You know how Singapore is like the "Switzerland of Asia"?
Well, Guyana is kind of like the Singapore of South America.
Actually, that's not a good comparison, they don't have the same-level-
I-I meant their ethnic...
Okay, you know what, just cue the intro.
♫♫♫
It's time to learn Geography...
NOW!
Hey everybody, I'm your host, Barby.
Yes, the people here call their country "Guyana".
It's like if a guy was named Ana.
Uhhh, and that's a problem because...
I didn't say it was, I mean...
Dude, I go by "Barby".
Dude, did you just ASSUME my-
OKAY, this is not one of those Youtube channels! Let's move on.
(POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY)
Now, Guyana is kind of strange because geographically, they are located on the South American continent,
but if you ask a Guyanese person, they'll say that they are Caribbean,
even though they don't even touch the Caribbean Sea.
First of all,
Guyana is located in the northern section of mainland South America,
bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname, with the North Atlantic Ocean flanking the north coast.
The country is divided into 10 regions, with the capital along the coast (Georgetown).
By the way, the shape of the country kind of looks like a fat crucifix.
The country has a lot of small regional airports and airstrips, however,
the 2 largest and international airports are both located in Georgetown.
Cheddi Jagan International and the smaller one, Eugene F. Correia International.
Otherwise, outside Georgetown, Bartica has the largest regional airport.
Otherwise, seaports and container terminals can be found all along the coast in places like New Amsterdam, Linden, Essequibo, and of course Georgetown.
Now here's the thing:
About 90% of people live along the coast on only about 10% of the land,
with a few outskirt communities mostly in the east, along on the border with Suriname and Brazil.
Cross-country driving in Guyana is very limited.
I mean, you could take a ferry at Bartica and drive down a little bit into the Upper Takutu, Potaro-Siparuni, and Cuyini-Mazaruni regions,
however, if you cruise along the the coast, you'll stop about somewhere around the farming town of Hackeny,
along the Pomeroo river, and suddenly everything turns into a dead end.
To this day, there are no roads that lead into the Barima Waini region.
The entire population of 26,000 people only have access to river navigation and landing strips for small planes.
In addition, there are no roads that lead into Venezuela.
If you wanna go there, you have to drive all the way south,
cross at Lethem, and then pretty much all the way at Boa Vista, Brazil,
you then backtrack up north into Venezuela.
This is because they kind of have a partially ongoing dispute with Venezuela.
Basically, Venezuela believes that everything west of the Essequibo river should be theirs.
Guyana was NOT having it.
Basically, they signed an agreement in Geneva in the 60's, but it really didn't do anything,
and to this day, Venezuela is kind of like:
Venezuela: Okay, fine...I guess the land is kind of yours now.
Guyana: Hey! Stop building a military base on Ankoko Island, that's OUR territory!
And then in 2011, Guyana was kind of like:
Guyana: Hey UN, I'd like to extend my coast about 150 nautical miles, please!
Venezuela: Uh, no, that's OUR water claim.
Guyana: Uh, no, it literally juts up from our coast,
and all nations are entitled to exclusive economic zones, okay?
Suriname: Back off from the Tigri New River Triangle!
Guyana: Whoa! Whoa! No.
Suriname: Okay, let's agree to withdraw our military forces from the region.
Guyana: Okay, sure!
PSYCH!
*maniacal laughter*
Oh, South American countries! Always fighting over land you will never inhabit.
Otherwise, some top notable sights and landmarks include places like:
St. George's crumbling colonial townscape with St. George's Cathedral,
Demerara Harbour Bridge, one of the longest floating bridges in the world,
the headquarters of CARICOM (or the Caribbean Community)
the Umana Yana building,
the Stabroek Market,
Walter Roth Museum,
Guyana Zoological Park,
Georgetown Lighthouse,
Pandama Winery (& Retreat Center),
and the Radha Krishna Hindu Temple.
Oh my gosh, there are so many cool spots in a place that is a mostly unexplored jungle.
Let's see more of that now.
(PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY)
Basically, Guyana is like a survival-themed, reality TV show, location shoot paradise.
