NEW YORK, CMC – New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday joined Guyanese and other officials in celebrating Guyana’s 58th Independence Anniversary Day Flag-Raising Ceremony in lower Manhattan.
“Guyana, you know, New York is the Georgetown of America,” said Adams, referring to the capital of Guyana. “One of the largest Guyanese populations is right here.
“Fifty-eight years of independence, and you will continue to grow,” added the mayor. “I think you have just started as a country – the discovery of oil, the technology, the growth, the evolution. I want the ambassador and the council general to know there’s a real partnership in a home in New York.”
Adams said it took 110 mayors before the Guyanese flag was raised at Bowling Green Square in lower Manhattan last year for the first time “because we understand diversity is our strength.”
“When we acknowledge the contributions of all of our various groups, we acknowledge what makes us great, not only as a city but as a country,” he said. “We are the place where one can come, aspire, grow, and maintain your love for your homeland as you embrace your adopted land.
“That is one of the prerequisites of being American,” Adams continued. “You do not abandon who you are. You don’t call yourself American-Guyanese, African-American, American-Chinese, American-Irish. No, America said, put your culture first, hold on to it, and have it as a common denominator we all can appreciate.”
The mayor was introduced by the New York Police Department (NYPD) First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, whose mother hails from Berbice, Guyana.
Kinsella said she is the second-highest member of the NYPD “and the largest Police Department in the world,” adding that it “wouldn’t have been possible for our mayor.”
“Our mayor is the biggest advocate for us, Guyanese, in New York City, as well as all other cultures,” she added.
Adams disclosed that his chief technology officer, Matt Fraser, who was present at the ceremony, is also of Guyanese heritage.
“He was quick to remind me that those with the most swagger in my administration are from Guyana,” said the mayor in jest, referring to Fraser.
However, the flag-raising ceremony was not without controversy, as some Guyanese groups in New York expressed deep concern over their omission from the event.
The Brooklyn-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) and the Organization of Guyanese Diaspora Organizations of the US (GDO-USA) on Thursday claimed that “scores of significant Guyanese Diaspora organizations in New York, with African Guyanese membership and African Diaspora leaders” were excluded by the Government of Guyana (GOG) from the Guyana Independence Day Flag-Raising Ceremony.
Attorney Richard Millington, CGID’s director of communication, said that CGID and GDO-USA have also noted “the announcement that the planned participation of the Mayor of New York, Hon. Eric Adams, in the event.”
He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the organizations should have been notified of this event or invited to participate in its planning.
“CGID wishes to highlight and condemn the strategy of the PPP GOG to use elected officials in the United States to divide Guyanese nationals and its obvious glee in its success in persuading unsuspecting elected officials to participate in their racist strategy,” Millington said.
“We have highlighted various concerning violations of US Law by the GOG with their most recent egregious act of sending gunmen to the home of an activist purportedly to deliver a notice to appear in a court of law in Guyana for criticizing the racist policies of the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) Government,” he added.
Millington said the FBI is investigating a senior Guyana Police officer “who the Guyana Government sent to New York to monitor CGID.”
He said CGID has worked with Mayor Adams “to advance a progressive agenda that includes empowering Guyanese and Caribbean Americans of all races and to improve the quality of life in our communities in New York.
“We are confident that Mayor Adams will not knowingly participate in an activity that supports the government’s agenda to impose ethnic supremacy and divisions in our community and to create photo ops for the PPP’s impending election campaign,” Millington affirmed. “This, we believe, should be rejected out of hand.”
Adams participated, alongside Consul General of Guyana in New York Ambassador Michael E. Brotherson and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, permanent representative of Guyana to the United Nations, in Friday’s flag-raising ceremony.
Guyana will celebrate 58 years of political independence on Sunday.
and then 