CHEAPSKATE!

August 1, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source - Kaieteur News

Is the United States Embassy in Guyana serious? How far does it think US$7,600 worth of supplies is going to go to help clean up the city? How much is US$7,600 going to achieve? And what is US$7,600 to the richest country in the world? Is that the best that Uncle Sam can do?

I am sure that the last cocktail reception that was hosted by the US Embassy would have cost them more than that sum. That miserly sum of US$7,600 cannot even clear the block in which the embassy is located – and the embassy is located in one of the better kept areas of Guyana.

Those who are designated as the beneficiaries should refuse to accept the supplies. They should tell the US embassy to keep it to clean their embassy grounds, which I am sure costs more than US$7,000 per month to clean.

Guyana needs more like US$7M just to clean up the city. So while the US$34,000 in total grant funding may seem a lot, it is chicken feed compared to what is needed for Georgetown to shine.

The United States’ hands are tight when it comes to doling out monies to developing countries like Guyana. US development assistance to Guyana is negligible.

The US is only interested in funding things in which it has a direct interest. One such interest is in the prevention and reduction of AIDS. It has spent a few, only a few, millions of US dollars in Guyana on the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR). But it has done so not out of the goodness of its heart.

The containment of AIDS is a national security interest of the United States. The US is of the view that unless the spread of AIDS is contained outside of the United States, it will eventually cause the infection rate within the United States to increase dramatically, because of the large numbers of persons from outside of the US that visit the country annually.

It is far cheaper for the United States, under the pretext of humanitarian considerations, to give millions of US dollars to help contain AIDS outside of US borders rather than have to put stringent testing methods in place for persons visiting the United States. This is the basis for PEPFAR and other AIDS prevention and reduction initiatives.

But guess what? The main beneficiaries of PEPFAR are US companies that manufacture antiretroviral drugs which are used to combat the disease. Most of the money that was dedicated to PEPFAR went back to the drug companies in the United States. Under great pressure, PEPFAR was forced to utilize cheaper generic substitutes. This has since allowed for an expanded reach of the programme.   But that was after the US government had applied pressure on the South African government to not produce generic antiretroviral medicines that would have saved millions of lives.

In other words, the United States has used this epidemic to not only gain capital as a nation that helps other nations, but it has done so in a way to benefit its drug companies. Despite this, the results of PEPFAR can at best be described as mixed

PEPFAR has also been criticized for its emphasis on the ABC formula – abstinence, be faithful and use a condom. That model is seen as a Judeo-Christian response to the AIDS problems in countries that are diverse in their religious systems. And it is because of the stress on ABC, that PEPFAR has been criticized as having a bias towards channeling its assistance through faith-based organizations rather than through local authorities whom it is felt would be better suited to the task.

Guyana does not need American dollars. Even poor Burnham, whom the Americans used as their stooge, was denied funding by them. They gave him enough to keep Jagan at bay, but never sufficient to fully meet his own needs. That is how the Americans operate. It is always about their own interests which include the interests of their multinationals.

Guyanese NGOs should therefore be wary about taking monies or supplies from the United States. It is never given freely; there are always some strings attached. And the sums are so relatively small that they represent an insult. When Guyanese were under water for weeks and suffering during the terrible floods of 2005, how much money did the United States give?

The problem is that many of our NGOs have little choice but to accept funding from the United States. They are often forced to do so because the hands of the local private sector are more tightly clasped than the United States.

A few days ago, it was reported in the media that seventeen, yes seventeen local firms in Guyana made a donation to the University of Guyana.  The sum was some G$355,000 (yes Guyana dollars) to the University of Guyana as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Seventeen firms from Guyana’s rich commercial sector could only donate $355,000 dollars to an institution from which emanates most of the highly trained graduates the private sector depends on. And you think that the United States is cheap.

You see why NGOs in Guyana are forced to accept monies from Uncle Sam?