, Havana, Bridgetown, Port of Spain, or other capitals. But national plans have meaning only if they improve daily life in the communities where people live.

A nation is not an abstract map. It is a collection of communities.

It is the village, the ward, the housing scheme, the farming district, the riverine settlement, the market, the school, the local health centre, the church, the mosque, the mandir, the community ground, and the homes where parents wonder whether their children will have to leave to find a future.

If we want to keep our people rooted, then we must first make our communities places where people can see a future.

Every Community Is a Republic

My hope is that those at home begin to see the power of the communal setting first.

What we want is every village and community to start thinking of itself as its own republic—not separate from Guyana, not hostile to the State, and not detached from the national interest, but responsible for its own renewal.

A community republic is built on a simple idea: the people who live closest to the problems must become central to creating the solutions.

If a village lacks employment, its people should organize around the opportunities available: agriculture, agro-processing, fishing, small manufacturing, construction, tourism, crafts, transportation, technology, services, culture, or trade.

If young people are idle, the community must not simply condemn them. It must ask what skills, mentorship, training, work opportunities, sports programmes, arts initiatives, and entrepreneurial support can be created around them.

If farmers struggle, the community should explore shared machinery, buying groups, storage facilities, transportation arrangements, farmers’ markets, cooperative processing, and direct connections to consumers.

If roads, drainage, bridges, schools, clinics, or public spaces are neglected, the community must document the failures, organize its evidence, engage public officials, and demand answers with one united voice.

When people act separately, they are easily ignored. When they organize around a common purpose, they become a force.

Liberation Begins With Unity

Liberation does not begin only in Parliament, the Cabinet Office, or the boardroom of an oil company. It begins when ordinary people recognize that they have more power together than they do alone.

The most enduring progress rarely comes from one politician, one benefactor, or one foreign investor. It comes when a community decides that it will no longer wait passively for others to define its future.

That does not mean government has no responsibility. Government has an enormous responsibility. Citizens are entitled to competent public services, accountable institutions, fair laws, transparent spending, quality education, health care, infrastructure, security, and equal access to opportunity.

But while we demand these things—and we must demand them—we cannot surrender our own agency. We must not become spectators in our own country.

A community that unites can establish a development committee, map its assets, identify its most urgent needs, mentor its young people, support its elderly, form savings groups, create cooperatives, promote local enterprises, and establish clear priorities for government engagement

It can learn to ask better questions: Where is the money allocated for our area? Who received the contract? What was promised? What was delivered? Who is accountable? What is the timeline? Why are we being left behind?

These are not acts of rebellion. They are acts of citizenship.

Rootedness Needs Economic Dignity

Still, we must be realistic. Unity alone cannot feed a family, repair a tractor, bring electricity to a community, or make up for a failing health system. Communities can organize, but they cannot be asked to carry burdens that properly belong to the State.

To keep people rooted, there must be economic dignity.

Our farmers need land security, reliable drainage and irrigation, equipment, fuel, inputs, credit, storage, processing facilities, roads, and fair access to markets. Our fisherfolk need docks, cold storage, safety equipment, market access, and protection of marine resources. Our small businesses need affordable financing, stable electricity, digital connectivity, transparent licensing, and public procurement that does not favour only the politically connected.

Our young people need good schools, modern training, apprenticeships, access to technology, safe spaces, and a fair opportunity to start something of their own. They must be able to imagine a life at home that is not defined by dependence, political connections, or the next remittance from relatives overseas.

This is where projects like “Rooted” carry an important lesson. Training, values, environmental awareness, and practical support can help people recover confidence in their ability to build where they are. But training must lead somewhere. It must lead to the ability to produce, earn, save, invest, employ, and live with self-respect.

The Diaspora Must Be a Bridge

Those of us in the diaspora have a role beyond sending money home in emergencies.

We can share skills, mentor young people, connect local entrepreneurs with wider markets, help communities develop proposals, support scholarships, contribute equipment, and advocate for better governance. We can use our distance not to lecture those at home, but to create bridges between what we have learned abroad and what can be built at home.

But we must also remain humble.

People living in Guyana today understand the pressures they face better than anyone abroad can. They are the ones dealing with high prices, inadequate services, unemployment, crime, poor infrastructure, and the daily uncertainty that leads so many to consider migration. Our responsibility is to listen, support, connect, and amplify—not to impose.

The diaspora should not become a replacement for government. No country should depend indefinitely on the remittances and sacrifices of those it failed to retain. The diaspora can assist, but national development requires accountable leadership and policies that make productive life possible.

A Country Worth Choosing

I do not wish to tell anyone not to leave Guyana. Every person has the right to seek education, safety, work, and opportunity wherever they can find it. Migration has opened doors for many of us, and it has helped countless families survive.

But I want us to reach the day when Guyanese leave because they choose to explore the world, not because they feel forced to escape hardship at home.

I want young people to see their village not as a place to flee, but as a foundation from which they can grow. I want them to see agriculture as business and innovation, not backwardness; community service as leadership, not wasted time; and cooperation as strength, not weakness.

I want our people to understand that national renewal begins with local renewal.

Let every community become its own republic of purpose: organized, informed, compassionate, productive, demanding, and united. Let it identify its strengths, confront its problems, cultivate its young people, protect its vulnerable, and hold public authorities accountable.

To be rooted is not to be trapped. It is to stand firmly enough that one can grow, create, and even reach outward to the world without losing oneself.

After more than forty years abroad, I know that no achievement completely silences the call of home. My hope is that future generations will not have to live with that same question: What if my country had given me a reason to stay?

Let us build communities that answer it—not with promises, but with purpose, unity, dignity, and opportunity.

A community without borders

It is a vision in which the experience of some can become an impetus for others, and in which geographical distances lose importance compared to human connections . This encapsulates the essence of “Rooted“:

“That they be able to fly above their own land. It’s not about preventing people from leaving or idealizing permanence. It’s about, according to the vision of its promoter, that staying can also be an option with opportunities, training and a future.” Close your eyes and see New York in Georgetown