Dear Editor,
After all these years of so called independence Guyana has not broken out of the colonial syndrome of foreign reliance in almost every economic endeavor, and thus the picture presented to the outside world is that this is a country which endorses the ideology of being a primary products producer.
We have these symptoms in the mining and forest areas. If this is good why not have foreign labour legions come in and grow rice, sugar, and everything else? We Guyanese can just sit back and see them go and we collect the benefit should there be any, especially since we have a population depletion problem.
People need to realize that a country is analogous to having a store or shop. The shop sells to customers as they come in. There is no need or justification for strangers to trample all over our territory looking to see what they can find. Their position is that they come to the virtual counter and make a request.
In the case of forest products how is it that local woodcutters are not sufficient to deliver this raw product? What is the haste behind this rampant speed in ripping the forest as they see fit? If the government can guarantee the trees will grow back next year then I can agree with their position. If we shall all be here 300 years from now we can all be happy. Meanwhile the birds and animals see a new world of emptiness that is soon to be a treeless landscape like the Middle East countries.
It is not for the foreign concessionaire to determine which and what tree is to be harvested. We alone determine what goes and what stays; no apologies.
The government itself knows there is no economic value in this sort of nonsense, so why encourage and approve this depletion of a rare treasure?
I do not see the “selective harvesting” promoted by the GFC. The leftist ideologies and communist leanings of political parties have scuttled capitalist enthusiasm – the very vehicle the country needs to move into the present century. If China and India can jump on the capitalist bandwagon why not do the same? Right now we are just fodder for them. As the song goes, they get the gold and we get the shaft.
Cut your losses while you are ahead.
Yours faithfully,
John De Barros