First of all:
Guyana is the 2nd most densely forested country in South America, after Suriname,
as 3/4 of the country is covered in trees.
Keep in mind though, the country is actually made up of 5 natural regions:
A fertile, marshy plain on the coast,
the white sand belt inland, made up of sand/clay and where most of the mineral deposits are located,
the lush rainforest highland,
and if you go WAAAYY far south, you can get a little bit of desert and savannah in the interior,
and then you get the interior savannah lowlands, located along the border with Brazil.
Guyana sits on what is called the "Guyana Shield",
an elevated geological formation on South America and north of the Amazon.
This area essentially creates some of the most beautiful, iconic waterfalls
and all of the strange, flat top Tepuis mountains,
including the tallest peak in Guyana, Mt. Roraima, shared by Venezuela and Brazil,
even though Brazil only has about 5% of it, but hey, it still counts!
The longest river is, of course, easily visible from satellite images,
Essequibo River, which pretty much transects the entire country east to west and is a major source of transport/trade in Guyana.
In the forest, you can find thousands upon thousands of species of mammals and birds and reptiles,
like the 3-toed sloth,
tamanduas,
tamarins,
capuchins,
capybaras,
pacas,
over 50 different types of bats, which makes up a 5th of all the mammals,
and the national animal, the jaguar, can be found here as well.
Resource wise, agriculture and mining has been the most important economic activity,
with sugar, bauxite, rice and gold making up about 3/4 of all export earnings.
Yes, GOLD.
Nonetheless, even though exports have been steadily increasing over the years,
Guyana still remains one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere.
Luckily, Guyana gained the world's attention when major companies like Exxon Mobile and Shell
discovered high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs, holding potentially $40 billion in crude revenue oil,
120 miles off the coast.
If Guyana wins the appeal at the UN, this could potentially boost their economy,
as they currently have NO oil production.
The national food of Guyana is the Amerindian dish, pepperpot.
Typically, the pot is re-heated with new meat added every day, sometimes even for months.
Other top natural spots include places like:
The 3 Sister Lakes including Mainstay Lake, that looks like a lake of Coca-Cola due to minerals,
the Rupununi area in the interior of the country, surrounded by vast savannahs, forests, and mountains,
the annual rodeo event and safari that lets visitors get close to the rugged and wild interior,
the beautiful Iwokrama Rainforest,
(of course) a section of Mt. Roraima, which you can get close to by taking the Roraima Airways that leaves from Eugene F. Correia Airport,
and the iconic national symbol, Kaieteur Falls, the widest single-drop waterfall in the world.
Quite a fascinating place with physical diversity.
Very much like the people of this country.
(DEMOGRAPHICS)
Guyana is honestly one of the strangest demographical anomalies in the world,
because most of the population has ethnic roots that are not even indigenous to the continent.
First of all:
The country has about 740,000 people and has a high immigration rate,
in which about half a million Guyanese citizens live abroad.
The largest group, the East Indians, make up about 43%,
30% are blacks with African descent,
about 16% are mixed,
about 10% are Amerindian,
and the remainder of the population is mostly made up of Europeans, mostly Portuguese as well as a few Chinese tossed in there.
They also use the Guyanese dollar as their currency,
they use the type A, B, D, and G plug outlets,
and they are also one of the two countries in South America that drive on the left side of the road.
Going back to the Amerindians, there are 9 indigenous tribes recognized in this country,
and historically, Lokono and Kalina tribes dominated the areas that Guyana encompasses today.
So you're probably wondering by now "Okay, how did Guyana become such a mini-India?"
Well, to answer that, you need to know a little bit of history.
In a nutshell:
Tribes were the first ones here,
Columbus passes by, but doesn't care to enter,
the Dutch come in, fail to find El Dorado,
the British sneak in without the Dutch knowing,
but then the Dutch were like "Eh, whatever. Fine, take it."
And that's when the British were like:
[British accent] Sir, slavery has been abolished!
Oh, but there's still lots of work to be done!
How could we get really cheap labor that's almost like slavery, but still kind of technically not?
If only we Brits had another territory full of indentured servants to exploit and capitalize off of.
