Berbice is a basket case.

Mar 18, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News- Unemployment is high in the Ancient County. Youth unemployment is worse. Jobs are scarce. School leavers have nowhere to turn. One in every three households is poor. One in every ten households rely on remittances.  The struggle is real. The opportunities are gone. The hope is fading. The young dream of leaving. The old reminisce about better days.

Businesses struggle. Large and foreign-owned stores have signalled the demise of many small shops and have cut deeply into the income of even established local businesses.   Many have shut their doors or operate at a loss.

Berbice is a bustling with electric bikes – an easy means of transport for the poor.  But Berbice remains in the shadow. Migration is massive. Region 6’s population has fallen by 20% since the PPPC took power in 1992. Families have left. Homes are abandoned. A lot of new buildings belong to overseas-based Guyanese. Many homes are locked up by absentee owners. The school dropout rate is extremely high.

Villages are shrinking. Persons are leaving in search of betterment. A visa is a passport to a better life.

The people feel the weight of neglect. The region cries out for relief. But the cries fall on deaf ears. The politicians will come with their tales of how well the country is doing. But Berbice is experiencing only despair.

Sugar was once the backbone. It is now a broken industry. The factories are old. The workers are few. The trucks that pick them up each morning are not overladen as they once were with workers. The production is low. The costs are high. The debts are mounting. The industry is struggling. The future is bleak. On wobbly legs. Fighting to stay alive. But the count has begun. And it is unlikely to beat the referee’s ten.

But the government will tell a different take. They promise that sugar will get better. They have been promising that a long time. But sugar will not get better; it is dying a slow death.

Rice holds Berbice together. Barely. But it is not enough. The large farmers thrive. They dominate production. They take the hog’s share. The small farmers struggle. Those with less than 40 acres fight to survive. The cost of fertilizers is high. The cost of fuel is high. The cost of land preparation is high. Profits are low. Debts are high. The government promises relief. The small farmers see little change. The struggle continues. The pressure mounts.

The fishing industry is collapsing. The catch is low. The expenses are high. The profit margins are thin. Economic hardship crushes the fisherfolk.  Boats return half-empty. Some do not return at all. And if the economy does not sink them, piracy will. The waters are unsafe. The pirates are ruthless. Fishermen risk their lives. The response to crime at sea is slow. Fisherfolk are afraid. The industry is dying.

The PPPC pretends to care. They will go to Berbice this weekend. They will summon the faithful. They will invoke Cheddi Jagan’s name. They always do when they are desperate.  They will make big speeches. They will make big promises. They will talk about what they are doing – building training schools for Berbicians. But how many students in Berbice have the required subjects for entry. The government is building white elephants. Like the one that was built at Skeldon and took down the sugar industry with it.

The leaders will talk about progress. They will talk about development. They will cuss out the critics.  They will say all is well. They will ask for loyalty. They will ask for votes. They will pretend to listen. They will pretend to care.

It is their old playbook. It is a tired script. It is a recycled lie.

But the people are not fooled. They know the truth. They know their struggles. They know their pain. And they know who is to blame. They know the PPPC has failed them. They know the PPPC is out of touch. They know the PPPC protects the rich. They know the PPPC ignores the poor. But they will still turn up to wave their flags and cheer on the leaders of the PPPC. This is both the irony and the tragedy of the poor. Like a moth they go willingly to the light.

Cheddi was once their shining star. But the PPPC of today is not the PPPC of Cheddi Jagan. It has changed. It has abandoned the poor. It has embraced the rich. The rich now reap maximum benefits. They throw crumbs to the masses. The gap widens. The inequality grows. The frustration builds. The resentment is real.

The people see it. The people feel it. The people live it.

The young are leaving. The old are suffering. The Berbice economy is limping along. Crime is rising. The streets are unsafe. The police are struggling. The government is blind. The promises are empty.

Berbice is bleeding. The PPPC is watching. And doing nothing.

(Berbice is a basket case.)

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

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• Ancient County, Berbice, fertilizers, Peeping Tom, villages

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