Second-class citizens in our own country

Feb 24, 2019 Features / Columnists, The Story within the Story

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By  Leonard Gildarie

As I write, Mash is being celebrated. It is time to enjoy our uniqueness. To see colours. To hear the pulsating music. Thousands will converge in the city for a day of revelry. The weather seems to be holding up.
Our country is not perfect. In fact, there is none that can boast that. But we are good people who have struggled. Things are better than it was in the ‘80s. We have built a resilience that whatever comes, we will deal with. That resilience, coming from years of struggle, is what will be our greatest strength with the oil era.
But we have to be guarded. Watchful. Strong. We have to think long term and prepare how we can benefit.
This past week has been eventful. It was a busy time. I travelled by plane to Lethem, a town that borders with Brazil and is linked to that country via the Takutu bridge.
Daily, about 50-60 vehicles with family and traders come from Brazil to shop from the commercial district, from the estimated 20 Chinese-run operations.
Business has been keeping that border area, recently made a town, alive.
Linking Lethem to the coastland is a long stretch of road, of some sorts, called the Linden/Lethem road. It crosses the Rupununi savannahs and rivers.
Over the years, the road has been a struggle. Consecutive governments have battled with it.
It is not cheap. The outlying areas have not really been paying taxes. It was not easy diverting scarce resources to fix a roadway, the benefits of which are limited.
However, the road link is critical. It is not only the Chinese truckers who are using it. It lends access to scores of hinterland communities and mining and logging operations.
While I believe that miners and loggers alike have hid their earnings and would scrap ever so often on the state of the roadway, there is a feeling that instead of finding millions and millions of dollars to build a road that would benefit a few, there should be some other arrangement to maintain the road.
Personally, I am scared, but can see the benefits.
Along the current configuration or trail or whatever you want to call it, there are hundreds of thousands of hectares of prime land. Land that has gold and diamond, rare earth, and of course, forests that boast a wide variety of wood.
We are among the last of the countries with standing forests. It is home to thousands and thousands of species of animals and plant life, many of them not discovered.

PROTECTION
We can barely protect our borders now. How will we protect those hinterland areas from invasion of hungry explorers of our abundant, rich resources? How do we control it?
We would be making it easier with a brand new road in which travel would cut from 12-15 hours to Lethem to about 6 or 7 hours.
The problem with Lethem is that it is existing on the edges of Guyana with little in terms of taxes coming from it. It is similar to what is happening to the Cuban shoppers.
Almost 1,000 Cubans are coming here to shop weekly. They stay in a few bed and breakfast locations in the city, including one that is a stone’s throw from the Ministry of the Presidency.
They use transportation. They have spawned interest in more flights from Cuba.
The US dollars from the Cubans are not coming to the economy.
Illegally, the money, estimated at US$2M in hard cash weekly, is being collected by the Chinese stores and does not enter the banking system.
Bank of Guyana is saying that it has warned the Chinese stores that they have to divert the shoppers to cambios or the banks to convert the cash.
I am tired of talking. We seem not to understand that we can’t invite investors and have the benefits trickle to a few. The benefits have to redound to all…all Guyanese.
It is the same thing for Lethem. We have to find ways in which we encourage shoppers, but there have to be rules of engagement.
We want investors. But there are rules. I could not help but think of this on Friday, while covering the ongoing protests by Rusal workers at Aroaima.

RUSAL
It is hard to fully get a grasp of the gravity of the situation unless there is a visit.
Aroaima is located about 70 miles from Linden, in the Upper Berbice area, Region 10.
It is simply in the middle of nowhere.
Some 61 workers had their services terminated more than a week ago by the Russians for reportedly downing tools. The workers complain that the company refuses to deal with its union, which is recognized by the government as legitimate.
In the middle of nowhere, 540 workers are saying that they are at the mercy of foreign investors.
They were ordered to leave the premises of Rusal.
Lending advice to the Russians, workers say, is none other than Mohamed Akeel, a former Chief Labour Officer.
The staffers are cooking for themselves amid a halt in operations.
For staffers, it is an intolerable situation. They need to work.
The fact is Guyana, like other countries, should welcome foreign investors.
In fact, Rusal came here in the mid-2000s when US-owned Reynolds Metals pulled out of Aroaima.
Rusal, they said, inherited all the equipment and facilities, and used its vast global network to sell the bauxite.
Rusal’s entry to Guyana helped save the bauxite industry. The question that surfaces therefore is why do we have this situation?
I believe that Rusal’s refusal to engage Government smacks of total disrespect for the people of Guyana, not only the workers. On the other hand, the Government is facing a dilemma. It has to send a clear message to Rusal that it won’t and can’t tolerate such arbitrary and unilateral decision-making. There are rules of engagement.
On the other hand, we need the investments.
There is one question that begs to be asked…which other country in the world would have tolerated the current situation where such a mass firing took place?
Not the Jamaicans, not Trinidad.
I do believe that it will suit everyone if we can agree that there is enough for everyone…but we need a level playing field.
Oil is almost here. The Rusal, Lethem and Cuban shopping situations are tests to the authorities to ensure we have to get good deals for Guyana. Sitting on our hands and mere words will not solve the situation.

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