…and jobs
The Department of Youth – part of the Ministry of the Presidency – organised a “job fair” for youths at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown. It looks like after four years in office, the PNC-led Government has awoken to the fact that 40 per cent of all youths in Guyana are unemployed — even though the CDB announced this fact in early 2015, the same time the PNC slipped into office, in their report, “Youth are our Future: The Imperative of Youth Employment for Sustainable Development.”
Ours was the highest level of youth unemployment in the entire Caribbean, and it wasn’t as if the Government didn’t take notice then; but their response shows how clueless they are in running a free enterprise economy, and what steps must be taken to create jobs in one. Six months later, then Minister within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, Nicollette Henry, announced: “Our young people need to understand that in order to take up meaningful positions, they must first be willing to be mentored to acquire leadership skills so that they can contribute meaningfully while earning. We are taking steps building on what was already there from the previous administration, and we do have skills development opportunities through our training centres at Kuru Kururu, Sophia, and at Vryman’s Erven in New Amsterdam that provide training opportunities, but some of them don’t want to be part of the process.”
Imagine that!! This is what they’ve continued to do: continue to provide “training” in areas where their constituency reside, as adumbrated by Henry. The fly in the ointment, of course, is: what’s the point of training youths for jobs if the economy isn’t expanding to create those “jobs” in the first place??
Now, this isn’t some kind of esoteric “chicken and egg” question; it’s basic common sense. Even the training is questionable: how do they KNOW what kinds of jobs will be needed, so as to offer training? Have they stimulated any particular sector to expand??
But to confirm that the Department of Youth is pulling the youths’ chain four years later, just look at the handful of companies that showed up. And these have been feeding at the Government’s trough recently. It’d be interesting to see how many jobs would actually result from the exercise.
After Wales was shuttered, the PSC conducted a job fair on their own, and had to concede that even though 800 persons showed up, only 86 were actually offered jobs.
There are the folks saying the Government should heed: “dew cyan full wha’ rain na full”.
Maybe they should take a leaf out of PPP presidential candidate Irfaan Ali’s book as to how to go about creating jobs!!
…and national awards
The Government just announced they’ll be conferring their latest batch of “national awardees” on May 24. This, of course, will be smack in the middle of the National Carnival that will be held from May 17-27. Now, you gotta hand it to the PNC, they might be totally clueless about creating jobs or running an economy, but when it comes to awards and “spo’t”, they’re right up there with Barnum and Bailey!!
Anyway, your Eyewitness would like to nominate some individuals for awards for their performance in the last year. Right up there has to be an Order of Roraima for Nigel Hughes, for his contribution to the field of mathematics. He overturned 4000 years of “received wisdom” that 33 was larger than 32. Guyana hasn’t received this kind of attention since Jim Jones and his Cool Aid brew!!
A Golden Arrow of Courage must be given to PM Nagamootoo for his back-flipping on the NCM vote.
For a man who just had his valves fixed, this was better than Aly Raisman!!
…SOCU
Seriously, dear readers, do the Government really need the PPP to tell them to shut down SOCU?
What’d they expect after their British-imported trainer Sittlington couldn’t see a conflict of interest to open up his private investigating office??
