The harsh reality of life in Guyana

DEAR EDITOR,
The 2013 budget and what has happened since March 2013 has left much to be desired.  The PPP in their classic acts of financial illusion continue to compete with Charles Ponzi, one of the world’s most famous con artists, for notoriety.  But more and more the people are exposing them for who they really are – sheep in wolf clothing.

The PPP has done little, if any at all, to inspire confidence and fortify the nation with hope. The people are still in a wait-and-see mode as business and consumer confidence has eroded to its lowest level ever in the last ten years. The budget has been described, and rightly so, as a ‘starve your belly’ budget in an economic system that rewards the rich and penalizes the poor.
Things have deteriorated quite rapidly in a relatively short space of time on the sugar belt, in the bauxite belt, in the urban areas, but most unfortunately in the productive agriculture heartland of Guyana.
It is economic blows, left, right and centre for the poor and the working class.  Prices continue to rise but the PPP continues to share crumbs with their 5 per cent increase, thus contributing to a real reduction in the purchasing power of most consumers. This situation directly deteriorates the quality of life for the majority of people and they are much worse off today than they were 18 months ago when President Ramotar assumed office.
Just ask the next nurse, teacher, soldier, police constable, cane cutter, bauxite worker, office worker, Regent Street sales-girl or porkknocker you see in the street.  The answers will reveal that this letter is all about the truth.
We have heard the cries of the people as they implore the government to end their pettiness and put the people’s interest above the party’s interest. The people are begging the government to make tough decisions and implement the necessary game-changing reforms that will stimulate the economy and create jobs, but the PPP is full of indifferent members these days as we saw in Parliament when the people asked them to consider the Local Government Elections Bills.
To grasp the harsh reality of life facing most Guyanese we would like to introduce Nurse Griffith, a 26-year-old single mother. Like so many other nurses, if it was not for the “small freck” from Aunty Bridgette in New York, she could not afford to complete her studies since whatever she earns, cannot take care of her household.
Although she is now gainfully employed, she is immersed in immeasurable financial misery, as $20,000 of the modest $58,000 she takes home each month has to go toward rent.  She applied for a house lot three years ago and only got a letter of acknowledgement. Nurse Griffith, being the eldest of five children, has to also assist her mother, a former Special Constabulary Guard with the Guyana Police Force.
Nurse Griffith is also saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the utility bills and other modest daily expenses are met. GPL alone sucks $12,000 every month from her salary.  She is hoping Aunty Bridgette will send the school boots for her child since clearly, she is contemplating going to Food for the Poor and beg for one.
If one thought that Nurse Griffith has it bad, let us examine the case of Rudolph—a 43-year-old security guard employed at a reputable security company in Georgetown. He earns a measly $7,500 per week. Father of four, with a common-law wife who performs odd domestic jobs whenever she is able to find work, Rudolph incurs over $500 per day commuting to and from work. How Rudolph manages to survive only the Almighty knows. Like the rest of us, he has bills to pay, he has to put food on the table and he has to support his teenage children.
And finally, there is Annette—a 23-year-old university graduate—who, like so many others, pursued a business degree (a big mistake in Guyana), an area of study where the availability of jobs pale in comparison to the overwhelming demand of jobs in the technical fields.
So regrettably, Annette has joined her peers. Those thousands of unemployed Guyanese who sit at home, desperately awaiting that phone call that just never seems to come; that job offer that is so elusive; that income-earning opportunity that seems to be just around the corner, but seems so far away.  She is seriously contemplating becoming an exotic dancer at one of the night clubs visited by senior Government functionaries regularly so that she can hook up and hopefully get a job.
Mr. President, this is what your party, the PPP and your Government have reduced our people to – potential beggars and prostitutes. Yet in the 2009 Budget Debate as then General Secretary of the PPP, His Excellency President Ramotar was caught saying “Nothing is wrong with borrowing money to grow the economy… The money we are borrowing is to create conditions to generate wealth… We have been building the capital base for the country.”
This comment was sourced from Kaieteur News of February 2009 and can be read at this link -http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/02/21/ramotar-defends-government-borrowing/
So where is all this wealth that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal created since 2009?  Where are the jobs they have created?  It is clear, the PPP leaders are competing with David Cooperfield for the world’s most popular illusionists since what they all talk about evaporates into thin air seconds after they make a promise.
Finally, the fact is that the PPP has failed to provide a certain living standard to the people – a standard befitting humanity, and thus rescue them from the indignity so many Guyanese continue to suffer – and this has existed for the last 22 years. As we have seen in the case of Nurse Griffith, Security Guard Rudolph and Student Annette, many public and private sector workers as well as students are suffering from a state of virtual insolvency and the government is oblivious to their cause. Very sad indeed!
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh