Dear Editor,
I was glad to learn from Dr Bulkan’s letter (‘Sunday editorial…’ SN, February 9) of the existence of the Natural Resources and Environmental Advisory Committee (NREAC). Its functioning should be open to more direct public scrutiny, so that we could have formative influence on matters affecting our very livelihood, instead of the evasive action we have to take nowadays.
In a consultative democracy, NREAC, or whatever Land Use Committee is formed, should have representation from the stakeholders themselves, and from each of the media houses, not only the government media.
I further suggest that the way forward in mining is to educate our children in school about this important way of making a living. By this I don’t mean having it merely as part of Environmental Science, but as its own separate subject, Mining Science. We already have the successful Agricultural Science on the CSEC syllabus. I have noted the large numbers of quite intelligent students, suffering mostly from the shortage of good teachers in other subjects, who began to show their abilities in agriculture, especially where they had ready, hands-on facilities in their own backyards. Similarly, Mining Science should be introduced especially for schools in places like Bartica, Mahdia, Kwakwani, Annai, etc.
Under my watch at the University of Guyana, we used materials dug up from our own country to ground many students in their study of the material sciences and engineering. Surely we do not have to await the inputs of overseas expertise to launch formal education in something that a lot of us know about. The only people who have anything to fear from such a systematic propagation of knowledge of correct practices would be those who have something to hide.
Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai
