The apathetic youths of this nation must arise from their slumber and demand what is rightfully theirs

Feb 17, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
A friend of mine is very fond of the cliché; “youth is wasted on the young” and unfortunately in Guyana there is overwhelming evidence to support his statement. I was present on New Year’s night at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground (Bourda) for the finals of the Banks football tournament, admission in some sections was one thousand dollars,  but this did not deter thousands of  young people, because after the game there was a concert by reggae super-star Bennie Man.
That night I saw the power and potential of urban youth, as they poured into the aging facility, filing the stands and the grounds. Some conservative estimates placed the crowd at forty thousand people; I felt it was much more than that. With Guyana’s unemployment rate upwards of a staggering seventeen percent, and with several indicators pointing to the fact that in the African and Amerindian communities, the percentage is much higher, it is safe to wager that most of the young people, who turned out in their numbers to party on New Year’s night, were unemployed or severely underemployed.
Recently, it has come to our attention that the controversial Marriott Hotel in Kingston is being built exclusively by Chinese nationals.  Many high ranking government officials have tried to explain and give excuses for what is a plain and simple case of “eye-pass.”
A very senior and aging government spokesperson even opined that it was not the government’s business to intervene in contract negotiations, and it was only when the work permits were being processed that the government knew of the exclusive clause in the contract.
I will leave others to dissect the statements made, and spend my energies elsewhere. Over the last two days I spent a few hours with fellow citizens protesting outside of the Marriott on Barrack Road. The crowd was mostly elderly, almost predominantly African, and less than one hundred persons.
This did not stop the enthusiasm and the outrage that was expressed by all of the participants at what had been done in our name. Several expressed the view that after twenty plus years of targeted discrimination, unchecked corruption and staggering unemployment (especially youth unemployment); it was time for the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) to go.
Mr. Editor, I was disappointed but not very surprised that an issue that should have galvanized the entire population was received with such a lukewarm response.
The right to work is enshrined in our constitution and here was a classic example of our government selling-out that right to foreigners.  This was an opportunity for Guyanese of all ethnicities, political affiliation; the religious community; labour; the youth and student movements, to mobolise and register their dissatisfaction against an unjust and unpatriotic hiring practice.
Unemployment in Guyana cuts across all races, political affiliation and social status it is the cancer in our midst that leads to poverty but we ignore it, until we are asked for a hundred or a thousand, or robbed of our hard earned possessions.
It is unfortunate that the youth who gathered in their thousands at Bourda to gyrate to the pulsating rhythms and lyrics of Bennie Man, stayed away from Barrack Road. It is worse that I could only identify one youth leader, President of the Youth Collation for Transformation (YCT) Mr. Jermaine Grant.
It would be safe to assume that after more than two decades of PPP domination, our people have lost confidence in themselves and our youth have been unprimed as agents of change. Fed a constant diet of “hits and Jams” accompanied by misinformation and propaganda, the undereducated( and even some who should know better) wallow in apathy and allow their rights to  be frittered away by an anti working class PPP regime.
Mr. Editor, it is my understanding that these picketing exercises and other forms of political agitation will continue, until Guyanese tradesmen and women are hired by Shanghai Construction Group. The apathetic youth of this nation must arise from their slumber, stand up and demand what is rightfully theirs.
Guyanese must be given priority to work in Guyana, and with our pool of skilled and semi-skilled workers who are unemployed, we must not let this injustice stand.
To the youth and student leaders and those who are not so young and present themselves as leaders; you should never forget that youth is a form of energy that when properly mobolised and led can be used as a catalyst for revolutionary change and development.
Mark Archer

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