*unision* OH YEAH!
Yeah, Scotland put up too much of a fight, so they settled for India.
Most of the East Indians in Guyana are from the Bhojpuri-speaking areas of North India,
however, today, many of them have lost their ability to speak it and settle only for English or Creole.
To this day, Guyana is one of only three countries outside of Asia where Hinduism is an official religion,
practiced by over a quarter of the population.
Nonetheless, Christianity is the predominant religion, as about 2/3 of the population adheres to the faith,
mostly in the Protestant branch.
Guyana is the only South American country in which English is the official language,
spoken by everyone regardless of background,
however, the majority of the country also speaks Guyanese Creole.
The Creole here is a slightly altered version of English, with an Indian/African influence,
and most of it is written in a simplistic phonetic format.
For example, Georgetown is "Jarjtown".
Every day is "Evri de".
Rice field is "raisfil".
And so on.
Because Guyana is incredibly racially heterogeneous,
(Hete-hetere...George, what's the word?
Heterogeneous?
George: I think it's heterogeneous.
Barby: Heterogeneous.)
They've sort of developed a really cool cultural integration method,
in which everyone takes part in everyone's lives, traditions, and customs.
Almost everyone in the country has a relative that is either Hindu, Christian, Muslim, or maybe even Bahai/Buddhist.
As a kid, you're taught to call elders "Aunty" or "Uncle", even if they are complete strangers/different race.
Everyone celebrates everyone's holidays, regardless of their belief system.
Everyone takes part in the colorful Holi, or Pwagwah,
everyone has a Christmas tree at Christmas,
and everyone flies kites on a beach on Easter.
And even during Eid, everyone shares the food.
They even have their own version of Carnival, called Mashramani.
Oh, and the British influence is still very noticeable.
Everyone loves cricket and they totally eat marmite,
WHICH BY THE WAY, British and Kiwi Geograpeeps, send me more marmite,
I LOVE that stuff, all I have left is this tube of vegemite.
I don't know how to explain it, I-I just CRAVE marmite.
Nonetheless, Guyana does have its struggles.
80% of the people with tertiary education pull out, causing a sort of "brain drain"
that limits Guyana's ability to progress in certain fields and industries, such as medicine, education, and engineering.
Also, you know, there was that whole Jim Jones and the People's Temple cult incident that happened in the late 70's,
but HEY, those were all Americans, not Guyanese people.
Sorry, I had to mention it, it was like the craziest thing that happened in their country.
Some of the most notable people with Guyanese descent might include:
Classic artists like Sol Raye,
Ken "Snake Hips" Johnson,
R. B. Greaves,
Godfrey Cambridge,
William Austin,
Emmy-award journalist Asha Blake,
politician Shridath Ramphal,
athletes Mark McCoy,
Ezekiel Jackson,
and Mr. Universe, Hugh Ross.
Musicians Eddy Grant,
PhillyNott, who even has a statue in Dublin,
model Shakira Baksh Caine,
Leona Lewis has a Guyanese father and Rhianna has a Guyanese mother,
and a lot more, but we best move on to the final stretch of the episode.
(FRIENDZONE)
Now, because Guyana is so diverse, they kind of have an advantage when it comes to diplomatic outreach.
Brazil is like Guyana's personal trainer.
They help them with military training, and if anything goes down, they will step in and help Guyana, should anything arise.
India is like the estranged mother that lost her baby and finally reunited but has years to catch up on.
In addition to a loving cordial relationship with her long lost child,
India likes to help fund development facilities for things like agriculture and information technology.
However, their best friends would probably be Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Suriname is like the Dutch-speaking little brother,
and Trinidad is like the girl that they both have a crush on and compete for.
All 3 countries have been close since day 1,
each has a high East Indian and Hindu population,
and they all share so much in terms of culture and business.
In conclusion, there is no 1 type of Guyanese person,
and if you meet one, you still haven't even seen a fraction of the whole picture.
The only way to scratch the surface of Guyana is to simply book a flight and step on the surface.
Stay tuned! Haiti is coming up next!
♫ Outro music ♫