I almost died the other day

Mar 01, 2009 Features / Columnists, My Column

---

The past few days have been most intriguing, largely because I have been directly involved in the goings on with CLICO (Guyana). I took a conscious decision to prepare for the days when I would be unable to work and to earn. Those are the days when an individual must seek to rely on himself or herself; when children should not be depended on because no child owes a parent anything.

Way back when Noah was in diapers I began to get children of my own and one of the things I did was to ensure that they did not have as rough a time as I did when I was growing up. Indeed my days as a youth were rough days, so rough that often I was not sure where my next meal was coming from.
It was not that my mother did not try her best and to her credit I must say that I never went to bed hungry. There was something else. She made me realize the value of hard work and to this day I have a work ethic that does not allow me to stay at home and pretend to be ill.
I can still see her face when my stepfather, who was paid by the day, would stay at home and feign some illness that would disappear as soon as the transport vehicle that would take him to work passed. That meant one day’s pay less and therefore less food for the pot.

Anyhow, there I was, having seen my children grow to full-fledged adults, making a conscious decision that they should carry on with their lives and not having to worry about me. Indeed, they all say, “Pops, you don’t have to worry. You worked hard for us and we will never see you suffer.”
I believe them but then again, I did not work hard for them. It was something that I had to do and I did it for me. I saved for the later years and as inflation caught up with me, the little I managed to put aside began to lose value. So there I was trying my damnedest to ensure that there would be something.

It is for this reason that I am still kicking up a fuss to collect my dues having served the government for a number of years and making some headway at last.
I took the small piece I had and invested in CLICO (Guyana) which promised me 6.5 per cent per annum, much more than the nothing I get from Republic Bank. Being a cautious person, I took out a package for a year at a time meaning that at the end of a year, I could collect my money or put it back in, which is what I did after the second year.

News came that CLICO was in trouble in Trinidad and I went to the local company to find out if my money was safe. They assured me that it was so. With some trepidation I went along my merry way still believing that my money would be there to earn the 6.5 per cent per annum.

Bright and early Tuesday I learnt that CLICO (Bahamas) had been taken over by liquidators and that CLICO (Guyana) had invested in CLICO (Bahamas). I went into CLICO again but I was too late because the government had moved in to take over the local entity. I was worried because I surely believed that my nest egg had been taken and that I would have to work for much longer.
Suffice it to say that my employer, Glenn Lall, even while he was in the United States, said to me to take my money and run. “Put it under your pillow; put it under your mattress; put it anywhere but take it from CLICO.” I pussyfooted because such is my nature. I am a laid back individual. I have been cussed for this attitude time and again.

I called my boss who was really concerned for me and he cussed me. He called me names that I wouldn’t call my enemy. My blood pressure went up although I am not hypertensive. I began to get headaches and I could not concentrate on anything. My savings were gone.
My spirits lifted when at the press conference hosted by President Bharrat Jagdeo, I learnt that I would get my money. That is a promise that I hope will be fulfilled. I have not yet called my children overseas to demand that they keep their promise but perhaps I should and know my fate in advance.

There is an old saying about playing dead to see the kind of funeral you would get. I want to play dead.
Assuming I get back my savings, what do I do with it during this time of crisis? Devaluation could eat it up. I still remember the days when a dollar was money. Today it can buy nothing. I once had a $10,000 twenty-year insurance policy. That money was a lot but it became nothing so the policy lapsed. It was the same with an $80,000 policy that I took.
There are many like me and we are all in a quandary. NIS would help, I hope, but I must be able to help myself. My dearly departed father had his own money and I could never understand why he always wanted to pay for things when I was prepared to do that and actually did it for a while until he did things without telling me.

But what went wrong with CLICO? I am not certain except to say that there were people who were taking their money as fast as they could get it. Before the government stepped in CLICO had paid out almost $3 billion to policy holders and others. A liquidity problem had developed. Assets had to be sold and the shares in the Berbice Bridge were among the first.
Some CLICO employees are going to be out of a job but better that than me being out of my old age cushion.

---

---