Loyal Peeping Tom fan differs with Tom

May 29, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

As I read your Peeping Tom column recently, I wondered how old you were and whether you were around before Independence to see how beautiful and prosperous Guyana was back then, even if we were exploited by our Colonial masters.
To blame our poverty on exploitation is incorrect and unfair. Prior to Independence, we had a prosperous and safe country comparable to the best in the Caribbean. We were gainfully employed, and life was pleasant. Guyana was a safe place to live and even if our parents did not know how to read and write, they made sure we could and knew that education was the path to success. The people who were fighting for Independence fooled us into thinking our future was brighter with them in charge. They knew nothing about running a country or how to make it prosperous. They embraced socialism as if it was the best thing since “slice bread” and it led to the downfall of Guyana’s economy and standard of living. It resulted in food shortages and hardship. In short, nothing good came of their dreams of an Independent nation. It only brought out the hatreds between races, which is more evident than ever today.
Fifty-five years of Independence did not bring prosperity. Instead, the quest for power brought dictatorship, incompetence, nationalisation, marginalisation, food shortages and shortages of every kind, attacks on the press and free speech, assassination of political opposition, oppression, election rigging, racial division and crime. All of which combined to force a mass exodus of skills, brains and talent to foreign shores.
Our great leader Forbes Burnham was too power drunk to know and understand that he and his regime were incapable of running a country and maintaining its growth and prosperity at which our Colonial masters were adept.
The children were in charge of the candy store. They danced, pranced and stuffed themselves without even knowing the harm, which they were causing. They did not know how to produce the candy or how to manage the store. When the candy was finished, the business went bankrupt. It will now take as many years to undo the damage as it took them to do them. Guyanese need to understand that “Rome was not built in a day”. Glenn Lall is wrong to think Guyanese can all live “high off the hog” because of our natural resources. Even in the most resource rich and developed countries, people have to work to make a living and provide for their loved ones. There are no free rides. This idea of putting feet up and waiting for the “Royalties” to roll in so you can sip Whisky and relax in the shade will result in a drunk and lazy society marked for extinction. This is the reason why we are still poor after 55 years of incompetence.

Loyal Peeping Tom fan

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