Our children will be left with wasteland while others build castles in Asia
Dear Editor,
Please refer to full page advertisement¯Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development Inc. Creating Jobs, Contributing to the Economy, in your newspaper issue of August 21, 2014.
We wish to make only four points, on the contents of that advertisement:
First, it is interesting that only now we are being told by Bai Shan Lin and the authorities of the great things Bai Shan Lin has planned for Guyana. But even as they tell us about plans to employ Guyanese, the question is will the percentage of total employees be the same as it is today¯20% local and 80% Asians or as in the case of the Marriott 100% Chinese? Really, we need to know because we, too, have plans.
Second, what will we say to our children when they are adversely affected by irresponsible logging practices?
Sadly, while some will build castles in Asia and elsewhere, our children will be left with swamps and waste lands occupied by reptiles and the spread of various diseases for hundreds of miles.Let us remember that, we are ethically obliged to respect the rights of future generations.
We have said in an earlier correspondence that, we are not expected to be curatorsofour natural assets but we are the custodians of their value. Exporting raw logs without any value added operations is depleting our natural resources. Where is the value?
We have a very serious responsibility not to allow multinationals and locals to plunder our natural resources; we do not own them in the way we own created assets.
Finally, on that advertisement, there is an old saying–too little too late. We need to know which agency has given these magnificent concessions without earlier informing the Guyanese people and their leaders.
If we destroy our natural environment and continue to plunder our natural assets then there will be no future for Guyanese, and even Baishanlin with its glorious plans would not survive.
We, all, need to pay very careful attention to the way our environment and our national natural assets are being plundered and take steps to stop it now.
Royston King
Executive Director
Environmental Community Health Organization
