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Guyana’s future should not end with oil
Dear Editor,
Please permit some space in your most informative newspaper to share my views which will surely help our struggling nation to live a more comfortable life..
I began attending Primary school in 1949 (The only school I’ve attended } and since the early 1950’s I was told about Eldorado the City of Gold, and that city is in British Guiana. In 2003 I had the great opportunity of touring the gold mining and processing facility of OMAI GOLD MINES where I’ve seen tons and tons of liquid gold spinning in several huge tanks.
All the gold we’ve seen is gone and Guyana is still dirt poor with many families going to bed hungry (not the Politicians).
When I was a child going to school, my mother and father were sugar workers and during those days Booker’s was the owner of the sugar industry. Although sugar was King, Bookers used to provide lands for sugar workers to grow rice, cash crop and cattle rearing etc.
Bookers also provide cane punts for the workers to transport their paddy from the fields to the public road because they understand the importance for food production (Agriculture). Today we are hearing so much about OIL and our Govt. is dreaming of the oil money as if it will fall like rain, failing to look east, to Suriname, north to Trinidad and west to Venezuela who are all oil producers but still suffering, because the oil money alone is not enough to buy food and improve the lives of their citizens.
Here we can produce food to feed ourselves, the Caribbean and export to other countries, and when oil comes that money be a plus but our Govt is neglecting the agriculture sector, and are sleeping and dreaming of oil money only, or maybe they are not Fit and Proper Persons ( FPP ) to look at the Past, Present and Future because all the civilized countries in this world have persons to move Agriculture to a higher level of production and Agro processing for local consumption and export.
If Agriculture is to be placed on the front burner it will not only create employment in the fields but many of our women will be employed in factories and our young persons in offices. Who knows what will be the price of oil come 2020 and after, because the big countries are moving away from fossil fuel to other sources of energy. So why depend so much on oil?
England have already announced from 2040 NO cars, SUV’s will be allowed to run on its roads using Gas or Diesel, which means they have already begun the change to alternative energy. We are aware that almost everything changes, but for sure regardless of all the changes food will always be in demand and Guyana is blessed with fertile land and tropical climate all year. So why kill a bird we have in our hand ?
I am aware the ministry of agriculture falls under the AFC and I have spoken to Minister Ramjattan when he was leader of the AFC and I have spoken to PM Nagamootoo about the very poor and disappointing performance of our Agriculture Minister.
To date we have not seen any action to improve the sector in Region Six ,(Aunty Sheela must be turning in her grave to see how the AGRI sector is being neglected). Some Ministries that have little or no use have senior and junior ministers only wasting taxpayers’ money. Why?
For a country with a population of approx 750,000 to have 26 Ministers, works out to one Minister to about 28.846 persons young and old. This is too burdensome for a DONKEY CART ECONOMY (Mr. Nagamootoo’s words when he was in opposition ).
In concluding, I hope the persons governing our beautiful land named Guyana grasp the opportunity and make Guyana one of the best countries in the world to live in because we have the resources. All we need are fit and proper persons to do the job and give us the good life we were promised before May 2015.
Harri P. Beharry
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