Gilly, Hospitals in every Sugar Estates???

 Nehru, most sugar estate in Demerara had dispensary and hospital also an

ambulance to transport patients,that was British time bhai, after

independance and nationalisation every thing gone fuh channa.

Mr. Django soon the Chinese will own the sugar estates in Guyana, Every single one of them. Save this post where I am telling you this here and now.

I believe this is true for all the sugar estates. Though Bookers did not pay an attractive wage, the benefits were good. They cleaned the drains, sprayed for mosquitoes and roaches, provide loans for sugar workers to build a home, etc. However, where ever the British went and left, they left a problem.

Mr. HM,

Let's not derail some of these discussions with the Chinese pillaging of Guyana. Most of us on this board do agree that the Chinese scorched policy in Guyana is despicable and shameful.

What we need to do is to convey our disgust to the GoG. We here need to let our voices be heard.

  That is pure nonsense.  There was much ill health in Guyana and the population only grew because of the importation of indentures and immigration from the Caribbean.

Conditions in British Guiana were abominable.  That piece of garbage was written by a colonial apologist.  Dispensing medications isn't health care.

What progress existed was after WWII when riots all over the English speaking Caribbean, the Moyne Report and the growth of the trade union movement forced the British gov't to address the abominable situation.

PPP importing a new set of indentured laborers now from China and India thanks to Bai Shan Lin and Coffee Day company of India otherwise know as VHPI.

I don't doubt Henry Kirke, Nehru.

This is what I know personally: I grew up at Uitvlugt. My father worked at the sugar factory. Opposite the factory is the dispensary staffed by a dispenser/pharmacist and at least two nurses. My parents told me that behind that small dispensary was a hospital with beds up to 1953.

One of my sisters got typhoid in 1963. There was a large hospital at the neighbouring Leonora sugar estate. My sister was hospitalized there. I visited her. Male patients occupied one floor, females another floor. Downstairs was the dispensary. Three storeys.

Carib, what you're saying is true.

Henry Kirke wrote about the time he worked in Guyana, that is, from 1872 to 1897. During that period, there were hospitals in all existing sugar plantations.

But, that doesn't mean the population enjoyed good health. At that time sanitary conditions were atrocious. Personal hygiene was minimal. There were deadly diseases which we don't hear of now in Guyana.

During that period, according to Kirke, lots of white men from Britain died like flies in Guyana from yellow fever. He witnessed many of those dying moments. Staying in a Georgetown hotel, he said the occupants in the rooms to his right and left both died within 24 hours from yellow fever.

Disease-carrying mosquitoes were legion, as was the lack of a sewage system in GT at that time. Heavy rains caused flooding which in turn caused deaths. The Georgetown Town Council decided to close canals on Main Street, Carmichael Street, Waterloo Street, Thomas Street and East Street among others and fill them up with earth. They used to be breeding grounds for diseases.

The point I'm making is that compared to today, there were more hospitals with beds in 1872-1897.

We must also note that with many hospitals and access to advanced medicine in Europe in the 19th century, deaths from sickness and diseases were aplenty there too. Life expectancy was low there at that time.

Jagan and Burnham were absolute failures

Yes after the growth of the trades union movement forced them to.

Please don't fall into the trap of pretending that no one before Cheddi and Burnham agitated for change.

The conditions in the logies on the estates prior to WWII were a DISGRACE.  Even as late as 1950 only 89% of Guyanese children survived one year after birth and the life expectancy rate as under 50.

Prior to WWII between malaria and assorted diseases because of the fact that villages were frequently flooded was a major health risk.

British Guiana was considered  a hardship post and colonial administrators based in Barbados, Trinidad and the Leeward Islands were threatened with being demoted to British Guiana.  As a result BG attracted a bunch of alcoholics and other problematic types.

Yes.  I hope that Indo Guyanese now understand why Afro Guyanese opposed indenture because what is now happening to Guyanese of all races is akin to what happened to blacks in the 1800s.

The powers that be desire a labor force who they can exploit and Chinese are fitting the bill.  This is why Chinese employers prefer them.  They know that Guyanese will sooner murder them than to accept the treatment that Chinese will. 

Caribny that is a stretch, what is happening here with Bai Shan Lin is in no way comparable to Indians coming to Guyana as indentured laborers. 

You are talking apples and oranges here my friend.

Like since Massa gone Indians turned to drinking to deal with this great emotional loss.

I see 70% Chinese workers on a job site near to an impoverished town with massive numbers of unemployed workers.

Don't see how that differs from when sugar planters brought in indentures when there were loads of potential employees, especially after the destroyed the Village system by the 1860s caused by preventing the former slaves from acquiring more lands, burdening them with heavy taxes, and flooding their lands.

A few things are different here, these workers are not indentured laborers there is no agreement for them to stay in Guyana. All of these workers as they get malaria etc they cycle them back to China.

Bookers paid taxes in Guyana it is important to note that.

BSL is not paying any taxes in Guyana. Indentured laborers were not taking away jobs from African slaves. African slaves were leaving the plantations en masse rightfully so. Big difference!

Let us bring the chinese into Guyana by the thousands.

That would be interesting.

Make all of them voters and give them Guyana passport.

APNU would have a Chinese PPP to deal with.

British planters brought in indentures to under mine the strikes of 1842 and 1848.  Why did the go on strike if they didn't want to work in the sugar industry.  Why did the planters go out of their way to ensure that the Village Movement failed if they didn't want these people to be dependent on employment in the sugar industry.

Here are some facts.

1.  In the 1840s the planters brought in indentures to undermine the demands of those who recently ceased to be slaves as the latter fought for better wages and working conditions.

2.  In the 1880s those former slaves were used as scab workers against the indentures when they too began to struggle for better wages and working conditions.  Indeed Bookers continued that practice as recently as  1964.

The Chinese are bringing in workers from China because they can be exploited, and it allows them to EXCLUDE Guyanese, who will protest for better wages and working conditions that the Chinese are willing to pay.

MY question to you is why is the PPP allowing Chinese to disrespect our labor laws and to reintroduce a brand of slavery into Guyana?

I am so glad that the PPP has wrapped itself around the Chinese because it will be more and more difficult for PPP supporters to vote for them.  Look at the Skeldon fiasco caused by the Chinese?

I am just waiting to see when Guyanese do to the Chinese what Jamaicans and Surinamers are doing.  It will be on the head of the PPP when that happens, because right now the PPP/Chinese cabal are defecating on Guyanese.

Any way no chance of that happening because if the Chinese become permanent residents they too will battle for better wages, defeating the whole reason for them being in Guyana.