While the populations of most developing nations are rising rapidly, the same cannot be said for the northern South American country of Guyana.
It is rising slightly but for many years has been in serious decline.
The brain drain in this poor nation has been going on for many years as people emigrate to America, Canada and Britain in search of a better life.
I went to a small first floor apartment in the capital Georgetown to meet a couple on the eve of their departure for New York plus the country's President who wishes more of his fellow countrymen would return home for good.
"We're excited that we're leaving," Affia McKenzie told me.
She and husband Richard are preparing for the trip of their lives. They're taking their ten month old daughter Sasha to live with his parents in America.
"I would want to have just about everything, every necessity of life, which includes my own vehicles, my own house, a good job."
![[QODLink]](http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2012/2/11/2012211114212966734_16.jpg "Yusuf Raza Gilani")
