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Guyana is marginally ahead of Haiti in this regard

May 03, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
The low ranking of Guyana on the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) is indicative of how much more needs to be done to create a satisfactory standard of living for the Guyanese people. The HDI is a useful measuring rod on how countries fared from a human development perspective relative to other countries both in the developed and developing world. And while we have over the years undoubtedly made some progress in a number of key areas of human development such as education and health, we are still lagging behind the vast majority of countries, including neighbouring Suriname and Venezuela in terms of the overall UNDP Development Index. In fact, we are marginally ahead of Haiti in the western hemisphere which is hardly anything to be proud of.
This is why it is so important for us as a country to accelerate the pace of our national development. We have to grow the economy and by so doing increase the size of the national pie. The manner in which that pie is distributed is also important from a human development perspective. My own view is that there are too much income disparities, not only between private sector emoluments vis a vis the public sector, but within the public sector itself. The income spread is too large between those at the lower bracket of the income scale and those at the top amounting in some cases to more than twenty times that of the minimum wage earner!
There is, I believe, virtue in egalitarianism especially from a human development standpoint. We all need an income that can provide us with a comfortable and secure life and it is the responsibility of the government that all of its citizens benefit from the resources of the state in a fair and equitable manner. From each according to our ability, to each according to our needs. This may sound Utopian and Marxist, but it seems the only enlightened way out of poverty and human degradation.
Hydar Ally

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