poverty?
Wasn’t it said in the good book that we’ll always have the poor with us?? And this is the Gospel truth, innit?? From one angle, rich and poor are relative concepts…so it doesn’t matter how rich a society is, compared with those on top, they’ll always have others who are below, and in comparison “poor”!! For instance, in the States, the poorest would have material possessions that’s far beyond what our middle class enjoys over here!! And that’s the truth, Ruth!! You walk the streets of the ghetto neighbourhoods and you’d be surprised at the appliances and furniture, etc, they throw out!
But anyhow, let’s turn to our dear Mudland, where we’ve been concededly poor because of the number the Brits and Dutch did on us – for centuries. Literally sucked out all our wealth to live high off the hog in their “Mother Countries”. And that’s part of the problem. Because of how long we’ve been living in poverty, some of us have developed a fatalistic attitude when it comes to get up and get. Now, right now, NO ONE can deny that there are more jobs than people in Guyana. So how can we have poverty if everyone can have a job??
Now, some are saying that many of these jobs need training, and might be in parts of the country where the bodies aren’t there. But the Government is providing training in every area for which there are jobs, and we gotta start somewhere, don’t we? As far as jobs being far away, didn’t we move to almost every country in the world – some thousands of miles away – when Burnham had destroyed the economy?? And we trained on-the-job, didn’t we??
But, in the meantime, there’s another philosophy for solving poverty than providing jobs – giving massive cash transfers that would amount to half of the oil revenues we’d be hauling in at peak!! Over US$1.2 billion!! Now, while this sounds like a good thing, do we really think this will be sustainable when our oil runs out in a few decades?? Shouldn’t we do what Singapore did with its resources and build for the future? It’s slower…it’s not a quick fix, but it lasts!!
Now, it’s not like the Government ain’t sharing out SOME goodies to blunt the transition until when the good time gonna be rolling!! There’s all sorts of cash grants, school supplies grants, temporary job grants etc. Sure, it would be nice to suck cane and blow whistle at the same time, but it just can’t be done. Look at what happened here when Burnham tried it, and later when Chavez did the same over in Venezuela. Ruination!!
More than half our population left…and Venezuela’s fast catching up!!
…mankind?
When you think of it, it’s kinda funny that the European countries – who insist they’re more civilized than the rest of us – are the ones who fought two World Wars that killed the most humans ever on planet Earth!! Millions and millions!! And right now, there are all sorts of signs that a third one’s brewing! We’ve had that war between Ukraine and Russia since 2022, and the West’s pouring so much weaponry into Ukraine it’s obvious they’re willing to fight to the last Ukrainian!!
And we’re hearing that those Baltic countries on the top of the world are gearing up to “defend” themselves against the Ruskies. Now, one thing your Eyewitness learnt is that there isn’t a truer statement than “truth is the first casualty of war!” So we gotta sift what’s coming into our feeds and decide what’s really going on. For instance, if you go by what’s in our western press, you’d think Ukraine’s one battle away from Russia!!
But sadly, the Ruskies can take out us all.
…the PNC?
If your Eyewitness didn’t know better, he’d swear that some of the erstwhile members of the PNC are determined to take down the “Progress Never Ceases” party.
How else do you explain the ennui that has seized them??
