A troubling question

Aug 05, 2023 Peeping Tom

---

Peeping tom…

Kaieteur News – Eight years since the announcement of the discovery of oil and four years since the start of oil production, the average Guyanese is still to experience the benefits of the discovery and production.  Instead, Guyanese have been experiencing an illusion, a mirage in a desert of want and neglect?

The ones who are benefiting from the oil sector are the affluent and the corporations that are setting up-shop in the country. For the average individual, his or her life has not changed for the better. Instead of improved standards of living and quality government services, the average individual has to grapple with subpar healthcare, a beleaguered education system and soaring cost of living.

Admittedly, there have been improvements in public and community roads. But the influx of heavy-duty vehicles have created more chaos than order and have made commuting extremely stressful especially along the country’s main thoroughfares and in the city.

This divergence begs a fundamental question: Who is truly reaping the rewards of Guyana’s oil economy? Guyana is full of political and economic analysis but almost all of them frown on conducting class analyses of government’s policies. But such analyses can demonstrate just who gains and who loses in such an economy.

Instead of improved public services and infrastructure, and a better quality of life for all, what has transpired thus far paints a disconcertingly different picture, one that presents an illusion of progress with superficial indicators being used to conceal the underlying income disparities that persist.

The influx of wealthy foreign corporations may indeed signal a flourishing economy, but the question remains: at whose expense? As the rich establish businesses and cement their influence, the masses are left grappling with crumbling healthcare and education systems, grappling with the same challenges that existed prior to the oil boom.

Despite the inflows of oil revenue, Guyana’s hospitals remain under-equipped and under-staffed, leaving citizens vulnerable to medical uncertainties.  A thriving economy should translate into improved access to quality healthcare, yet Guyana’s citizens continue to suffer due to a substandard public health system.

At his last Press Conference, the President waxed lyrical improvements in child and maternal mortality. His advisors ought to have cautioned him that for such deaths, comparative health data needs to cover a period of more than a few years. All it will take is – God forbid – a few infant and maternal deaths – for those favourable numbers he quoted to be turned upside down.

A few days after the President had painted a rosy picture of health outcomes, the Stabroek News reported the country’s health authorities as claiming that 74% of all deaths in the country were caused by non-communicable diseases (and therefore preventable) and that one-third of these were premature.

It was also reported that an estimated 60,000 persons or 8% of the population are believed to be diabetic. While this is about 2% lower than the global average, this relatively high incidence will place a strain on healthcare costs.

Education has long been in a crisis. Half of our students fail the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations and half of our school leavers do not have the required qualifications to gain an entry-level job in the public service.

The government likes to point to the construction boom as a sign of progress. But while these projects create an illusion of development, the main benefits accrue to the construction class and do not filter down to the masses. Commuters are left fuming about the long hours they face in daily traffic jams.  In addition, the heavy-duty vehicles using our roads are contributing to the spike in road accidents and road fatalities, making the use of our roads a high-risk activity.

The high-rise structures which are reshaping the country’s skylines are not owned by ordinary citizens. The poor in fact are being saddled with high cost of basic construction materials such as sand, stone and steel, which is making home construction unaffordable to almost impossible.

The core promise of the oil boom was that it would lead to a redistribution of wealth that would elevate the lives of every citizen. However, the reality has been a far cry from this utopian vision. The spiraling cost of living has left consumers grappling with financial distress, their daily expenses rising faster than their wages. Inflationary pressures have eroded the purchasing power of the average Guyanese, rendering the purported benefits of the oil economy largely intangible. And while the government points to increased disposable income, they cannot establish a case that this increase offsets the effects of inflation.

In the meantime, the widening chasm between the rich and the poor, between the upper class and the middle class and between the middle class and the poor, disabuses the idea that the country’s transformation is reducing income inequality.  While the rich amass greater wealth and are cushy with the political elite, the average citizen struggles to make ends meet.

This raises a troubling question: Was life better before the oil boom?

 

---

---