Dear Editor,
Since reading Rajendra Bissessar’s letter captioned, `Globalization has meant more inequality’ (SN June 16, 2011) I have been thinking about a response. Then I heard the following statement on a radio programme, “A lot of people do not like the disparity of outcomes inherent in capitalism”. I guess Rajendra fits into that category.
The discussion is equality; equality as a human being, the individual, as a race, of the sexes, as a people, as a nation and even as a world. What is equality? My thinking is that beyond the fact that we are humans, the top member of the animal kingdom, there is no other equality. As different races or groups, I do not see equality. Try telling the Chinese in Guyana to share their recipe so that all can open Chinese restaurants.
As individuals there is no equality between one and the other. Everyone has their own ambitions and aspirations. Some have none at all and would be contented with begging or receiving free money. Even in the ant kingdom, the basis of Marx, there is no equality. There is the Queen, the guardians of the Queen and the workers. Thank God for individualism in the human race that not all of us would want to relegate ourselves to being mere worker bees or ant.
I have been reading a lot of Rejendra’s blogs and wish I could change his thinking and others like him for the sake of our country’s development. Equality cannot be engineered. You cannot engineer all our aspirations to be the same, although as groups or a country we could have and decide on a single goal while we each follow our dreams. The goal aspect is what I have been trying to get over to the African community with my writings. It also should be the same with the country as a whole.
The US as a nation has placed their own spin on equality as a tool for development, for those who want to use it. Remember it is a tool. Everyone is born equal, with certain rights, etc. It means that if you are born or live in the US you can reach for the sky and get it. It is not about engineering equality between you and I, even though there are a lot of people in the US who share Rejendra’s view. I do not think they get it.
It is the same as saying men and women are equal. No, they are not. Mostly it is about equal opportunity rather than equality. The US has given all the freedom and equal opportunity to follow their dreams. Be like the wind or a bird. You can fly high or low and let no one use frivolous excuses to allow you to believe different.
To destroy the myth of equality I would use myself and two sons as examples. This month of June makes it the 10th year we are in the US. Our destiny was Texas.
I’m a musician of sorts. In Guyana I sent the eldest to music school. He hated it. At a tender age he watched me dabble in business and asked to go to business and accounting school. He soon began showing me where I was making mistakes.
After high school he went straight to COURTS as a clerk and quickly moved up to being an aggressive repo man for the company. By nineteen he bought his first car.
At nineteen I was clueless about what I wanted to do. I walked around the
village with a guitar. I thought my son was moving too fast and tried to curtail him to my way which was a big mistake. Then we ended up in the US. He was not yet 21.
It’s been 10 years now. My son started as a shelf packer at a Walgreens store.
For the past 5 years he has been a store manager of various stores and is in a position to be district manager. He recently was sent to take over the failing store from the manager who first employed him. He has surpassed me in business endeavours. He presently owns about eight properties and continues to build on his portfolio. He has a Bachelors in Business Admin with a minor in real estate while still working as a store manager.
Mind you, we were talking about equality. My other son also has a Bachelor’s degree. While doing reasonably well he is not interested in real estate or property; he’s trying to be a pastor. In the name of equality, should I ask my elder son to give four of his properties to his brother? What Rajendra is complaining about is all part of doing business. If our country wants to continue to be under-developed it would not be up to me. It would be mindsets like Rajendra’s that keep us there.
I talked about our family destiny being Texas. Maybe it would have been different if the family had landed in New York. Just maybe. Guyana has a special destiny. It is blessed with a multitude of natural resources and opportunities.
If our mindset is that all must be equal and each work for the government, get the same pay and a plate of rice each day, we are doomed.
Liberalism cannot sustain itself. Set up a situation and environment where the brightest and the most ambitious can reign freely. Everyone may not be able to own a car but at least they should be able to drive in a car on proper roads and look up at skyscrapers and such like. Otherwise we all would be in the mud looking at each other’s white mouths.
I’m for eradicating poverty and insist that given Guyana’s untapped resources everyone can live very comfortable lives, but we must remember that even in the bible there were rich and poor, persons who led and those who were led. It’s the order of life. We are not equal. And, there is no reason why Guyana should remain at the bottom of the development ladder. What Rajendra was describing in his letter is the power of being a major player. The quicker Guyana realizes that we can also be a major player in that game the better for us.
We cannot win that game if we are willing to sit back and allow developed countries pay us a few pieces of silver to ensure our inactivity as in the carbon credits deals. We cannot be exporting our prime species of lumber in logs and still be able to, maximize our residual income on each square inch of lumber. We should be finding out who the end users are and what the end product is. We then manufacture and sell directly.
We cannot continue to have major gold and diamond deposits and not have refineries and buying conglomerates in Guyana. We cannot continue to have our agricultural land lying idle when the world is being threatened with a food crisis. We could be a major world supplier of grain and canned goods.
Luckily for Guyana, there are many Guyanese in the Diaspora who are now equipped and qualified to play the big game of the developed world. For crying out loud, many of them are working for the developed world. Instead of sitting back and crying as Rajendra is wont to do, let us join in encouraging politicians to let the lions loose and give Guyanese a chance to multiply a thousand times over the untapped resources of Guyana and soon we could be playing the same game as the developed world.
There is a way my friend. We have a choice and it is not equal. Please tell me.
What is it going to be?
Yours faithfully,
F. Skinner
