VVP posted:

caribny posted:

I suggest to you that declining remittances has more to do with declining ties as parents die, children grow up, and many who benefit from this join their relatives overseas. In addition overseas Guyanese have the same financial challenges as do others living in North America so have less disposable cash to spare as they pay their mortgages, educate their kids and prepare for their retirement.

Remittance will decrease with a crackdown in drug trafficking and money laundering.  In theory the more people suffer in Guyana the higher the remittance should be and that is not happening.

Did you read what I wrote. People send money to those who they care about. Over time fewer people exist who they care about. For instance how many Guyanese who migrated to the UK still send money to Guyana? Few because those Guyanese left in the early 60s and so those ties are just about gone.

The problem with a remittance based economy is that it relies on personal ties. Parents die, kids grow up, relatives migrate and friends fall out. So if the people who live in Guyana have fewer ties to those who don't they will get less help.   I suspect that those who migrated in the 70s and 80s send way less back to Guyana than those who migrated later.

The additional fact is that the North American economy is changing and the areas where many Guyanese find themselves is becoming more challenging.  Many of the lower mid level service jobs that many Guyanese and other Caribbean people are employed are being outsourced or automated.  Just look at your average office and see how few support staff exist compared to 20 years ago.  They are just less able to help, especially as many grow tired of sacrificing for people who seem ungrateful and unwilling to help themselves.

The reality is that in NYC the growth points for jobs are at the upper levels and at the lower levels. We haven't succeeded in penetrating the upper levels in high numbers and we tend not to be in the lowest jobs because we speak English.   I have a suspicion that those Guyanese who have done best send less to Guyana because their relatives in Guyana are also doing well and don't need it.

Zed posted:

caribny posted:

ba$eman posted:

The gold mines coming on line were PPP initiated projects.  .!

In the midst of war mining companies operate in the DRC.  Sorry it isn't the PPP which can claim responsibility. Its the fact that God placed gold in a place called Guyana and companies came to exploit this resource as a result.

This is the most inane statement you have made. I thought that you are smarter than what you indicated in this post. The gold would have stayed in the ground if the right conditions did not exist for investment which led to mining.

How is it inane. In the DRC there is tremendous violence and yet there is massive involvement in mining.  Are you going to credit the various warlords which control some of the regions were these minerals are extracted? 

If people are willing to risk the dangers and instability of the DRC they will do Guyana which at no time in its history it was EVER as bad as that country.

caribny posted:

VVP posted:

caribny posted:

I suggest to you that declining remittances has more to do with declining ties as parents die, children grow up, and many who benefit from this join their relatives overseas. In addition overseas Guyanese have the same financial challenges as do others living in North America so have less disposable cash to spare as they pay their mortgages, educate their kids and prepare for their retirement.

Remittance will decrease with a crackdown in drug trafficking and money laundering.  In theory the more people suffer in Guyana the higher the remittance should be and that is not happening.

Did you read what I wrote. People send money to those who they care about. Over time fewer people exist who they care about. For instance how many Guyanese who migrated to the UK still send money to Guyana? Few because those Guyanese left in the early 60s and so those ties are just about gone.

The problem with a remittance based economy is that it relies on personal ties. Parents die, kids grow up, relatives migrate and friends fall out. So if the people who live in Guyana have fewer ties to those who don't they will get less help.   I suspect that those who migrated in the 70s and 80s send way less back to Guyana than those who migrated later.

The additional fact is that the North American economy is changing and the areas where many Guyanese find themselves is becoming more challenging.  Many of the lower mid level service jobs that many Guyanese and other Caribbean people are employed are being outsourced or automated.  Just look at your average office and see how few support staff exist compared to 20 years ago.  They are just less able to help, especially as many grow tired of sacrificing for people who seem ungrateful and unwilling to help themselves.

The reality is that in NYC the growth points for jobs are at the upper levels and at the lower levels. We haven't succeeded in penetrating the upper levels in high numbers and we tend not to be in the lowest jobs because we speak English.   I have a suspicion that those Guyanese who have done best send less to Guyana because their relatives in Guyana are also doing well and don't need it.

All I am saying is that the drop in remittance can be driven by a decrease in "illegal" remittance. 

More people have migrated in recent years so the pool to send back money is greater, which should argue for higher remittance.

Leonora posted:

D2, tense times. Waiting to see if Trump's plans for us are approved by Congress. Feels like the Titanic, and the musicians playing to keep us happy while we're going down. Maybe we can start up a business. 

