We’ve been warned so many times about the dreaded “Dutch Disease” after we (OK, OK, foreign oil companies!) struck oil that your Eyewitness swears it must be related to those even more dreaded dead “Dutchmen”, who’ve been haunting us for hundreds of years. And, in a way, they ARE related. “Dutch Disease” refers to the fate of the Netherlands in the ‘70s, after they discovered offshore oil. They promptly neglected their traditional products as oil revenues flowed into their coffers, and duly ran into some deep sh*t when the oil ran out! Their ‘traditional’ products were heavily agricultural. Gouda Cheese anyone??
Interestingly enough, our Dutchmen of yore – whom folks insist are lurking behind silk cotton trees to do us in – were the ones who brought agriculture (sugar cane, coffee, cotton and tobacco) to Guyana. And your Eyewitness’s fear is that now oil – and presumably the money – is flowing (not that we’ll see much in OUR pockets!), we might follow in the footsteps of the Modern Dutch and neglect our agriculture. So that when the oil runs out – in 30 years? – we’ll be left high, dry and poverty-stricken.
Now, you’d hope our powers-that-be would be kinda in a “forewarned is forearmed” mode, no? Well, they’re certainly “talking the talk”, so maybe it’s time we scratch beneath the surface to find out if it’s just a “gyaaf”. Let’s start with sugar. The Government – which owns GuySuCo – is pumping in a whole lotta dough to keep the industry going, but the going’s been real tough!! We heard that Rose Hall was fired up for the coming “big crop” – so let’s see if this will get things back on track.
On our second big crop – rice – this has been really doing well – with us shipping over 600,000 tonnes abroad and bringing in foreign exchange and stuff. But we gotta be careful that we ensure our farmers get paid – not like that Panamanian Market that Naga brought in! We gotta find viable new markets by using our embassies like the developed countries do – to sell locally-produced goods! With India just cutting off rice exports, this should be easier!
Your Eyewitness is excited about new mass-produced crops like soya and corn in the Intermediate Savannahs for the “25-by-25” Initiative. But what about all the land we got on the coast? For instance, some years ago, the PPP Govt unfurled a “5-P” agri program for export – especially to the diaspora markets. Pineapples, pumpkins, peppers, passion-fruit and Papaw. What happened? Isn’t there room for expansion? Your Eyewitness certainly thinks so!
And how about mangoes – your Eyewitness’s favourite fruit? Isn’t it time we have orchards to supply consistent quality and quantity?
…education??
Now that our little darlings are enjoying their “August holidays” of never-ending sunlit days, maybe it’s time we revisit the premises of our schooling, in the first place. Let’s cast our eyes back on the “Common Entrance”, now dubbed the NGSA – which we picked up from the British. Seems we’ve missed the entire point of their change in 1948 from the original model in 1904. The exams would now signal which students might be more suited for specific types of education in a new “Tripartite System”.
The high flyers would continue with academic pursuits in their elite grammar schools, and the others would be sent to less competitive “secondary modern schools” or (for those considered below par) to trade-oriented technical schools. But we’ve retained the elite grammar schools – Queen’s and Bishops’ – for the top 1% and left the others to flounder in the other secondary schools.
But what about the technical/agri-schools? Seems we’ve kept the British snobbery about “academics” and scorned the last.
…morals?
Your Eyewitness thinks the former minister – who’s been charged for “indecent exposure” after he exposed his genitals to an outraged family when gratuitously returning to take a second leak – missed the point about “letting it all hang out”!!
