Visionaries are always ahead of their time

Sep 14, 2008 Features / Columnists

In the field of science, many of the discoveries were made because one man saw something that the others did not.

Albert Einstein studied motion, and he came up with the laws of motion that resulted in many developments, such as space travel and what actually happens in space, including the fact that space is actually growing. That is now known as the theory of relativity.

Newton developed the laws of gravity and offered an explanation for why people do not fall off the earth although some are supposed to be standing upside down, for example, the people in Australia.

It is written that Columbus set out to prove that the world was round, and in the face of laughter from his peers, did set sail and ‘discovered’ new lands.

The rest is history, because today people fly around the world and there are visual evidences of the shape of the earth taken from so high above that there is no air there.

President Bharrat Jagdeo is no Einstein, nor is he Columbus, but his vision is such that, in years to come, many will sit back and lament the fact that they did not heed his words being uttered today.

There were others who had similar visions that were only realized several years later, but which, had people listened, would have avoided so much pain and suffering.

There was, for example, the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. A reporter stumbled on the plan, but he was advised to keep the story under wraps.

Years later, the late President John Kennedy said that it might have been wiser for the reporter to publish his story, because many lives would have been saved.

Today, there is the Economic Partnership Agreement, which, in the eyes of President Jagdeo, is something that the region should not accept in its current state.

He sees the continued plunder of the region by a power that has both the finances and the resources.
He sees the loss of sovereignty and, above all, the loss of much needed revenue to the region.

Further, he sees Guyana as having the most to lose, and his determination to ignore the agreement is casting him in a light that suggests that he wants to buck the system.

The other leaders have listened and they appear to understand his fears, but, for them, those fears are inconsequential when compared to their short-term vision.

The region needs investments, but those investments should benefit the countries in which they are made; yet, sometimes people only see the early inflow of money and they become satisfied.

They do not see beyond that initial outlay of money and the pain that could result when the investor ups his roots and leaves thousands of nationals unemployed after he has more than recovered his investment.

Guyana has had such lessons, the most recent being Omai Gold Mines, which came with all good intentions and which extracted tons of Guyana gold, but which, in the end, packed up and left huge holes in the ground, the only testimony to the excavations and gold extractions.

That company enjoyed tax holidays and paid only royalty. The returns from its exploration cannot be imagined. The short-term benefits were the employment opportunities and the income tax paid by those workers.

It was the same with Sanata Textiles, the many airlines that came and ended up leaving numerous passengers on these shores because they simply collapsed after the initial investment, and some companies that closed their doors when the profit margins diminished.

But there is more to the EPA than the investors; there is the loss of revenue for certain exports, and in the case of Guyana, this is because Guyana is export-oriented and has been so for some time.

It earns revenue from these exports and from the taxes levied on imports. With the EPA, the imports from Europe would come in at preferential rates and, of course, the local businessmen would always seek out the cheaper imports.

On landing, these goods would be sold cheaper than even some local produce, largely because of the volume of production in Europe.

This could see local industries dying when the country needs its industries, since they employ Guyanese.
These are things that the regional leaders are not seeing, and as President Jagdeo said, the pain might not be felt now.

It is like a dental extraction, where the pain is not felt because of the residual effect of the Novocain; but the pain will come.

For those who are prepared to blame the Government for its current stance, it would be wise to recognize that the pain always comes later.

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