Indian nationals have made not an iota of improvement at Skeldon Estate

Dear Editor,

I am a sugar worker attach to Skeldon Estate and note with interest our Excellency, President Donald Ramotar, on his recent visit to Cuba requesting the Cuban government to assist with our ailing sugar industry, and on his current trip to India, as reported in your January 11th edition, requesting the Indian Government to provide similar assistance. The Indian Prime Minister is quoted, in a previous edition, as being amenable to the request, to the extent that he has asked our President to visit a sugar mill in Gujrat, which he did, and according to the Times of India “Ramotar flew in to the Valsad Sugar Factory on an Indian Air Force chopper where he was “impressed with the functioning of the sugar factory and praised the state-of-the-art technology” used to crush the sugarcane in order to make the crystals”. Editor, I don’t know if our President is aware that at Skeldon there are several Indian nationals working on the estate in the field and factory for a considerable time, and their contribution so far is negligible. Their presence has not added an iota of improvement in the functioning of the field and factory. Several months ago, the Factory Manager from Enmore Estate, an Indian national, was transferred to Skeldon Factory as Factory Manager, with lots of publicity on the estate that the gentleman will make a big difference with his presence. Lo and behold, he was sent back to Enmore because of poor performance. Is it a case therefore that the Indians who are at Skeldon now are the wrong Indians that were sourced from India? Editor, the problem at Skeldon, as with all other estates, is the growing of canes in quality and quantity to meet the needs of each factory. Unless this issue is properly addressed, our President could bring the whole world to GuySuCo and it would just be a waste of scarce money. The other issue with bringing in Cuban and Indian experts is what will be paid to them and what will become of the many local managers? By requesting these foreign experts, has the President lost confidence in the local managers? Most of these local managers worked with Booker Tate when production soared from the lowest in history of 129,000 in 1990 to more than 300,000 tonnes in 2004. I am sure Booker Tate must have left behind a file on the best approach in managing the sugar company to take it from all-time low of 129,000 to 300,000 tonnes sugar. Editor, permit me to comment on the comment by Region Six Chairman, David Armogan, which was carried in your January 10th edition captioned “Embattled estate manager was spoken to about behaviour, says Armogan,” in reference to the Skeldon Estate Manager’s not so “worthwhile behaviour”, who stated that the “errant manager” was spoken to by “Region Six Administration as well as officials of the Central Government”. As an ordinary sugar worker, I have no problem with the manager being spoken to, if such intervention could help him, but I have a problem when ordinary sugar workers like me commit a fraction of the “not so worthwhile behaviour” and have to face serious disciplinary action. It would appear, according to Mr. Armogan, who seemed to have taken the lead in managing the manager’s problem, that senior management is “spoken to” about “errant and not so worthwhile behaviours”, but the ordinary workers have to face grave consequences for committing a fraction of the same “not so worthwhile behaviours”. This reminds me of George Orwell’s famous book Animal Farm that says “all men are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Estate Employee