Dear Editor,
I am happy that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is also responsible for Information has seen the wisdom of launching two radio stations in the outlying regions, namely one in the Rupununi and now the other one in the North-West District. This will bridge the gap between the people of the interior regions and those parts of Guyana where there are already radio stations, such as in Linden, Berbice and Georgetown, transmitting through the National Communication Network (NCN).
When the new coalition APNU+AFC government took office on May 11, 2015, it quickly started to upgrade the frequency and signal across the country and constructed two 54 LTE –A towers which are strategically placed in the most densely populated areas from Rupununi to Mabaruma.
For the past 23 years the former administration did not see this through; there was talk but no action. I was visited some time in 2005 by NCN’s former Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mohammed Sattaur, and I promised to do a programme at Cotton Field, but it never materialized. My job was to be a radio announcer promoting what is happening in the region and the Pomeroon, along with covering birthday greetings, death announcements, sports and culture and a special programme on agriculture in which I am very qualified.
These radios stations will help to bring in revenue for NCN by advertising businesses and other things in the various regions, and the people will know what is taking place. It will also help to market the products in the regions. Communication is very vital in this age of technology, especially for schoolchildren who are studying for their exams.
Coming back to the recent launching of the radio station in Mabaruma, I happen to have lived there and traded from there in the ʼ80s. This region is very rich in agriculture and has the potential to become the food basket of the Caribbean, but it wasn’t promoted after the Burnham years. I saw the biggest cassava almost 6 feet long, eddoes which were big like pumpkins, the longest and fattest peanuts at Yarakita, the biggest cabbage at the Hosororo agriculture station, as well as the biggest bull and milking cows there. The soil is red, sandy loam and clay; it is very rich and grows anything. There I also saw the biggest avocado and sweet and juicy oranges on Mr Cleo’s farm. In the NWD I lived with my cousin, who was in charge of the Hosororo agriculture station. In those days I travelled with the MV Lady Northcote and MV Pomeroon from Georgetown to Mabaruma, and it took me two days to land at the stelling. The Atlantic Ocean was very rough and there were many traders of different kinds. I visited the 10,000 acre oil palm development at Wauna which was managed by GuySuCo.
This new radio station will help to sensitize the people of this region to Venezuela’s false claim to Guyana’s Essequibo territory. Venezuela, our neighbour to the west, whose territory is almost four times that of Guyana, now claims as her own an area representing five-eighths of the total area of Guyana. The people of the North West region must know. This claim betrays a distressing return to the politics of Maduro power and shows scant regard for the established principles of international law.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
