Latest update January 15th, 2025 3:45 AM
Sep 21, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
I refer to Harry Gill’s letter captioned “I will personally donate $5,000US to David Granger’s presidential campaign…” in your edition of 17 September 2011.
While holding no brief for the PNC or Forbes Burnham, I was appalled at the apparent myopia of Mr. Gill in stating “…the PPP inherited a failed economy and has transformed Guyana into a thriving economy with over US$1B in foreign reserves.”
Guyana is not a “thriving economy”… as Gill asserts. Quite the opposite – Guyana is a basket case whose citizens continue to line up at the US, Canadian and UK Missions each day seeking a way out, or resorting to desperate measures such as “backtracking” to escape Guyana!
Far from transforming Guyana, the present administration presides over a country where narco-trafficking and money laundering proliferate and seem to be encouraged, (I refer to the WikiLeaks cable dated 20 December, 2005 in which the present administration openly advocated to a senior US Diplomat pursuing “sanctions rather than prosecution to instill in narco-criminals the fear of losing business rather than fear of prosecution.”) and in 2008 the parallel economy was estimated at 61per cent of the total economy (see “Revisiting the Underground Economy in Guyana 2001 – 2008: Clive Thomas, Natoya Jourdain and Sukrishnalall Pasha”).
As for his glib estimate of Guyana’s foreign reserves he fixes at over US$1B., the CIA factbook section on Guyana Economy 2011 sharply contradicts him. It states reserves of foreign exchange and gold at $506M and external debt for the year 2008 at US$804M.
The only thing readily apparent from his letter is that Mr. Gill must be inhabiting some corner of the “Through the Looking Glass” world.
Arthur Williams
Jan 15, 2025
Kaieteur Sports- After two gruelling days of trials at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, the Guyana National Basketball Team has been narrowed down to 15 players, signalling the first step towards a...Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The following column was published two years ago in response to the same controversy that... more
Sir Ronald Sanders (Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the OAS) By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News–... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]