Dear Editor,
Mr VC Bird, the father of the nation of Antigua, once said, “gravel don’t travel,” and what he meant was that as Prime Minister of Antigua (for many years), his policy towards foreign and local investors was to invite them into Antigua, knowing full well that any hotels, condos, docks, beach development, housing construction, commercial buildings, etc, could not be dismantled and taken out but left to the general wealth of the people of Antigua. In general, the policy of ‘gravel don’t travel’ worked well for Antigua, because today, the people of that small island with only their beaches (which are taken care of assiduously) and the welcoming nature of the people, are their main resource, which has led to certain basic qualities of life. For example, the children of Antigua have at their disposal free uniforms, free books, a free hot meal every school day, proper bus transport to and from school with a driver and conductor on board, and a very good truant officer corps, checking to make sure every child goes to school. The elderly receive almost US$450 per month. The list of benefits for the people of Antigua is a long one and the politicians there, with all the positives and negatives which critics might see, have done a fairly good job for their people over the years, and collectively should be proud of themselves.
Can we say the same here about our politicians in Guyana, where our children and elderly are placed on the back-burner of development and where we have many more resources than Antigua but we don’t yet understand the concept of ‘gravel don’t travel.’ No, our concept is, ‘keep your gravel but we’ll travel’ – to beg and borrow while denying the ‘gravel’ of investment as a place in the sun.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan
(Jr)