<p> I was always sorry to be leave Georgetown. Somehow, the city had created the illusion of familiarity. Within a few weeks I’d acquired somewhere to live and a few friends, and I had a rough idea of where everything was. But more than this, there was something about the city – it’s breezy architecture, its see-through homes, its open arms and its open drains – that made me feel I understood it, and that here was a place with nothing to hide.</p>
<p>Even at the time, I realised this was folly. There probably isn’t a city in the world that’s so physically transparent, and yet so mentally opaque. Even those living in Georgetown didn’t really understand it. They didn’t know who owned anything, how the rich got rich, who was behind the politicians, or who was running the country. Some thought America called all the shots, others that Britain was about to resume control (in return for carbon credits). When the Minister of Agriculture was mown down by a cadre of commandoes, it didn’t seem to surprise anyone that the inquiry had ground to halt. People had got used to mysteries. Many still hoped that – one day – a revolution would sweep it all away. But how many decades had they waited? In the meantime, they’d busy themselves in the struggle for work or fuel or a telephone that worked, or in the search for simple facts. As Shiva Naipaul once wrote, ‘In British Guiana it is impossible to find out the truth about any major thing.’</p>
<p>In retrospect, I only caught occasional glimpses of hidden Georgetown, usually in hotels. Just as Cara Lodge had been the centre of revolt, so the Pegasus (see photo) was now the centre of power. I never went there without seeing some or other government minister, lunching with large Canadians. Everyone had bodyguards, and with so much shiny cloth and hired muscle, it could sometimes seem like the court of a medieval king. Once, I managed to talk to one of the oil men (or was he gold? I forget). He told me that he flew in every week, and that he never left the lobby without his special forces. ‘Guyana is complex,’ he warned, ‘There are wheels within wheels.’ </p>
