Dear Editor,
I see dark clouds gathering and hovering like the insidious dust over the town for an impending storm – God forbid – as once again residents are getting the creeps with the chorus of an electricity increase being sung by government officials.
For quite some time now, as I have observed, the price for electricity that residents of Linden have been paying has been a heavy weight on the chest of our Prime Minister, and seems to be causing him to lose sleep. But not him alone; this obsession with electricity rates has also captured the attention of others. Thus Lindeners with one accord will have to stand steadfast, resolute, and be up in arms against this imminent move which will create more pressure on us. Understand that any increase brings along with it also an increase in darkness and it must be opposed with every grain of energy by the collective force of the entire community.
The intended increase is not gospel, it is murderous. I see it as an unconscionable aggression, regardless of whatever external, economic factors and theories it is premised on. It must remain where it belongs in the closet of the planners and not see the light of the day. It is easy for some to say: “Deh accustom to cheapness, is time deh pay mo,“ and no doubt, I would wager that with all things being equal, some folks wouldn’t mind a modest increase, but what is proposed is most certainly not the case, for where will the ordinary working people get the money to pay? Have these people done an economic analysis of the region? Have they examined carefully the socio-economic fabric of the town and the region? Well, should they do so, they will discover conditions that do not – in some case not even remotely – support the plan to increase electricity by one cent. This will fall on the heads of ordinary everyday people, many of whom are unemployed, underemployed and struggle for a daily living on piecemeal and odds and ends jobs. Please understand that we are not dealing with what is to come but rather with what is now.
As is well known, there was a time when the bauxite industry sat atop the economic throne and helped sustain the economy; it was the main source of employment and moreover the heartbeat of the community and region. Since its decline there is nothing that has come anywhere close to filling the gap; in fact from all appearances it has grown even wider, with the regular increase in school leavers joining the ranks of the unemployed. Small business firms that fed off of it went under with its downturn; companies like Patnomike and Kensa Co are long gone; young men and women are fleeing to the ‘backdam‘ to make a living. At present the bauxite industry – Bosai – employs just a modicum of workers and remains the lone earner of foreign exchange in the community. There is no other commodity within the town that is exported and earns foreign currency, not even at the local level. While there is much talk about raw materials and the potential that abounds, we are yet to see the manifestation of viable economic ventures, of sustained employment and the substantial influx of foreign and local revenue. The primary and major areas of stable employment are the teaching and nursing professions.
Following the expiration of the Linden Economic Advancement Project (LEAP) it still remains bit difficult to determine how successful it was in fulfilling its mandate of creating 2,000 plus jobs after a seven-year run. It is the devil’s job to locate, appraise and present sound evidence of viable business ventures and jobs from funds and grants handed out by it. Even the money gotten from the taxes paid by those massive heavy trucks that daily transport an astronomical amount of timber/wood, and are the number one contributor to damage to the roads, seems to me just a speck. And dear Lindeners, doesn’t it sounds quaint that with all the seemingly endless harvesting of woods from this region passing through, that residents must purchase in their own home town at a higher price than if bought anywhere else out of the community?
And so I need to state yet again that any jump in electricity costs will be an added economic burden which will further derail life in the community and ultimately lead to chaos. Arguments for an increase are always based on cold, harsh economic calculations; they are very mechanical and of course are based on some grudge – “Leh dem pay like everybody else; who can’t swim gun sink; who dead, dead.” But as was said before conditions of work are always a major consideration for whatever concessions are given, of which light and water are the most notable, and indeed a small price to pay for the dust pollution that has done untold and still does unknown damage. As I write I can hear some saying, “Dat was then.“ I can recall one writer saying: “He feels abused. Cheated that one area could be enjoying such a humongous subsidy on electricity…” But indeed, it is the only amenity left to which we the ‘dust breathers‘ can claim a bit of advantage, and deservingly so.
But the story of electricity and the community folk is rooted in a courageous battle of working and living conditions from the construction of the kilns to the present, with many unfortunate consequences. What we paid for this coveted commodity, was influenced by this handicap, although it should not be calculated solely on that. Many workers spent the greater part of their lives buried 200-250 feet in the bailey of the mines; many suffered lung infections and blindness. The story of this dusty town and the dust breathers is no play; enduring the intense heat of 200-300 feet long kilns that sucked men dry and took a toll on their health was no play; the damage to property and household items is no play, and that was, and still is our fate. We accepted it – the unwritten rule then for a livelihood, and this is just a tiny part of the history, of the genesis of how the electricity subsidy came to be. But those who now feel abused and cheated were not envious of us enduring such unfriendly conditions; on the contrary, they were glad not to be so ‘blessed.’ Now it is so easy for them to say that ‘past and gone,‘ when it seems to be the only thing left to a community vying to maintain its bearing. ‘Feeling abused?‘ Well that’s the way Lindeners are feeling.
And while I’m at it, let me state that the endless tons of scrap iron scattered and buried across the entire mining terrain and the community are not being exploited to the advantage of the community in any significant way. I was told of slick costly pieces of machinery that are often caught within the scrap iron dragnet. Come to think of it, when the time comes and the bauxite industry is no more, there may not be anything standing as testimony to the memory of a people or community who were involved in bauxite operations.
The electricity increase will obviously have a devastating effect on the purchasing power of the working class, and hence they will have a lower standard of living. But the 2% and business owners should not be gleeful about their by their ability to pay, since the increase will also impact on the viability of their businesses and other activities; everything is interlocked. This proposed increaselacks a human face; it is sinister, an aggression that will keep us on our knees, and the poor families that were given laptops will not be able to use them.
And finally again the question must be asked: how does a person rest with his conscience, when he receives a super salary, pays a token if not one blind cent for his light bill by virtue of his position, while fixing a high rate for the unemployed and underemployed struggling to survive? I must be in agreement with whoever said that crime is simply the result of a grossly disproportionate distribution of wealth and privilege; that almost all crimes can be traced to socio-economic conditions, Linden must stand together to resist any attempt at an electricity rate increase so as to maintain some breathing space for its own sake. It is not healthy for a community endeavouring to keep some semblance of balance; we simply lack the financial muscle to accommodate it.
We the dust breathers, the working class folks of this dusty town must be on guard.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
