Those in power seem to be in support of sugar industry’s destruction

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,
What manner of people are we, to see the suffocation of our Guyanese brothers and sisters in the sugar industry as some of our writers and politicians exhale hot air in the form of words like praxis, uneconomical, impractical; and wax philosophical theorems while entire villages, communities and regions are economically choking — symbolically, metaphorically, and literally — with the unjust termination of sugar workers.
Two terminated sugar workers have suffocated themselves so far, evidently collapsing under the weight of poverty, enabled by quote/unquote kith and kin, be it a Smith or a Singh in Guyanese parlance. How many more lives must be lost? How much more suffering must be endured by those whose livelihoods depend on the operations of the sugar industry before our Government acts in a righteous manner.
While the sufferation continues, our Government has set aside US$18 million in a “funds account” for some logically inexplicable and indefensible reason, while two terminated sugar workers commit suicide due to absence of funds.
Guyana — with billions of barrels of oil reserves, and recording the largest oil find in the last decade — has leadership that has seemingly opted for the destruction of villages and communities in the sugar industry under the rubric of the sugar industry not being economically viable, instead of leveraging our assets and considering the plight of the sugar workers.
It is unfortunate that the administration does not think it fit and proper to be our brothers’ keeper and to create solidarity from our economic good fortune.
A good parent does not neglect one child and favour another because each child has a different father, or because one child seems to be a better economic investment at a particular moment in time. Maybe Guyana’s seemingly new parent company, ExxonMobil Corporation, will show the heart needed to save the sugar industry by allowing for a fair Production Sharing Agreement.
Guyana is on the verge of quadrupling its economic value twice over and then some; yet, this politically racist, callous and calculating policy to terminate sugar workers, destroy the sugar industry and the kith and kin in the communities seems to have the full support of those in power.

Regards,
Nigel Hinds

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