Interviews and photos by Dreylan Johnson and David Papannah
Given Guyana’s recent oil find and preparations to begin exploiting it in five years the man and woman in the street were asked to say what areas should be focused on and what projects should be embarked on by the government once Guyana begins receiving revenue from oil. Their comments follow…
Lindon Williams – ‘We need infrastructure basically, more schools, more medical facilities like hospitals and looking into persons out in the streets; they should get homes where they place these people. It’s good, the economy is kind of low and I feel that the government should do things that money can circulate more in our country and indeed create jobs. Like this whole meter thing, invest money and build a big parking lot so vehicles can be in there parked and you charge that money and that will come back to the country. Don’t just wait on the oil, though the oil is good in a sense. It will allow for better roads in certain places, water facilities, and an ease with this blackout thing. So that we can all live comfortably.’
Jasmine Watson – ‘If they could open a free programme for those children who didn’t get to write CXC and the children in orphanages; I think things should be better set out for them. Basically, that’s it; mostly for the children. More job opportunities should be open and stuff like that.’
Joshua Liverpool – ‘I think they should have more recreational grounds to keep young people more occupied in certain ways. I think they should invest more in labs, especially computer labs, because most schools they have computer failures, so I think they should improve computer labs.’
Tracy Gibson – ‘The problem in society is that we need jobs for young people. We also need increases in salary and development of the economy.’
Vijay Seepersaud – ‘I think we should use the money for the roads, we need better roads. They should use it for the ‘line top’ road. They should continue it from where they stop it off all the way to Berbice. And it would cost less money because the line top is already compact so the money could be utilised there. I think better education and so. We need better teachers, teachers’ salaries need to be more and some of the hospitals need improving so there will be better facilities for people.’
Theresa Pierre – ‘I feel that when they do get the money they should look after the children who are on the streets, find homes for them. They should also do the drainage and clean up the place like what they started in May. Let them continue doing that so we can have a clean environment and stuff like that. There are also lots of children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school and they should use the money for that purpose. They should set up funds for them so that parents who cannot afford to send their children to school will be able to get assistance. Also there is need for a fund for children whose parents cannot afford medical treatment for them.’
Ryan Nicholas – ‘Being that I’m in the medical profession, I would like to see the government and the people in authority right now place more emphasis on doctors, on nurses in particular, because I have a lot of friends in the profession and it’s kind of heartbreaking right now to see what they’re going through. Because we all know for the longest while they’re doing some negotiations, public servants increase or whatever, it seems as though nothing is really going to come from it, just a bunch of promises. I’m thinking about not coming back here in a while. I think they would do really good to focus on that area—public servants in general, but specifically because I have a soft spot for medical people, cause that’s my thing. I think they should do more because a lot of nurses are going away; doctors are even finding it difficult. Because, as a doctor in this country, you shouldn’t be finding it difficult to make ends meet. The name doctor alone should carry a whole lot of weight.’
Lalita Rassil – ‘Focus should be placed on the sugar industry. Well you know the estates in a bad way right now. And I heard that if the percentage is not reached this crop then they will close down Enmore Estate. So you know, they can spend more money on the sugar industry. In Enmore, most people working on the estate and every day you would hear them talking about the estate.’
Noelle Chow-Chee – ‘I know that we are in a developing state, and I think most of that money should be focused or thrown into areas where development for the young people will be mobilized and optimized so that we can have proper leaders for tomorrow. My second point is that if we have oil, therefore we train our people in extraction and refining and marketing of oil, we must be able to have good accounts and know where our money is and use our money beneficially for Guyana.’
Sunita Ghir – ‘When you look at it, the whole education curriculum needs work. There should be more emphasis on technology. I don’t know about Guyana, but in St Vincent from next April you have to do all your income tax returns online. You have to purchase your airline tickets online. So I think if you’re going technology-wise, ICT, you could do one laptop per child. The government could also invest in programmes where they set up a resource centre and they could train persons in the community how to use a computer. What they do in St Vincent, they have lots of computers, and in the evening they pay persons to teach the elderly, or people who don’t know how to use computers – teach them the basic things about using it. Because if you look at it, the whole world is going ICT. You have to know about social media and all these things. So the ones who are not so good with it, like the old people, they are going to lag behind because if they need to travel they have to beg somebody to do everything for them. My niece, she’s attending one of the primary schools here and she’s going into Grade 5 right now, and she said they don’t do IT in school, they don’t have a computer lab. In St Vincent all schools have an IT lab.’