Black tea, Milk tea, No tea

May 04, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
It has not become fashionable for some on the campaign trail to express their new found prosperity by likening it to drinking milk tea. In our local culture when one’s tea has milk one is said to be doing well; black tea means, in our colloquial, that one is living in poverty and below standard.Milk is good. But drinking milk tea does not build an economy; patriotism does.
I have decided to examine this talk about the kinds of teas we drink in the context of our political history. Those who speak about black tea refer to the days when certain items including milk were restricted. But those days must be taken in a particular global and local context.
It was in 1970s, during the oil crisis when all non-oil producing countries suffered from massive economic shocks. Guyana, like many other countries, was very vulnerable to those shocks. Our main foreign exchange earners- sugar and bauxite- were degraded; foreign exchange was a major challenge. Therefore, the leaders were forced to take certain measures to prevent further chaos in our wider society.
Prior to the oil crisis Guyana could get about one barrel of oil for four tonnes of sugar. During the crisis it took about thirty tonnes of sugar to equivalent one barrel of oil.This situation was exacerbated by internal political and industrial relations problems, particularly in the sugar belt. At that point, the then President of Guyana, the late Forbes Burnham adumbrated the philosophy of: feed, clothe and house the nation.
The policy of self- reliance was principally relevant then as it is today. Today, all the leaders of the world are calling upon their people to grow more food to ensure food security and to prevent the spread of hunger in local communities.
So instead of importing apples, grapes and raisins, Guyanese were encouraged to grow more and eat more local fruits, instead of importing salted fish, Guyanese were encouraged to process local fish; instead of wheaten flour, rice flour was processed. Incidentally, the value of rice flour is being promoted in our local rice industry because markets are becoming a challenge. However, the idea was to produce indigenous flour and simultaneously diversify that industry.
Then we had factories: clay brick, bottle- making, fridge, and stove GRL, Tapir vans were assembled here in Guyana.We made components for radios- Greco, built ships, made bicycles and had a glass factory. All of that was buttressed by a robust education system; education was free.
These, of course, mirrored other sectors of the economy because Guyana just did not have the foreign exchange to import those things in the usual quantities; they were restricted. Milk was restricted but a local dairy farm was established at Moblissa to produce fresh milk. Also, in those days we pasteurized local milk in Kingston. So milk was produced but people had become accustomed to importing things and thought that local foods were inferior to the foreign stuff; not so.
What we are not hearing is how many local industries were established, how many local farmers grew and sold more produce and a report on the general public health of the nation in those days. What were the statistics of infant mortality, and suicides then as compared to this period of milk drinking?
Then in 1985, the late President Desmond Hoyte reversed many of decisions taken by President Burnham. He lifted the restrictions on many foods and open up the economy for additional investment. He was a shrewd and wise leader. He introduced the Economic Recovery Programme. He facilitated and encouraged foreign investors; he opened up the economy.
Today, we have an open door economy. We have many foreign investors. There are no restrictions on foods and other things. Many are “drinking milk”. But we are faced with the challenge of advancing our local industries- rice, sugar and other local crops because we are unnecessarily importing things we can very well do without and markets are very difficult to obtain.
Imagine, with the abundance supplies of nutritious fruits and vegetables, we are importing icicles, and fried banana and plantain chips.
When certain fruits are in season- pineapples, mangoes, ginips- supplies are so great that many are left to rot in dumps around market places. Imagine in Guyana, the land of many waters, we are importing bottled- water, in PET bottles; we should be exporting high quality water to countries in the Caribbean and around the world.It is a resource that is likely to cause war, if we do not reverse the negative trends of global warming and climate change.
With our vast array of local woods and other materials we are still importing building and construction materials for housing and other construction works.
We have not been able to diversify our sugar and rice industries. Where are the cottage industries? After fifty years of independence, we do not have even one cannery in any part of Guyana. Where are the factories? In a land so extremely rich in natural and human resources why do we have to import almost everything?
I have noticed that, the kinds of jobs that are available are the ones that deal with telemarketing and other work that do not cater to professional development of our young people. But we are basically a primary economy with a large agricultural base. We are in mining of gold, diamonds and other precious minerals. Where are the education and training institutions to develop our youths in this vital area of our economy; where are the geologists, the agronomists, the geotechnical and allied professionals to advance this sector in an environmentally friendly way? Where are the gold and other jewel refineries? Where are the real jobs; the ones that can really develop Guyana in a sustainable way?
It is clear that the lack of viable local industries is facilitating unemployment and underemployment in many regions. In regions 10, 9, 6, 2, 3 jobs are really hard to come by. As a result, many are not drinking any tea, let alone tea with milk. This is resulting in many other problems in our society.
For example, criminal activities appear to be occurring with greater frequency, in many parts.
Many of our women are forced to become security guards. Many of them are single parents, who must leave their children on their own, unattended, at nights to put food on the table and to send them to school. This affects early childhood development and spiral into other very serious problems, which affect our entire society, including deviant behaviours.
So while many could afford to stand and unflatteringly shout out loud to their audiences: “I am now drinking milk” others are forced by very unfortunate circumstances to be contented with no tea; how sad.
If drinking milk means a broken economy, cultural degradation, social ills, unemployment, crimes and acute inequality then we, as a nation, need to review that perspective. Drinking milk must not only benefit special selected individuals it must benefit the entire nation.
In Guyana, everyone is entitled to drink milk but only some have access to the milk can. I drink “bush” tea without milk.
Royston King

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