…and Jubilee goings
The organisers of the Jubilee Celebrations mightn’t have been on the ball with their arrangements but they’re certainly making it up with their PR about their “success”! We were just informed that a whopping 27,000 passengers arrived in our fair land during the even merrier month of May. And this compares very favourably, thank you, to the 15,000 that touched down in May 2015.
So can we say 12,000 tourists streamed in because of Jubilee 2016? While it may seem churlish to mention it…the release does bring to mind the old saw about “lies, damned lies and statistics”. For instance, take that “15000” from last year. Didn’t the same government – after squeezing into office last May – complain a couple of months later as to how arrivals had dropped “precipitously” because of elections fears?
So in the normal course of things, in the absence of the aforementioned “fears” wouldn’t the arrivals have been at least a couple of thousands more? And your Eyewitness will ignore the difference between “arrivals” and “tourists” based on how long they stay and presumably spend their money. So let us say “at least 10,000 bodies arrived for the big celebrations”.
This isn’t an inconsiderable achievement. But it’s sure a long way from the 50,000 we’d been hearing about during the months of hype. When the dust finally settles, even without a “forensic audit”, we’ll find out we shelled out at least $1 billion from the Consolidated Funds for the Big Bash. And a like amount of “matching funds” from the business community. Now, even though you may think that’s not our “worries”, since we’ve been informed these things are actually “political investments” – you can be sure we, the ordinary citizens will literally get it in the end!
But now that we’ve given these 10,000 Overseas Guyanese goosebumps when they saw the largest Golden Arrowhead being hoisted on the tallest flagpole in the land, what next? Do we have their e-mails so can offer them a prospectus for funding Amaila Falls Hydro-Electric Project? “What the!!” you sputter, dear readers? Now surely you didn’t think we should’ve spent all that money just to have some long-in-the-tooth “foreign” get a tingle, did you?
Listen, all other countries tap into their diasporas for funding. In the states these retirees are getting a measly 1/2% on savings! If the China Development Bank’s 9% was too high…surely we can get our ex-pats to come in at 5%. How many long-term investments in the US can generate that kind of return?
And they can come every year to both touch their investment and get goosebumps!
…and crossings
It’s a tale of two bridges – both floating on troubled waters. The one on the east – BBCI – owned by Private interests – hasn’t been making money to cover its expenses and is on the verge of bankruptcy. The government decided to REDUCE its tolls but is covering the reduction from the Consolidated funds.
The Bridge in the west, in the meantime has almost twice the traffic than its sister in the east but is owned by the state. Yet its tolls are so low, the government’s been subsidising it for decades to the tune of FIFTEEN times the subsidies in the east. So finally, the Prime Minister – who’s from the East – says it’s time the tolls in the west be raised since it’s a pittance in any case.
“Not so!” says the Minister of Infrastructure, who’s in charge of bridges. “We haven’t agreed to that yet!”
What’s to agree? $200 to cross in the west is too much but $1900 is OK for the east?
…and cannibalisation
To survive after the abolition of slavery, sugar owners sold off plantations in droves. We founded our Villages by buying them up. Now it’s in trouble again, GuySuCo just announced its going to sell off land again.
A new Village Movement?
