Change eating habits

Aug 27, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Pres. Ali means well. I wonder, though, whether he is serious. Or, if he takes himself seriously. I put it gently. He should listen to himself. The parts of his speeches that are not AI influenced. (Follow-up planned). Change eating habits. Well-intended. But, Swiss cheese.

First, there must be a range of food options before people can change their eating habits. They have choices. Food options found affordable, in the basket. Bitter reality for a third to a half of Guyana (maybe) is that they don’t have enough to eat. If there isn’t enough, what is there to change? When Guyanese are down to the bone, what opening for changing their eating habits? When there’s a scramble to put together a simple meal, changing eating habits, for better or worse, is a luxury that eludes. The focus is on quantity, not quality. Quality is also costly. It’s about bulkage and less about roughage. Nutrition would be nice to have, but the emphasis is on avoiding starvation. Does a man lost in the jungle, or adrift on the ocean, get picky and choosy? Whither that luxury? Especially when the only food around is the dead body of a past companion. The president and his people disagree with me on plenty; I don’t think they can disagree on this point.

Second, Pres Ali took aim at ‘eating out.’ Sure, it’s expensive. But if the masses don’t treat themselves, now and then, make the sacrifice, then how do investors flocking here recoup their cash? Guyana has been marketed as business friendly. Why transform Guyana, the culinary and hospitality part, to being bad for business? There’s a contradiction there. I seek pardoned for tabling. Some Guyanese use alcohol (other stuff) to numb their senses, relieve the pain of living in Guyana. Others seek a bite to make them forget how hard it is in this luscious, fabulous, oil rich frontier that has the whole world drooling. While the whole world drools, it takes a hard man to shove locals away from what gives them some temporary ease. See the children smile.

Instead of a Tylenol, poor Guyanese address their migraine and stomach pangs with a Taco or burrito, a burger or pizza. I’m not talking about Japanese sushi, beluga caviar, or Hungarian goulash for Guyanese who struggle to get enough to eat. Me, I am a roti and curry man, a peas and rice man. So, it’s perplexing that the president (who should know better) suddenly is the new voice for a change in local eating habits. I doubt that anyone could have imagined that presidential call in an oil rich country. Here a billion is gone through by the PPP Government as if it’s a bottle of rum guzzled down, then to the next? Meanwhile, poorer Guyanese, chronically short of funds and food, are counselled to change how they eat.

Third, it’s unlikely that Guyanese minimum wage workers, or local pensioners, or lower tier public servants even think of shopping at the high-end supermarkets. Their minds may wander and settle on the wonders in those high-end and high-priced shops. Reality check: when prices at municipal markets embarrass them, chase them home, what interest can they have about partaking of expensive goodies in supermarkets?

Fourth, the president and the PPP hierarchy are forever celebrating some new commercial arrival, some splendid ribbon cutting, some promising sod turning. Now, there is this development that amounts to: Beware of Supermarkets. Bypass those megastores. The Chinese put Guyanese corner shops out of business. Remaining options, anyone? What about those investors who plunked down their millions in the calculation that Guyanese sample their goods? I hope that local entrepreneurs (supermarkets) aren’t included.

In reading what Pres Ali said, I recall that local beauty. Belly full maan tell hungry belly maan -bare yuh chafe, bruddah. Ting gun be bettah. The mystery: change when there’s nothing. Painful to observe a national leader disintegrate publicly. Embarrassing to absorb such utterances. Apparently, he neither cares nor is aware.

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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