Dear Editor,
The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) recently condemned in rather strong language, regulations by the government in the mining sector.
Initially, one may be sympathetic to the concerns of the Association; after all, they want to make a living.
However, life is replete with examples of persons or groups prospering at the expense and peril of the other people.
This rather selfish attitude has been the bane of human history.
We employ some hinterland residents and Amerindians so that they ignore the damage being done to their environment.
Africans were sold into slavery, and slavery itself was beneficial to some, but look at the damage done for centuries.
I still carry the name of the European slave master and not that of my noble ancestors.
Those of us who have gone to the mining areas and noted the massive damage done to the environment cannot and ought not to support the continuation of this wanton destruction of our country.
As a people, are we benefitting from the ‘tons’ of gold leaving Guyana? Not to mention the extraction of logs. Very little, because our borders are porous and the Nation is afflicted by a culture of greed. Sad, but it is so.
Every story has more than one side.
What we need to do is put a halt to all mining for gold, diamond and timber for an agreed period, particularly, by the overseas so called investors, who have little concern that our children will inherit an ugly hinterland.
Allow full study and come out with a clear policy and strict rules for the exploitation of these precious non-renewable resources.
The early ‘pork knockers’ did not assault our rivers and creeks; they must be turning in their graves.
What do we say to succeeding generations when we have dirty streams, which were once clear clean rivers, creeks and lakes, but now even reptiles cannot go; fish and trees have been destroyed forever.
The State must do much more to stop this rape of nature that the Creator gave us.
We will be a cursed people if we continue to misuse and mistreat God’s gift to us.
Some of my friends may be angry with me, but I believe, we owe it to our children and their children to stop this debauching of the earth we inherited.
Timber, Gold and diamond are there for all time. To stop this assault, we lose nothing. It was there all along and we must exploit it responsibly and for the benefit of the wider society.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green