HOW TO MAKE EVERYONE A MILLIONAIRE

Apr 27, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The government should offer to every family in Guyana that is not yet a millionaire, the opportunity to join this bracket. Not everyone can become a millionaire but everyone should at least be offered the opportunity to become millionaires.
How can this be done? Well for a start, the government should reclaim unutilized State lands and lease them out on the condition that they be worked for agricultural purposes, failing which they will be repossessed. There are idle state lands which have been leased to private persons and these persons are not working the lands.
In some cases the land has been abandoned. In other cases it is being rented out by the persons holding the lease to other farmers in a form of a feudal arrangement. All these lands that are not being utilized should be lawfully repossessed, broken up into viable units and given to small farmers so that they can benefit.
Agriculture is now a highly profitable enterprise. Farmers are making good money these days be it through rice or cash crops and therefore it is important that if there are unutilized lands that large landowners are not working and these lands are State lands, then these lands should be repossessed.
The big rush now is however towards the gold fields and once again we have an inequitable whereby the vast majority of mining concessions are owned by a small band of individuals. There are also many concessions which are being rented out and not being worked by their owners.
The large number of Brazilians in our gold industry attests to this fact. Most of them are working concessions which are owned by other individuals.
Foreign mining companies have also been given large concessions and in some instances there have been conflicts by locals who have encroached on the mining claims of the foreign companies.
Thousands of Guyanese are presently working in the mining districts and most of them are making good money which if they spend and invest wisely can guarantee them financial security. Persons who were once dog poor have become millionaires because of the high prices that are being paid for gold.
It is necessary that as these prices remain high that as many Guyanese benefit from these high prices. However the number of concessions available are limited and since a small band of persons already own the majority of the concessions in the country, there should be some re-negotiations to ensure greater equality in the distribution of mining claims.
One way around this problem is to offer small claims to persons who are not millionaires. Instead of the present practice of granting a few claims via lottery in select areas, the government should each year identify two thousands small claims and run a lottery for these claims, subject to the condition that the beneficiaries work the concessions themselves.
In this way each year, the government would be giving the opportunity to two thousand individuals to become millionaires. This is on top the other thousands that are already working concessions in the “backdam.”
Within five years, ten thousands small claims can be given out and this will transform the lives of the beneficiaries and their families, until the price of gold collapses as it inevitably will.
In the meantime, it is important that as many Guyanese as possible benefit from the present Gold Rush. This rush unfortunately has unfortunately led to many problems within mining districts.
There is a great deal of illegal activities taking place in the “backdam.” There are a great many socially undesirable activities taking place. What is needed is improved policing and monitoring of what goes on there.
There are many good intentioned groups and individuals who have taken action to stamp out illicit activities from within mining camps. But these well- intentioned actions must be done in a proper manner.
It is not recommended that any group without police powers should be allowed to barge into any mining camp so as to take action to either rescue or stamp out illegal activities.
If there is information that there are illegal activities taking place in a mining camp or if there is reasonable suspicion of such activities taking place, then a report should be made to the police. For any group to be going into mining camps and making citizens’ arrest is unacceptable and far from heroic because this can open the floodgates to abuse.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News