Message: CARIBBEAN YOUTH DAY MESSAGE September 30, 2026
Theme: Know Yourself. Know Your Worth. Rise to the Occasion.
“I wanna leave my footprint on the sands of time.”
— Beyoncé, I Was Here.
The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) extends best wishes to all Youths across the Caribbean Region as we celebrate the brilliance, resilience and unyielding energy of young people across the region on this Caribbean Youth Day 2026. No matter which island or coastal state we call home, our shared aspirations bind us together.
The Young People of Guyana and the Caribbean are being called upon today to consider simple but profound questions: When your time has passed, what will you have left behind? When another generation takes its place, what footprints will you have left in the sands of time? Will you have merely passed through your generation, or will you have served, struggled, created, defended, innovated and built? These are not questions for another generation. They are questions for now.
And the answer begins with three principles: know yourself, know your worth and know your responsibility.
A WORLD THAT HAS ALREADY CHANGED
Gen Z is coming of age during one of the most consequential periods in human history. Artificial intelligence, automation, robotics, biotechnology and digital connectivity are changing how people work, learn, communicate and live. The future is no longer approaching. It has arrived.
Guyana recently demonstrated the extraordinary possibilities of technology when internationally acclaimed cardiac surgeon Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, operating from Georgetown, remotely performed heart surgery on a patient in India, nearly 20,000 kilometres away, using the SSI Mantra 3 robotic surgical system. The procedure was described by Guyana's Department of Public Information as the world's longest-distance robotic tele-surgery at the time. Think about that.
What would previous generations have imagined if they had been told that a surgeon sitting in Georgetown could perform surgery on a patient in India? It is a powerful reminder that technology is breaking down the limitations of geography and opening possibilities that were once unimaginable. But the same technology that creates extraordinary possibilities will also transform—and in some cases eliminate—traditional tasks.
For generations, young public servants entered the service, learned from those who came before them and eventually replaced those who retired. Today, some of those very tasks are being automated. The question is no longer whether technology will change work. It has done so already. The question is: Are you ready?
You must reskill, retrain and retool. You must become lifelong learners. You must learn to work with artificial intelligence rather than fear it, while strengthening the qualities technology cannot easily replace: judgment, creativity, empathy, leadership, imagination and the ability to serve.
You must not merely consume technology. You must create with it.
KNOW YOURSELF. KNOW YOUR WORTH.
There is also a lesson young people can draw from the culture surrounding what many call Team Drizzy: identity, confidence and self-awareness. The principle is simple: know yourself and know your worth.
What does that mean when someone is denied an opportunity because of race? What does it mean when women are judged differently from men? What does it mean when gender, disability, social status or other differences become barriers to advancement?
Your worth is not determined by these differences. You are entitled to dignity, opportunity, decent work and fair treatment. You must know your rights and know where to seek redress when those rights are violated. And when you eventually occupy positions of authority, remember the struggles that made your own advancement possible. No generation should close the door behind itself after benefiting from someone else's struggle to open it.
THE GUYANESE DREAM – is being tested.
In August 2026, Georgetown's 12-month inflation rate stood at 3.6 percent, with food prices up 4.4 percent, transport and communication up 4.1 percent, and medical care and health services up 3.1 percent. Behind those numbers are real lives.
Can you afford the home you dream about? Can you raise a family without constantly worrying about tomorrow? Can you find meaningful work that provides dignity as well as income? Can you advance because of your ability rather than your connections? Can you work hard and still have time to live?
Housing remains a major concern. As of early 2026, Guyana faced a housing backlog of approximately 75,000 to 78,000 pending applications, with more than 50,000 concentrated in Region Four. These are not merely statistics. They represent young people trying to establish homes, families and futures. Development must therefore mean more than economic growth. The Sustainable Development Goals speak to quality education, gender equality, decent work, reduced inequality, health and well-being, and access to justice.
The SDGs may not formally describe a “right to a happy life,” but they point toward the conditions that make a dignified and fulfilling life possible. Development must ultimately be measured by the quality of human life.
