Dear Editor,
In order to sustain the pace of national development in this 21st Century, it is necessary that the Government and people of any nation become aware of the unemployment rate, so that systems can be put in place to keep it at an acceptable level, which may be between 4% and 5%.
When the public is aware of this rate, the Government is expected to step in, and, with prudent management of the nation’s economy, the unemployment rate is expected to be kept at a realistically minimum level. Our problem is that, for years we are hearing nothing from the Bureau of Statistics that gives us a view of the unemployment rate in Guyana. Recently it was reported that the unemployment rate is 10% in Barbados, that Government is now in a better position to manage the economy based on the accumulated data on the unemployed.
The information on this matter should say what the overall rate of unemployment is nationally, regionally, and as per Neighbourhood Democratic Council, what skills the unemployed possess, available natural resources in the various regions, the training needs of the unemployed, given the resources to be exploited.
For example, our greatest source of wealth lies in the hinterland, with our gold, diamond, platinum, manganese, molybdenite, uranium, timber, silica sand, stone quarries, bauxite, fishing in our rivers and the Atlantic Ocean, hydropower, and the possibility of the exploration of gas and oil, not excluding our millions of acres of land available for agriculture production. With this information and our small population, there should be a zero percent unemployment rate.
Our children from school must be guided to take up jobs in these various sectors, this is why the National Service should be reintroduced, I have seen the National Service operational in Barbados, equipping young people with the requisite skills, based on the developmental needs of that nation with very limited natural resources, that commitment has been able to give many in the Caribbean an opportunity to earn and live comfortably, in that small country which can be fitted into Guyana 500 times.
The sugar and rice industry cannot sustain this economy; an aggressive diversification of our foreign exchange earning industries must be pursued, to ensure the survival of this country that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources yet to be exploited.
The sports and cultural tourism industry in Guyana is in its embryonic stage, for this sector to see the light of day, we have to clean up Georgetown, our once Garden City. Many of those persons, who are designated tourists, are amongst them, very wealthy individuals looking for opportunities to invest. I doubt whether they would want to return to Guyana after making their first trip to Georgetown, given the proliferation of garbage all across this South American city.
Our country will progress, when all regardless of race, colour or creed are given equal rights and justice, we will on the 1st of August 2010 celebrate the 176th Anniversary of the emancipation of slavery in Guyana, for over 400 years our fathers were subjected to the most horrifying forms of oppression ever practiced on a nation.
During those years we built the plantation, protected the coast from the Atlantic ocean, dug the Lamaha conservancy to stop the water from the hinterland reaching those areas of the coastland earmarked for sugar, cotton and rice cultivation, the tasks were back breaking. Slaves who arrived during this period, had an average life span of nine years working on the plantation, according to historical accounts, this tells of the cruel nature of the work that was forced upon them.
The Lamaha conservancy brings life to the city of Georgetown; every time we turn on our taps let’s remember that the water that flows is made possible by the toil and sweat of the then enslaved Africans who dug the Lamaha canal with their bare hands and shovels, there wasn’t any hymac or dragline around in those years of greed and brutality. As we celebrate our Emancipation let us remember the popular folk song, Massa day gone, let’s get up and stand up for our rights.
Yours faithfully,
Aaron Blackman.
