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Language is no barrier

Feb 14, 2013 Editorial

The issue on the lips of every right thinking Guyanese is the absence of Guyanese from the site of a major project. This must be the first time in the history of the world that a multi-million-dollar construction project is underway and not a single citizen could set foot on that site. And it is not that the site is a foreign mission where certain technical details would need to be hidden from the rest of society.
The Chinese have an embassy in Guyana. They also have a commercial centre that is housed in two large buildings in the city. When the Chinese were building their embassy aback of the Botanical Gardens they employed Guyanese labour. That magnificent structure today contains sensitive equipment that one would expect every diplomatic mission to have.
When the United States decided to construct its embassy in Guyana again, it placed countless advertisements for Guyanese labour. And scores of Guyanese turned up for work. They remained on the job until the end of the construction.
When it was over the contractor recommended many of them for jobs elsewhere because he recognized their qualities and the fact that they had skills that were not at a premium.
So we come to the Marriott, a hotel that is being constructed on the shores of the Atlantic next door to the Pegasus. Many of us may see the Pegasus towering over the city without realizing that Guyanese labour was responsible for its creation.
Like the Marriott, a foreign constructing company was responsible for the construction, but that company did not have the gumption or the desire to bring in all the labourers it needed to undertake the construction. In any case, construction companies always find it so much cheaper to hire local labour.
So what is this about the Chinese contractor demanding that he employ only Chinese? We are not so sure that any contractor would be so presumptuous as to tell a sovereign country that is hiring him such poppycock. In the first instance, when the contractor placed his bid he could not know that he would be selected.
Having been selected the contractor would have been presented with conditions of work and a schedule for the completion. The contract would not have included anything about labour force. For one, the Guyana Government would not have been as forward thinking as the government of Singapore was sixty years ago.
What is distressing is the dismissive nature of the government officials concerned with the project. Head of Atlantic Hotels Inc, Winston Brassington, the body established to manage the hotel, simply told the Stabroek News that he had said all he wanted to say on the non-employment of Guyanese on the hotel project. Earlier, he has said that the fact that no Guyanese had gained employment was because the contractor had so decided.
If Brassington is to be believed, then the contractor claimed that Chinese would work faster and complete the project on schedule. The contractor also claimed that the language problem would be another factor.
Is the contractor claiming that Guyanese are plodders or lazy workers who operate at a piece they choose, contrary to the wishes of the supervisor? Is he claiming that there are Chinese on the project who speak no English? Experts say that the spoken word is only one-tenth of human communication. The language barrier is most certainly a non-excuse.
When we were constructing the National Stadium at Providence we used an Indian contractor and Indian workers. There were also lots of Guyanese workers. The problems of language did not hinder the recruitment of locals.
We do not want to suggest that something is amiss with this contract. We also do not wish to believe that the contractor is holding Guyana to ransom and so our officials must do as he says. And above all, we do not wish to believe that the government is trying to boost the population figures by ensuring a large influx of Chinese.

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