A GUYANA THAT IS CHANGING
Guyana's oil and gas economy has created opportunities previous generations could scarcely have imagined. Many young people are moving from traditional occupations into the energy sector. But every generation must ask what kind of society it is building.
Some jobs require extended periods away from home. A young father may spend weeks away from his children. A young mother may spend long periods away while contributing to the economy. The income may be necessary. The opportunity may be attractive.
But what happens when economic success comes at the cost of family connection? What happens when a child grows accustomed to seeing a parent through a screen? What happens when young people have the money to provide materially but not the time to be present? Development must create wealth without destroying the social fabric that gives wealth its meaning.
At the same time, Guyana's labour market is becoming increasingly international. Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, West Africans, East Asians, Chinese, Brazilians and others are increasingly part of Guyana's changing economic and social landscape. They can be found among doctors and nurses, nursing assistants, customer-service workers, storekeepers, watchmen and workers across construction, hospitality, retail and other sectors. This transformation raises important questions for Gen Z and the wider younger generation.
How should you prepare when you are competing in an increasingly global labour market? How can Guyana attract the skills it needs while ensuring that its own young people are trained to participate and lead? How can the country protect both Guyanese and migrant workers from exploitation and discrimination?
These questions require mature national policy, not division. Guyana must be able to welcome skills while investing in its own people, embrace diversity while preserving national identity, and ensure that every worker—Guyanese or foreign—is treated with dignity and respect.
CHANGE CANNOT BE STOPPED
Guyana has learnt that it is, in many ways, a nation of six people—a small population increasingly relying upon people from around the world to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding economy. But this should not become a source of insecurity. It should become a call to action. Every young doctor matters. Every engineer matters. Every teacher matters. Every nurse matters. Every technician matters. Every public servant matters. Every entrepreneur matters. Every worker matters.
And change is upon Guyana at a rate that cannot be stopped. Artificial intelligence will not wait. Automation will not wait. Digital transformation will not wait. Globalisation will not wait. Change cannot be stopped. But it can be understood, managed and turned into strength. Gen Z must therefore embrace change and use it to build and protect Guyana—to modernise public services, improve health care, transform education, strengthen national security, protect the environment, create businesses beyond oil and gas, expand opportunity and preserve national sovereignty. A small population does not have to mean a small ambition.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUNG PUBLIC SERVANTS
To the young branch members and leaders of the Guyana Public Service Union, the responsibility is even greater. They are inheritors of a 103-year institution build upon hard work, unity and independence. For more than a century, public servants—those present and those who have gone before—have fought the good fight. They organised, negotiated, sacrificed, pursued collective agreements, advocated legislative amendments and relied upon the courts to establish and defend rights.
The protections enjoyed today did not appear by accident. They were fought for, negotiated and derived from great sacrifices. That inheritance is bound up in collective agreements, legislation, amendments, institutions and case law.
The young public servants of today must therefore ask themselves: What will they add to that history? Their predecessors gave them a solid foundation. They must strengthen it. Their predecessors fought for rights. They must protect them. Their predecessors built a union. They must make it stronger. And when their generation eventually passes responsibility to those who come after them, the next generation should be able to say: “They left us more than they inherited.”
JUSTICE, DIGNITY AND THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD
Young people are also inheriting institutions that still require strengthening. Guyana's Magistrates' Courts recorded approximately 30,000 criminal cases in 2025, while the Court of Appeal entered 2026 with a backlog of roughly 2,000 matters. Behind those numbers are people waiting for justice. So ask: If you needed justice tomorrow, would you know where to turn? Would you understand your rights? Could you afford legal assistance? Would the system respond quickly enough?
The younger generation must therefore insist upon institutions that are accessible, efficient and fair. They must understand the Constitution, their rights, their collective agreements and the mechanisms available to protect them. Citizenship requires more than participation at election time. It requires understanding the institutions that govern people's lives.
THE DIGITAL GENERATION
Gen Z is among the most connected generations in Guyana's history. At the end of 2025, approximately 81.7 percent of Guyana's population—about 684,000 people—was using the internet. But connectivity alone is not enough. What will you do with that connectivity? Will you use it only for entertainment, or will you use it to learn, create businesses, solve problems, improve public services, transform health care and compete globally?
