Very little to cheer about

As we approach the end of the year, we will first encounter Christmas – typically characterised by cheer and goodwill. Unfortunately, for most Guyanese, there will be very little to cheer about this year. Being Guyanese, “the show will go on”, but it will be just that – a show that will simply serve to highlight the lives of quiet desperation our people experience on a quotidian basis.
The country’s traditional mainstay for centuries, and indeed the raison d’etre for the existence of the country, has been the sugar industry and the employees in this sector have been hit particularly hard. Last year, 1700 workers at Wales Estate on the West Bank of Demerara, were informed via a report in this newspaper they would be losing their jobs by that Christmas. This Christmas, another 4000 at least, have also been abruptly been terminated. It is very difficult to talk about “cheer”, much less display it, when persons who survive on weekly wages are plunged into destitution.
Those 5700 now jobless workers, would have supported at least an average of four persons: meaning at least 22,800 men, women and children are now destitute, since the economy has been shrinking and there are no significant new employment opportunities. The businesses in the sugar belt are now on the ropes and many have closed their doors. The revised growth rate of 2.9 per cent for 2017 touted by the Finance Minister in his budget presentation earlier this month, is a mockery to the citizens of Guyana, who know only gold production has increased but most of those revenues end up overseas since the growth generated is dominated by foreign-owned mining operations.
The forestry sector, which provided critical employment in the interior regions, has been particularly hard hit – with the major player Barama relinquishing its 1.6 million hectare concession in Region One (Barima-Waini) and letting go of 800 workers. While the company has claimed it will continue to manufacture plywood, there is a shortage in the country and prices have shot skywards in the past year. Imported pine plywood has been filling the gap and there needs to be an inquiry on the local production and its impact on employment.
The rice industry, as is its wont, has continued to cultivate its crop but while production has increased marginally, the profit margin has been drastically slashed since the Government conceded without a fight, the lucrative Venezuelan market. Spending by the rice farmers’ families have also been commensurately curtailed, as they tighten their belts in anticipation of a bleak future.
Business as a whole, has consequently been lacklustre even in the weeks before Christmas – when most businesses traditionally racked up more than 20 per cent of their annual revenues. As a consequence, these businesses have cut back radically on the bonuses that were usually awarded to employees at this time and which contributed to the “cheer” and expressions of bonhomie. Even the Christmas parties at these firms have been curtailed because of the downturn.
The Budget presentation in the National Assembly was another source of angst in this Christmas season for the average Guyanese, who despair at the autocratic mode of governance by the APNU/AFC coalition Government exacerbated by their insistence on playing partisan party politics. The budget – the “largest ever” at G$267 billion – was bereft of initiatives that would have generated jobs to soak up the growing unemployment and put some money into the pockets of the citizens of Guyana.
The increase of “Old Age pensions” by G$500 – while their re-imposed electricity charges of at least 10 times that amount was retained – epitomised the Government’s indifference to its most vulnerable demographic; one that has sacrificed so much for their country. Not much for them to cheer about.
The President, addressing a gathering of Christian church leaders reminded them of the seminal reformation initiated by Martin Luther exactly 500 years ago.
Maybe a local priest should nail a Guyanese “95 Theses” on the gate of the Green House.