Manna does not fall from heaven anymore.

Jan 05, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

I am appalled at the consternation shown by one Mike McCormack for the newly elected president of GGDMA, Andron Alphonso’s opening speech, in which Mr Alphonso outlined the direction he intended to take the Association. McCormack’s letter in KN, January 3rd,” GGDMA’s power- drunk election strategy”, to which he affixed the phrase, ” policy forum Guyana” after his signature, seems to suggest that Mr. McCormack works for the Govt in the area of policy formation. In this regard, McCormack taking umbrage to Andron’s assertion that,” We are the swing vote” (the local mining fraternity) and his commitment to fight, ” tooth and nail”-”
to protect the future of the industry against policies that will be detrimental to, or result in the ‘desolation’ of the industry” is understood as the irking factor that inspires McCormack’s caption – “GGDMA’s power – drunk election strategy”. While Mr. Alphonso did not identify where exactly he intended to channel his assumed 100,000 strong “swing vote”, McCormack did not attempt to openly lead Alphonso in any definitive direction in the coming national elections. Instead McCormack delved into a charade to depict the local mining industry representative body GGDMA, which is now under the auspice of Mr. Alphonso, of causing holocaustic damage to the environment through mining, in an attempt to dissuade the youths in the mining fraternity and the country as a whole from hearkening to the call of Alphonso.
“We need the next generation to step up”. McCormack’s letter, though clouded, is somewhat indicative the he interpreted the call to the youths “to step up” as a call to change the order in policy through governmental change – hence his charade about, “environmental desolation”, “depletion of assets” and “looting” of resources, to inspire the youths to think otherwise.
It is no secret that the present Govt through the policy has created a huge deterrent to mining and also the leaders of the Govt has failed miserably to offer any semblance of the much touted “good life”, to the youths of the Country in general. These two well acceptable facts give McCormack’s letter a hidden agenda.
As a person involved in policy forum, McCormack should be aware that every product that our eyes behold was either cultivated, harvested, mined from the earth’s crust or manufactured and that ” manna” does not fall from heaven anymore. We have no choice except to live off our environment in a friendly way. There are environmental policies to dictate that and last time I checked, not even one percent of our landscape was degraded by mining.
McCormack closed his eyes to the big picture – the contribution provided by the local mining industry to the state in the form of taxes and the creation of jobs and revenues for a conservative 30 percent of the population in the absence of manna from heaven. Take away the 40 years of looting that he alluded the mining industry to be in, the production and gross revenues he cited in his letter and McCormack may still fail to envision the abject poverty that would have pervaded Guyana in the absence of local mining.
It is conflict of interest for McCormack to compare the social delivery of the local mining industry to the sugar industry when the sugar industry was and is surviving on state subsidy from the treasury – knowing that the mining industry is a contributor to the treasury? McCormack is definitely out of touch with reality.
Rudolph Singh

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