-Barrow urges Linden high school graduates
Graduating in a climate of economic and social decline means graduates will have to make certain sacrifices and create opportunities to ensure that they are not left behind, a Linden entrepreneur told recent high school graduates.
At Linden the situation is especially bleak. There is an estimated 60% unemployment and underemployment rate among persons below age 30 and high school graduates are forced to compete with skilled, semi-skilled and university graduates for the few available jobs.
Long time entrepreneur and former CEO of the bauxite company under Guymine, Dunstan Barrow, in his guest speaker address told the 99 graduates at the 38th convocation exercise of the Mackenzie High School (MHS) on Thursday that the situation “isn’t going to get better anytime soon.”
In an interview, Barrow said he told the students that they “need to treat the world as an area ready to be conquered by students from the MHS,” and emphasized that “critical thinking will never go out of style…[and that they should] look at the world from a critical point and not with rose-coloured shades on.” He said too, “The problems are massive and the payoffs will be massive,” from a monetary, activity, or career satisfaction standpoint.
In the light of the current global economic crisis Barrow said there has been a decline in remittances to developing countries, in some cases 30%-40% and Linden is among the top three communities in Guyana that receives a hefty chunk of the remittances sent to the country. Barrow, who operates a Money Gram franchise, said entire savings are being wiped away as persons lose their jobs worldwide; and businesses are losing billions, filing for bankruptcy or merging to stay afloat while no automobile company is currently profitable as sales drop and manufacturing plants of other goods and services close.
Companies such as CLICO (Guyana), which operated an office in Linden, have now closed their doors, together with those from around the country, since its Trinidad and Tobago parent company went bankrupt and the Guyana subsidiary lost over 50% of its value in investments overseas. This has left hundreds of persons out of work, locally and in the Caribbean. The Linden bauxite industry has laid off over 100 workers this year, due in part to the slowing overseas demand for bauxite. It was further noted that stock markets worldwide that sell the world goods, commodities, technologies and manufactured goods are all in “negative territory” compared to 18 months ago, as demands drop. Barrow said the meaning of the graduation theme, ‘Venturing Out into Today’s World as an Optimistic Visionary’ can be linked to the words of US President Barrack Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s motto to “never allow a crisis to go to waste there are opportunities to do big things.” In explaining he told the graduates that despite the world crisis they must have a positive outlook that things will get better. He advised them to be optimistic as he believes that the economy will improve some time in the future. The entrepreneur also encouraged graduates to consider the world’s economics as well as social problems including health, sanitation, hunger, diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and urban living and plan futures that in some way will lead to solutions. He also told them that by 2024 a student who has now graduated from high school should have achieved his/her goals.
In the light of the current social and economic problems Barrow pointed out that careers in medicine, caring for the elderly (as people live longer), physical assistants, hospital administrators, financial analysts for the stock markets and to manage personal finances and finances of world economies, technology experts would be in great demand in the future. He said too some time ago attaining an MBA was regarded as a ‘big deal’ now the same buzz surrounds gaining qualifications such as a Master’s Degree in financial engineering.