A connected country must become a digitally capable country. Young people must understand artificial intelligence, data, cybersecurity and emerging technologies. They must not become merely consumers of technology. They must become creators with it.
THE ECONOMY THEY WILL INHERIT
Guyana's economic transformation also carries a responsibility that young people cannot ignore. The country's debt-servicing burden has fallen from about 7 cents of every dollar of government revenue before oil production to about 5 cents, according to an August 2026 Inter-American Development Bank report. Young people therefore need to understand public finance, taxation, natural-resource revenues, debt, investment and economic diversification. The oil beneath Guyana's soil is not the possession of one generation. It is a national inheritance.
And the responsibility for managing that inheritance will increasingly fall upon the generation now coming of age.
THE STANDARD MUST BE HIGHER
Guyana is now ranked 89th in the world on the Human Development Index, with an HDI value of 0.776 in the UNDP's 2025 Human Development Report, based on 2023 data. That number should not be viewed simply as a ranking. It should prompt a question: What kind of country do you want to inherit, and what kind of country are you prepared to leave behind?
Progress must not be measured only by oil production, construction or economic growth. It must also be measured by whether people are healthier, safer, better educated, better housed, fairly treated and able to live meaningful lives.
THE LEGACY OF YOUNG LEADERSHIP
The Caribbean has never lacked examples of young people accepting responsibility early. Mia Amor Mottley entered national politics as an Opposition Senator in 1991 and was elected to Parliament in September 1994, subsequently serving as a government minister. Her journey reminds young people that leadership does not always wait for middle age. So the question is: What are you waiting for?
What responsibility have you postponed? What problem have you watched without attempting to solve? What opportunity have you allowed to pass because you believed you were too young? Youth is not a reason to wait indefinitely. Youth is the time to prepare for responsibility.
SOLIDARITY AND THE FUTURE
As these challenges emerge, young people will encounter powerful interests, external influences and competing agendas, including concerns about foreign lobbying and external actors seeking to influence national debates. Their response must be grounded in knowledge, unity, transparency, courage and solidarity.
Where workers are treated unfairly, they must stand. Where injustice occurs, they must speak. Where democratic institutions and the rule of law require defence, they must participate. Where international solidarity is needed, they should welcome the support of democratic institutions, trade unions and civil society organisations prepared to stand against injustice. But international solidarity must strengthen national capacity, not replace national responsibility.
The future of Guyana cannot be outsourced. The future of the Caribbean cannot be outsourced.
RISE TO THE OCCASION
Young people are inheriting a difficult world. They face the cost of living, housing pressures, discrimination, road deaths, migration pressures, technological disruption and institutions that still require strengthening.
In 2025, Guyana recorded 114 road fatalities, compared with 97 in 2024. Behind every fatality is a human being, a family and a future. But this generation is also inheriting possibilities previous generations never possessed. They have unprecedented access to knowledge, the internet, artificial intelligence, global markets and technologies capable of transforming medicine, education, business and government.
And they possess something no machine can manufacture: courage, imagination, conscience and humanity. The task of nation-building has not disappeared. It has become more urgent. The river of history is moving. The question is whether this generation will stand on the bank and watch it pass—or whether it will build the bridge.
As Sizzla Kalonji reminds his listeners: “Rise to the occasion.”
So let the young people of Guyana and the Caribbean rise above indifference, division, discrimination and fear. Let them rise with knowledge, courage, discipline, solidarity, compassion and purpose. And when their children one day ask, “What did they do when it was their time?”, may the answer be that they knew themselves, knew their worth and knew their responsibility. May it be said that they did not let opportunity passed them by; that they served, they stood, they built and they left positive footprints.
On this Caribbean Youth Day, the message is therefore clear:
Know yourself. Know your worth. Know your responsibility. Rise to the occasion. Leave footprints worthy of the generations yet to come.
Happy Caribbean Youth Day. Long live the youth of Guyana.
September 30, 2026.