Dear Editor,
We the pensioners of Uitvlugt Sugar Estate experienced what a senior citizen once described as, “When you turn pensioner you turn a begga.” This was evident at the annual pensioners’ party (December 10, 2011) when pensioners were given a Christmas gift of the following items:-
1 lb Powdered milk 580
2 pints Rice 200
1 lb Salt 20
2 lbs Flour 210
½ lb Butter 170
2 lbs Sugar (package) 180
1 bottle Smalta 180
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1540
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Putting an approximate cost to the list is a ‘struggling‘ sixteen hundred dollars, plus one thousand dollars for lunch and drinks – a ‘healthy‘ cost for an ex-sugar worker‘s Christmas gift. I know that the sugar industry has been going though some rough times (due to no fault of ours), but better could have been done instead of portraying us as ‘beggars.’
Yours faithfully,
Jeric Nathaniel
