Graveyard of political mediocrity, cemetery of fossilized thinking

Aug 27, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

By any economic measurement, Guyana is a very poor country (emphasis on the word, very). In the CARICOM region, it is just stuck in the position of being below all states except Haiti. We are an impoverished nation, but not even an ounce of visionary leadership appears to offer some glimpses of optimism that we may one day get out of excruciating poverty.
Poor Shaik Baksh! He may have been summoned to the Inquisition for discovering commonsense. He announced that as the Minister of Education, he wants to see the retirement age for teachers move from 55 to 65. Commonsense does not exist in the corridors of power and to the elites in the halls of power, commonsense is a dangerous thing, because its acquisition can lead to that very visionary leadership that escapes the elites that govern a helpless and hapless nation.
A few years ago, when he was Budget Director, the current Finance Minister made a wise and commonsensical statement. He intoned that the Budget (for that year) could have been better, but the Government did its best. The next day, the Budget Director corrected what he said. The following day, I did my column on the issue.
Any budget, ranging from the US to Guyana, is never and will never be perfect, and some stakeholders will be aggrieved. All budgets could be better than what they are, but restraints all governments operate with prevent the perfect budget. Although he didn’t spell it out, this is what he meant. All over the world this is the standard explanation. But such display of commonsense caused the little dictators to upbraid the Director. These people are so far gone in their political degeneracy that there will never, I repeat, never be any display of innovative thinking that can lead to the gradual decrease of widespread poverty.
The latest trip to the avenue of mediocrity takes in an airstrip in Wakenaam, an Essequibo island where the exodus is relentless. There will be a Marriott Hotel in a country whose hotel occupancy is always slack (I doubt that hotel will ever come). Now we arrive at a moment where US$30M will be used to distribute free laptops to poor families.
Count the number of absurdities that have permeated the policy-making machine of the PPP Government since President Cheddi Jagan in 1992 declared a lean and mean government in which he would ask people to work for a dollar a year and the laptop giveaway, it has to be not only the pinnacle of myopic politics but the macabre descent into zombie economics.
The simple, commonsensical fact is that poor families have hundreds of priorities that they would put in front of a free laptop. It simply does not, and will not take any excursion into economic studies to tell you that a free laptop to poor children is a vulgar waste of money. If you should present an argument against that embarkation, the document would be voluminous.
Here is a very brief summary. First, poor families are in need of sustained guarantee of food for the family unit; a laptop is a luxury they would put last on their lists. Secondly, impoverished households are not in receipt of a continuous supply of electricity; the laptop will not be in constant use because in such homes wall points are in short supply.
Thirdly, to prevent immediate damage to the laptop from GPL surges, a whole range of accessories will have to be bought to protect the instrument; none of the receiving families have that kind of income. Two months ago, the owner of one of Guyana’s largest retail stores told me a GPL surge damaged his television, DVD player and computer.
This is common place in Guyana. Who says those children’s laptops will be spared the wrath of GPL. Fourthly, lap tops are very sensitive computers and have to be carefully kept; they are not easy to repair like desktops.
Fifthly, the wisest way to go is to arm each school with computers. Put laptops in the district libraries and community centres. In this way, the children will have ready access to the stuff.
No one can be serious in any poor state like Guyana where government would spend US$30M to give poor children laptops rather than use that money to alleviate poverty.
What about a year of guaranteed bus money? There has to be another explanation. Could it be connected with third term conspiracies? Over to you, William Shakespeare.

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Graveyard of political mediocrity, cemetery of fossilized thinking

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