H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Pension book distribution: Reasonable, then rough and rougher

Nov 10, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – All things normal, this should be the final sharing on this year’s Old Age Pension Book distribution exercise.  Today, I share the encouraging, the worrying, and the baffling.

One citizen went on Friday to the GPO building to collect his 2024 book, and he was done in 10 minutes.  Two others went to the Bourda Post Office on Monday, and they were out of there in less than 15 minutes.  I visited the Cummingsburg Post Office, and it was over in 18 minutes flat.  This is too rich for the blood, even better than the private sector, I should think.  It is the way it should be.  The officials of the Ministry of Social Protection are commended from the minister on down, especially those who have to face cranky, spunky, and shaky ‘old people.’  Excuse me, senior citizens.  Senior means the head of the class, the foremost in considerations; as heard and experienced, the Ministry of Social Protection did display its human services side.  Thanks, and wishes for even more enhancements to this year’s process.

For there came reports of other places of distribution, and the retreat of those who said to themselves that it is better to leave for another day, as in early January.  The East La Penitence Post Office is a case in point of confusion, and less than good feelings by seniors.  Not to worry, for the official word is that Phase II of the distribution process will follow from this Wednesday for two days on the tarmac of the National Cultural Center.  There is the comfort of space; tents should keep the sun at bay, and the relentless heat pushing everyone to keep moving.

Certainly, the Ministry of Social Protection finally moved to the media with several center pages of announcements about catchments and collections centers.  This is helpful, but a little behind the clock, I should say.  Perhaps, the idea was to lessen the crowds of seniors -by not informing the public about actual book distribution happening since last week. So, when the announcement came about where to go and when, the numbers of pensioners lining up to collect their books would be reasonably smaller.  Whatever the thinking, the delayed media announcements did have its ray of light: distribution/collection is stretched to three days in the bigger and more congested areas.  Notwithstanding my smooth experience, this qualifies as a cluster bomb, which had some running here and there, and then for shelter.  I suggest the Hon. Minister, Dr. Vindya has no immunity in this snafu; she must be included in any identification parade.

When it is old people-aka geriatrics, senior citizens, last year’s legends, has-beens, and the over-the-hill gang-being discussed and jostled like this, it’s an arduous undertaking of Homeric proportions. I saw some who were bent at an almost 45-degree angle, those with walkers, those with apparel that has seen better days.  In sum, it is those who I conclude count the days and hours to the first of every month to exchange that pension voucher for $33,000 Guyana, which prompts venturing elsewhere.This$33,000 payout has worried before, worries today, worries with thoughts of $7,000 (total) in increases for the next two years.  When first read, typos came to mind: a missing digit.  Or a quartet of missing letters, such as t-e-e-n, meaning seventeen and not seven.  This is not politics (like some of the holy say about me in the Roman Catholic Church), this is economics.  This is of the God in whom my fellow Guyanese profess belief.  I remind believers and nonbelievers that this was/is a divine presence that loved lepers, lifted up the lost and losers in society, lent a hand to the despised (Samaritans), and racial minorities (Israelites).  I retreat from full proclamation thunder.

This is not about mystics; it is of civics; this is the panic that infests from depending solely on the monthly pittance of $33,000 in the richest country in the world.  If we cannot afford more today, care more soon, then when can we?  Senior citizens are hobbling around, and lining up humbly in the heat for their share of the national patrimony, while the one-percent people are racing around in their air-conditioned Mercedes and BMWs, gobbling up everything in sight.

There may be a Rolls Royce around, but I missed it. This is what is baffling.  I refer to no one by name or title.  All I say is that the money is here: GY$156 billion (repeat billion) has been withdrawn so far for this 2023 from the Oil Fund, and Guyanese elderly who lived the bad times and the hard times experience nothing better in the new times.  When a succeeding generation comes into good times, then the first thought is how to make surviving forebears right by extending a slice of the wealth to them.  It is human.  It is giving something to those who gave so much when there was so little. A healthy bump in their pension would have been constructive, compassionate. The way I see this is simple: pension may have some connection to elections come 2025.  Sorry to break my word about suppressing politics in this offering, this prayer. No wonder the people in de chuch suh shaky. The Pharisee is me.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• cranky, Cummingsburg Post Office, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Ministry of Social Protection, spunky

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