Barrels, boxes, and bills

Dec 29, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News- The flow of barrels, boxes, and bills are in full swing.  To get every Guyanese in the right frame of mind, those have little to do with Exxon and the skyrocketing oil sector.  Those three bs are coming here and they are for Guyanese.  An economist, a mathematician, or even a dockworker may, through the application of common sense, be pardoned for thinking that the barrels, boxes, and bills were going the other way, when consideration is given to where Guyanese are today.  They are arriving right here along the congested waterfront by the Demerara shoreline, and they are for Guyanese, just like me and whoever else.  To set the record straight, any barrels that come to me is out of pocket at this curve of the Atlantic.

Now for the questions.  First, whenever Guyana and Guyanese are mentioned, the superlatives dazzle, the statistics from another planet.  So, why are barrels and boxes and bills still coming in a steady cascade into this country?  Guyanese are sitting on an ocean of oil, and a great patriotic government, so why these economic props from Uncle Sam and the Maple Leaf Guyanese diaspora?  What is the missing link here?  I refuse to speak at this time of the year about mismanagement and malfeasance, or similar such madness.  I mean, despite all this oil, the ordinary citizen in Guyana is living in a ‘deh baad’ state.  No way that that can be.  Well, for the scoffers, I am about to provide a guided tour free of charge along the wharf.

There is Laparkan Trading.  There is a mindboggling array of shippers and custom brokers and assorted helpers to get those precious containers with their even more precious cargo on a minibus.  Take a detour and drop by Lombard and Broad streets and the bustle of people and cargo traffic tells its own story.  Family looking out for family.  Inflation is a big brute of a dog in the US, but Guyanese can still think about us.  Indeed, blood is thicker than oil, and stretches longer also.  All the way from Richmond Hill and the Kings Highway corridor.  This is a sweet story of caring.  It is also a sad one of callous government and leaders soaked through and through with depraved indifference.  Did somebody say $100,000?

The Guyanese American senders, who have to squeeze for a barrel, try their hand with a box.  It is the depth of the thought, and not the size of it.  And for those who find a small to medium-sized box a strain on the sensitive and already under pressure respiratory system, there is what I call those bills.  The World Bank experts are in their element when they term those remittances.  Indeed, lots of Guyanese are heading in a northerly direction, which is offset by that old reliable standby, a small bill for a hundred or two.  Aw shucks, this cannot be happening, except that it is.  No official numbers have been released recently about how much money has come here, but they are not inconsiderable.  Guyanese are among the richest stiffs and swells in the world, but they are also top of the line beneficiaries of a couple of hundred US (even one) landing in their hands.  Somehow, with me it is the regular story: missed that bus, too.

In recent times, there is a new character flitting his way in and around Guyana.  The name of this brother is hamper, as in clothes hamper, food hamper, feel good hamper, with a lil medicine stuck inside of them for good measure.  It is a wonderful complement to the smaller, less opulent packages quietly put together here.  It is rough out there in the wildernesses of Guyana, so it is any port for a storm.  Any hamper-any weight, any size, any legit content – is readily welcomed by Guyanese wherever they may be: Demerara, Berbice, Essequibo.  Hundreds of them have gone into the hands of beaten down and down on their luck Guyanese.  To calm everyone, I introduce some politics into the economics.  Many hampers have been shared, but many are still running rackets with cost-of-living stats and realities.  Because some of those sharing either deny cost-of-living anguish outright or water down as much as they can.  The distribution of dozens and hundreds of hampers is a very thoughtful and compassionate thing.  But here in Guyana of all places?

Guyana is not Haiti.  Sometimes, though, when I listen to the verbal violence of the hostiles in charge, I rethink.  Trapping themselves in an oil web is one reason.  The oil should have enhanced leadership wisdoms.  Despite that commanding oil document, there is still enough of something for every Guyanese to get a rightful share of their inheritance.  It hasn’t been that way with the vulgarity of the oil enriched and the perversity of big local oil people towards the poor and left-out-in-the-rain Guyanese.  Hence, the flood of barrels, boxes (hampers) and bills (remittances) throughout the year and running over in this season of joy.  There is neither talking about these, nor much writing about them.  Upsets tranquillity and environment.  Because I am infidel, heathen, and pagan in one, I do.  The interested are asked to dial 1-800-Lall for more details.

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

(Barrels, boxes, and bills)

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• barrels, boxes, congested waterfront, Guyanese, hard truths

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