Str8 up GT moms and pops, tho i was the first of the clan born here (guess u can call me an anchor baby)
Folks have rightly pointed to the political b.s. but have left out a few key points. Simply you have to follow the money. Like alot of other carrib nations the reason for their phuckitude has to do with loans borrowed from the IMF. Back in the 60's when GT first got independence and Burnham was in charge he was also down with (i think its) Manley or the other 1 in Ja, the other cat whose name I forget in Trini, and the head of Haiti amoungst others. There was heavy talk then about unifying the Carrib on sum USofWI deal. This was heavily frowned upon by the west and as per the norm charges of socialism/communism, red scare tactics ensued. The rest of the carib were more prone to suffer as +75% of their economies were western tourist based. GT primary source of income was bauxite and other ore exporting. Burnham and the others were seriously antiIMF as they would lose control over their econs. It diddnt work tho as a result of which a majority of the WI are in debt to the IMF where 50% and up of gdp has to go back to loan repayment.
How it affected the people was Bernham like most leader are prone to do put in alot of folks which were his folks in power. As a result of which it was mostly black faces eating meanwhile indians werent doing as well. As time passed and more indian leadership came to fro the roles were reversed with in essence indians pointing to blacks as the cause of Guyanas problems while doing the same thing as was their predessors.
Great insight