Well…how about that – the World Bank just baptized us as a “High Income Country”!!! We’re now in the big leagues, baby…as far as “income” is concerned. We’re rubbing shoulders with the US, UK, Canada, and such like. Countries in this league are supposed to have a Gross National Income (GNI) per person/capita of over US$13,846!! A couple of decades ago, we were a “Highly Indebted Poor Country” (HIPC), and a fellow Caricom leader refused to take advice from us, since we were “running around with a begging bowl”!!
Now, all of us know this is all due to Exxon now pumping oil to the tune of some US$12 billion per annum. For the GNI per capita, the World Bank merely divides those total revenues – plus what our other industries earn – and divide it by our population, which ain’t even a million!! But right away we can see the problem with that measurement: – we only get 14.5% of those oil revenues. Which ain’t exactly chicken feed, but even if it were distributed into each Guyanese pockets – which it ain’t – it ain’t giving us no annual income of US$13,846 and up!!
And that’s the irony, innit?? Cause, as far as most of us are concerned, nothing much has changed, has it?? Sure, we know that a change is coming – but it ain’t here as yet. In the meantime, the new classification as a High-Income Country has some serious implications for us. The first being the interests on loans for our development is gonna be higher. And certainly, NO debt write-offs for us, like when we had that begging bowl!!
Now, you may ask, dear reader, why we gotta borrow when we have oil money coming in. And the answer is it’s to ensure that each of our income does get up there for us to really rub shoulders with the rich and famous, our country as a whole must be developed as fast as possible!! And that doesn’t mean pouring money directly from the oil revenues into our pockets, as some are pushing. We know that most of that will go into consumer goods – iPhones, anyone? – and when the oil runs out, we’ll be left sucking seed!! We need businesses that’ll provide high paying jobs for us, and those businesses need infrastructure to relocate or to start up here – like in the agro-business the Government’s pushing.
When Lee Kwan Yu was developing Singapore from the backward colony it originally was into the REAL High-Income Country it is today, he recounted in his book – from “Third World to First” – how he FOUGHT being classified as even a “Middle Income Country”!!
We should also not emphasise this “fake news!!”
…right for Haiti
Yes…we should all cry for Haiti. The people of this pioneering land for liberty for all of us Caribbean peoples have known no peace for all the 200+ years Haiti’s been in existence. If it’s not natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and mudslides, it’s been the inability of its leaders to institute a governance structure that brings stability – aside from brutal dictatorships like the Duvaliers. The latest escalation followed the assassination of President Moise in July 2021. Now more than 80% of the capital is controlled by gangs; 840 persons were killed from January to March, and another 600 in April alone.
One of Blinken’s goals at the Caricom HoG meeting earlier this month was to persuade the organization to become more involved in brokering a solution. So, now former PMs of Jamaica, Bahamas and St Lucia – Bruce Golding, Perry Christie, and Dr Kenny Anthony – are leading an “Eminent Leaders Group” to the island.
What’s really needed is a kick-ass force to put down the gangs. GDF anyone??
…real?
In another sanctimonious letter, Hamilton Green knocked Pres Ali, and said, “My Mentor would say it is pellucidly clear …blah, blah, blah.” Burnham would’ve never said “pellucidly clear” since that’s a tautology!! Saying the same thing twice!! Clearly, clearly!!
