The decline of the state-run bauxite sector in Linden set in train what a former LINMINE employee aptly described as “a continuous calamity of woes” for the community to which there seems to be no end.
Private foreign ownership of the industry has not come even close to returning it to those days when it used to boast, justifiably, that Linden’s contribution to the country’s economy was critical. Meanwhile, there have been some initiatives undertaken in an effort to revive the economic fortunes of the once prosperous mining town. The Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) comes to mind. Essentially, it sought to offer a modest lending facility and a measure of infrastructural support aimed at attempting to create a business culture in a community that had become steeped in a tradition of paid employment in the bauxite industry. LEAP had even financed a study in the wake of the 2005-2006 floods intended to determine the feasibility of undertaking an agricultural programme that would meet at least some of the community’s food needs and reduce the costs associated with the purchase of food trucked into Linden. The study had also broached the issue of Linden becoming an exporter of food to other parts of the country.
Hopes that Linden might rise again were also expressed amidst the interlude of optimism associated with the completion and commissioning of the Takutu Bridge. Apart from the fact that Linden is strategically positioned to take advantage of the movement of Brazilian cargo across the Takutu en route to the Caribbean and further afield, the possibility that road access could open up particular trading and other business opportunities between Linden and northern Brazil had also arisen. In fact, a modest amount of trading was reportedly started though it was always clear that the support mechanisms necessary to create structured continuity would require significant infusions of financial capital and other resources and might even necessitate government intervention.
None of the various interventions designed to create private enterprise alternatives to the bauxite industry have, at least up until now, borne fruit though it also has to be admitted that sufficient effort has probably not been made to exploit some of the potential. The government has made some interventions designed to bring a measure of relief to the community but there has been no real evidence of the kind of investment in the revival of Linden on the scale that is necessary. President Jagdeo’s conditional offer of $25,000 per month for the next three months to workers (many of whom are from Linden) who have just lost their jobs at Barama is a short-term humanitarian intervention rather than a longer-term solution and if the recipients have decided that, in their circumstances, they ought not to be staring down the throat of a gift horse, they understand only too well that three months will pass quickly.
Setting aside the material suffering associated with high unemployment and a lack of employment opportunities in Linden, there is evidence of mounting social problems associated – in large measure – with the feeling that the once thriving township has become a dead-end community. Crime, juvenile delinquency in all of its various forms, declining moral standards and other maladies linked to a sense of hopelessness are reportedly on the rise in Linden. Indeed, whatever programmes may be contemplated to revive the Linden community their implementation clearly cannot be left much longer. There are, for example, entire families which, over a number of years, had come to depend on bauxite for a livelihood and who now have no reliable source of income. Then there are the continuous waves of young Lindeners who complete their schooling at the end of every academic year. Many of them would have become intimate with the frustrations associated with futile job-hunting and, in some cases, have been gripped with a feeling of marginalization that engenders a sense of hopelessness. Part of the problem, of course, has to do with the fact that while the number of jobs available in the state sector is strictly limited, Linden has not, over the years, been favoured with the level of private sector investment that has manifested itself in some other parts of the country. Understandably, therefore, job opportunities are limited.
Talk of Linden’s tourism potential has been bandied about for some time now. The problem here, of course, is that the broader national tourism infrastructure, including the marketing infrastructure has had less than impressive success in impacting visitor arrivals so that limited visitor arrivals in the country effectively mean limited visitor arrivals in Linden.
Somehow, you get a sense that the way forward for Linden reposes, in large measure, in Lindeners themselves. Expatriate Lindeners have, to a commendable degree, stood by Linden, undertaking several initiatives in recent years designed to bring a measure of relief to the community. The way forward also reposes in private enterprise. While we cannot dictate the investment decisions of the private sector, more needs to be done by the government to market such potential as exists in Linden (and in the neighbouring intermediate savannahs) including the provision of generous incentives to businesses prepared to invest in Linden. Prospects for investment in agriculture must be nurtured and encouraged in order to allow both large investors – most of whom, presumably, will come from outside Linden – and SME’s – mostly Lindeners – to invest in the sector. These are by no means novel ideas. The problem is that they have not, up until now, been effectively implemented. Seeking solutions that are private enterprise driven raises the issue of having to re-orient a community that has long been accustomed to salaried employment. LEAP has helped in this regard and it appears that the women who have benefited from the Women Of Worth (WOW) initiative will themselves benefit from some measure of business training. What perhaps needs to be made clear is that small business ventures like those being undertaken by the WOW beneficiaries are unlikely to succeed if they are left to fend for themselves after becoming beneficiaries of modest grants or loans. There are institutions – EMPRETEC is an example that comes to mind – that are perfectly equipped to provide the kind of training and mentoring that can assist in the creation of a viable SME culture in Linden. The government should help finance such training.
Putting the people of Linden back to work – or, in many cases, providing them with employment for the first time – requires a plan that involves the residents and their community leaders and public officials, government and the private sector. Such a plan should revolve around self-reliance and a sense of enterprise that is supported by various forms of state-allocated technical and material support as well as a predisposition by the private sector to investing in Linden where viable investment opportunities exist. The overall objective of such an approach ought to be to significantly reduce the traditional heavy dependence on salaried employment with the bauxite industry since the days of the industry providing work for most Lindeners would appear to be well and truly at an end.
There can be no miraculous economic turnaround in Linden. The situation as it exists today is a consequence of a continuous decline that has attracted piecemeal rather than comprehensive solutions. That apart, it has to be said that Linden has traditionally had to pay the price of being something of a political football. That has to end since, in the final analysis, Linden is not a separate Republic and is altogether entitled to such opportunities for social and economic development as are made available to other communities. The other issue of course is the high cost associated with the consequences of social instability, juvenile delinquency, crime and the various other destabilizing features that have arisen out of the economic decline at Linden. It would be far better to invest in the creation of a viable business sector that provides opportunities for both jobs and self-employment than to have to continue to meet the cost of controlling and/or removing the social ills.