Dear Editor,
Giving away our jobs is not enough. Insulting our intelligence is the latest from Winston Brassington.
I felt great disgust when I looked at yesterday’s Kaieteur News and saw the headline – `No Guyanese in Marriott’s construction… Language barrier, lack of skills locally were the reasons – Brassington’, and I wondered what next from him?
For him to say that there is lack of skills locally is a great insult especially for those countless Guyanese who were in other countries doing construction work that the Guyana Government begged to come back here. It is bad enough that they are not creating jobs for them, but are creating for foreigners and saying that we are not skilled. With so many graduates from the University of Guyana who cannot get a job, we are hearing we are not skilled. Mr. Brassington should tell us what kind of skill a porter, a mason, a carpenter, a driver, a security, an operator, an engineer, or anyone working on a construction site, has to have for him/her to be employed at a construction site and he should also tell us what makes the Chinese more qualified. As for the language barrier, the Guyanese presence all over the world speaks for itself. English is the main spoken language worldwide and if he or the Chinese contractor, Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), expected us to believe that a construction company that works in so many English-speaking countries would not have staff who understand a little bit English, then that is a greater insult and I don’t think they should have even left their country if language would be a problem.
Editor, I have reached a lot of Guyanese who work in lots of countries doing construction work and some of them are proud of the fact that they were much sought after for their skills and speed by Chinese contractors and other big contractors.
Some of them even boasted of being part of a workforce that built hotels such as the Hilton Hotel. Their performance make their bosses pay for their travelling to and from their home for the holidays just to ensure they return.
Many of them choose to return home and work, only to hear they are not skilled enough. In closing I would like to say that Winston Brassington’s eyes pass us.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
