The mystery of St. Maartens

May 03, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Here are the words of Donald Ramotar in an address to an audience in New York; “The country’s (Guyana) GDP is growing at a rate of three to five per cent annually at a time when economies around the world are collapsing and there is no hope for a better future.”
This is a strong statement of gloom about the world and phenomenal assessment of Guyana’s future.
Mr. Ramotar was outdone by his President who spoke to the pro-Government unions at the May Day rally of FITUG.
Mr. Jagdeo went around the world and assessed Guyana as having done better than most states. He even cited the severe economic crises that are hurting some of the top nations on the globe singling out the US for special ridicule.
Then he remarked that while governments in the most developed countries are reducing funding to their universities, his administration is increasing its financial support to UG.
In plain language, Mr. Jagdeo was talking pathetic nonsense which cannot be defended in front of any non-partisan audience. For this reason, Mr. Jagdeo is soon to go into the Guinness Book of Record as the only leader of a country that never had an open debate with his electoral opponents.
The nonsense that Mr. Jagdeo normally speaks would lead to incalculable embarrassment. Thus he avoids open intellectual challenges.
I remarked last week that Mr. Ramotar is not going to get into any debate with Ramjattan, Granger, Ramsaroop etc. We are waiting to see if he will move in that direction.
Here are some of the questions Messrs. Jagdeo and Ramotar will face. If Guyana is doing so well and if according to the President, the global economic crisis devastated the CARICOM region except Guyana, then why in the second week of April in the year 2011, twelve years after Mr. Jagdeo governed Guyana, St. Maartens, (33 square miles) a tiny little island, smaller than any island in the Essequibo River, put visa requirement on Guyanese. Here are the appalling inanities that come from PPP leaders.
If the global crisis ravished the Caribbean two years ago and Guyana was insulated, then why St. Maartens wants to impose visa criterion on Guyanese and not the rest of the CARICOM region?
And why do that at a time when the Guyana economy is sailing superbly and there is no need for our people to flock to a tiny 33 square mile island? There has to be an answer. If there is no answer then it will remain a mystery.
It was the official philosopher of the Holy Roman Empire, St. Aquinas who once wrote that the world has no mysteries; there is an explanation for everything.
If we adopt the stance of St. Aquinas, then we have to solve the mystery of St. Maartens. That isn’t hard to do. The explanation is that the citizens of Guyana are leaving for better countries, better in every sense of the word.
Under, Mr. Jagdeo’s hegemony (twelve years ago), 82 percent of holders of tertiary education certificates migrate. Under Mr. Jagdeo’s reign we filled up little Barbados. And it looks like St. Maartens wants to avoid a deluge of Guyanese.
Mr. Jagdeo tells his listeners that rich countries are cutting back on university funding while his government is giving UG more. Which university do we have in Guyana? You mean one in name only. Why don’t we take a peep into what those universities are like that will have reduced funding in Europe and North America?
Even if these universities are starved for funds for the next hundred of years (yes one hundred years; I’m not exaggerating), they will still look like universities and the University of Guyana will appear, in comparison, as a derelict high school. That is how bad we are in Guyana.
Perhaps the most embarrassing moment for Messrs Jagdeo and Ramotar will come when a member of the audience will get up and ask both of these gentlemen who are supposed to be trained in economics (Mr. Jagdeo from Friendship University in Russia – Karl Marx must be turning in his grave) from where are the Caricom countries getting the money to keep their capital cities clean and healthy in appearance?
I took my wife to eat at Shanta’s puri shop last Saturday. We looked at the muddy gutter that was green in appearance and stink. After seeing that miasma, no human being would be in the mood to eat.
This is the sight in all Georgetown. There is going to be a serious outbreak of a deadly disease in putrid Georgetown. I hope not but….

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The mystery of St. Maartens

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