Blinded by culture

Apr 17, 2018 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
It brings tears to my eyes to see what we deem laudable as a nation.
Bear with me, for I have no contempt for the forthcoming offices I’m about to mention, but we as a people do not look past our traditional sources of income and business investments, and it stems from a lack of education, not just formal education but informal education as well.
It is solely to blame on our monopolistic telecommunications infrastructure and propaganda machines that have limited Guyanese from achieving at least an informal first world education, and have created a cycle of traditional businesses based on our culture. Because of the aforementioned tools, it limits us from creating new trends and new cultures and in turn, creating innovative visionaries.
The sad truth is that this disease has spread its tentacles in the minds of all of us.
Editor, even to the top offices of this country, as I hypocritically point fingers, I must admit that even I am infected and I believe that you also might be infected with this cultural phenomena; I will elaborate.
To read the daily news and observe that the Head of State was at the commissioning of a playground in Linden and commending the success of this community, I kid you not, this is a place well known for having breadfruit as a staple. In my opinion, I do not think these kinds of business ventures would uplift this community. Linden is blessed with so many things that many larger towns across the world do not have – for example, they have a small population, lots of resources and importantly, easy access to the ocean.
I pray that this newly elected town council breaks away from the tentacles of our cultural epidemic and strives for true upliftment, and not depend on government assistance. In an effort to change the hypocrisy in my attitude, I will suggest a productive approach to get you there, I suggest, firstly, we must prioritise the bauxite industry by being able to reap greater benefits than the foreign bauxite companies for the people of Linden. In doing so, we have to invite companies that specialise in aluminium packaging, and aluminium products – companies such as Nestle, Grace, Amcor, etc. In order to make these companies be attracted to Linden, we must be able to facilitate our subsidised gas after production begins, and encourage them to register subsidiaries in the town that will allow them to not only distribute to Guyana, but to other countries where we have trade agreements, especially the CSME loophole that other companies are exploiting as we speak.
This new industry does not require many skilled workers, so companies would not hesitate to spend money to train the people of Linden to work in their factories. This programme will have an immediate impact on Linden’s developing tourism sector, and that would truly uplift the people of Linden and steer them out of the “Plantain Chip” approach to investment.
Yours truly,
Mikhail Husbands

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