{"id":30660,"date":"2026-06-30T19:29:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=30660"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:29:47","slug":"guyanese-urged-to-guard-against-racial-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/guyanese-urged-to-guard-against-racial-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Guyanese urged to guard against racial division"},"content":{"rendered":"
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-as ERC hosts national symposium <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-by Jarryl Bryan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strong call for unity echoed through the Arthur Chung Conference Center today as\u00a0political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for a national\u00a0symposium hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held under the theme “Guyana at 60: Unity, Diversity and the path forward”, the\u00a0symposium brought together former President Donald Ramotar, Finance\u00a0Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, Guyana’s agent to the International Court of Justice\u00a0(ICJ) Carl Greenidge, opposition chief whip Tabitha Sarabo-Halley and other national\u00a0stakeholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for a national\u00a0symposium hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for a national\u00a0symposium hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for a national\u00a0symposium hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for a national\u00a0symposium hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Guyana continues its rapid transformation, speakers warned\u00a0that safeguarding social cohesion must remain a national priority. A recurring\u00a0message was that national development must create opportunities for every\u00a0Guyanese, regardless of background. Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said\u00a0programmess such as the soon to be launched Guyana Development Bank are intended to\u00a0empower citizens across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we deploy, as we very shortly will, the\u00a0new SME Development Bank targeting small businesses, it will serve as an important\u00a0vehicle for the economic empowerment of Guyanese of every single background,” <\/strong>he said. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Finance\u00a0Minister Dr. Ashni Singh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Meanwhile, panelists Carl Greenidge and Tabitha Sarabo-Halley also underscored the\u00a0role of families, schools and communities in fostering respect, understanding and\u00a0social harmony from an early age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People aren’t born racist, it is true. If you put\u00a0children together, less than two years old, ten years old, whatever, you will find\u00a0they behave in one way. But by the time they pass through the hands of the\u00a0family, not always,” Greenidge said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarabo-Halley explained, “Yes, family has a role to play, of course, because you started a\u00a0family, but families, education, all of those don’t work in isolation and we\u00a0have to create the environment where it is okay and it gives the space for\u00a0persons to be able to operate and to grow.” <\/p>\n\n\n

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Member of Parliament, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Labour Minister Keoma Griffith\u00a0highlighted government training initiatives, saying thousands of\u00a0Guyanese from diverse backgrounds have already benefited, while emphasising that\u00a0opportunities should be based on talent and ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have been able to empower\u00a0over 16,000 persons who have obtained training, they’ve been upskilled. These\u00a0are persons from diverse backgrounds. Talent has no ethnicity and excellence\u00a0knows no race,” <\/strong>he underscored. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Labour Minister Keoma Griffith\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-as ERC hosts national symposium -by Jarryl Bryan A strong call for unity echoed through the Arthur Chung Conference Center today as\u00a0political leaders, diplomats, academics and policy makers gathered for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,350],"tags":[488,1116,845,370,412,405],"class_list":["post-30660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-development","category-news","tag-488","tag-erc","tag-ethnic-relations-commission","tag-guyana","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30670,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions\/30670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}