That budget will not pass. The democrats would not let him cut NIH that way just to but it necessarily in a wall or in defence. The far right and left of the Republican party itself will not go along either. He will also have a hell of a time explaining that to Veterans since the Institute hosts Walter Reid. You guys are fine since only a tiny fraction of the money is allocated for collegial interaction and funding of foreign institutes doing research. We will have to survive by continuing resolutions.

VVP posted:

 

More people have migrated in recent years so the pool to send back money is greater, which should argue for higher remittance.

Fewer Guyanese have been migrating to North America in recent years as it is more difficult to get a green card.   In addition it is likely that many are more reluctant to sponsor having been burnt by those who they have previously helped.

The peak era of migration to the USA from Guyana was during the 80s and 90s. That is why after 2000 many Guyanese began showing up in Barbados and other Caribbean islands.

In addition it is much harder for recent immigrants with rents the way they are. Earlier cohorts had more left back after they paid their rent, many moving on to buy homes.

Drugb posted:

D2 posted:

VVP posted:

Gold is the only thing that is saving Guyana right now.  Not sure how the government can take claim for the boost in production.  However, Guyana only gets the royalty the bulk of the money is shipped overseas.  So even though the GDP might increase the money does not stay to develop Guyana.

Indeed so but to great environmental peril. I do not think Granger et al should contemplate expanding the mining leases to the Rupunini or the Irene as they may do to accommodate the complaint of miners who were kicked out of the Marudi mountains per the Australians establishing their claims by purchasing the rights from the Canadians. Most of those leases were block leases doled out to the PPP friends and family. BaiShanLin had some 105 claims! I think that has now been returned to the state.

Look ah rass hey,  in PPP time you were vocal against the miners, now you quietly condoning Granger's raping and destruction of the forest and robbery of Amerindian ancestral lands. Maybe you really are a white pretending to be buck.

Please, Native Guyanese. Last time I asked a gyal if she was buck turned out she was half. Needless to say, things soured after that.

GTAngler posted:

Drugb posted:

D2 posted:

VVP posted:

Gold is the only thing that is saving Guyana right now.  Not sure how the government can take claim for the boost in production.  However, Guyana only gets the royalty the bulk of the money is shipped overseas.  So even though the GDP might increase the money does not stay to develop Guyana.

Indeed so but to great environmental peril. I do not think Granger et al should contemplate expanding the mining leases to the Rupunini or the Irene as they may do to accommodate the complaint of miners who were kicked out of the Marudi mountains per the Australians establishing their claims by purchasing the rights from the Canadians. Most of those leases were block leases doled out to the PPP friends and family. BaiShanLin had some 105 claims! I think that has now been returned to the state.

Look ah rass hey,  in PPP time you were vocal against the miners, now you quietly condoning Granger's raping and destruction of the forest and robbery of Amerindian ancestral lands. Maybe you really are a white pretending to be buck.

Please, Native Guyanese. Last time I asked a gyal if she was buck turned out she was half. Needless to say, things soured after that.

One is how they self-identify and that is often based in the culture where they feel secure and where they can get the sense of being located in the world. One is never half whatever. That is apportioning genetic makeup not identity in a culture. One is always whole person embedded in a culture. One cannot live outside a culture.

D2 posted:

. One is always whole person embedded in a culture. One cannot live outside a culture.

20% of the population self identifies as "mixed".  All we can say is that they don't self identify with the ethnic categories in Guyana. This doesn't have to have any logic as Trotman identifies as mixed whereas Granger identifies as black. BOTH operate within an Afro Guyanese cultural context.  Most people in Guyana will consider Trotman to be black, but he, for reasons best known to himself, choses not to so identify.

I can also expect a valid biracial person to have a fluid identity based on what context they might happen to be.  The very fact that they self identify as mixed, or are perceived by most to be mixed gives them this fluidity.

Despite the screams of people like Prashad, cobra, yuji and others, there aren't hard and fast  impenetrable ethnic barriers in Guyana. We all live within a "creolized" cultural salad bowl, existing on some sort of cultural continuum, and picking up various elements as might suit our purposes, depending on context. 

I will suggest that a black person eating a roti or an Indian eating pepper pot don't think that they are engaging in an activity from outside of their cultural reference point.  This is not as if they went to a Brazilian restaurant, where most were speaking Portuguese..