Dear Editor,
It was at a joint meeting of representatives of GuySuCo and the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) with the Sugar Unions, GAWU and NAACIE, about October 2017, when the SPU in its presentation optimistically announced that there was the promise of some seventy prospective investors, who had expressed a primary interest in the sugar estates that were due to be effectively closed – Skeldon, Rose Hall, East Demerara (Enmore); LBI and Wales Estates had already been closed.
One year after, the actual ‘Expressions of Interest’ had been reduced to five – an embarrassing reduction from illusion to reality.
In the meantime, there was considerable financial investment in an attempt to sustain operations at Rose Hall Estate (with the assistance of the management of Albion/PM Estate); while Enmore was being revitalised (?) with various categories of severed employees. What was, and continues to be, interesting is the presumption that the very estates which were given up by experienced management could in turn be uplifted by ambitious, if not pretentious, newcomers.
It was/is a situation that, not totally irrelevantly, reminds of the remarks of the famous Barbadian writer, George Lamming, to the effect that “there are those in the Caribbean who are so blinded by their own brilliance, that they do not see the darkness through which they lead others”.
Somehow, the reports of the recent turbulence generated by the (mis) managers of the SPU on historic sugar industry premises would appear to reveal a blindness towards ethical behaviour that, rather than reflect leadership, points towards tunnel-minded authority.
The recently published eruption must be seen as portraying a trend of unprofessionalism that might well have been observed along the way by better informed parties, who were accustomed to operating at appropriate professional levels, and consequently lost interest in any expression; also possibly because the revisited estates have not been effectively revived. The situation may well be regarded as ‘severe’.
In the meantime there is the detail of indulgence in a pool (of glasses), attached to what is officially the GuySuCo Training Centre (LBI).
Because of financial stringencies over the years the premises had long been out of use as the ‘Staff Club’ to which the SPU has since attempted to re-convert it, albeit with much less dignity than GuySuCo’s Managers were accustomed.
In the milieu, one is discouraged by the bland, even defensive commentary, proffered by the Unit’s employers, on the non-exemplary behaviour reported on. But citizens would expect that at the national level it is a display that should be frowned upon; for certainly it does not reflect the standards that have been consistently upheld by GuySuCo’s management, and which now must be endorsed at the highest level.
None of us must overlook the growing presence of foreign residents who are continually evaluating our behaviours, whether individually or as organisations, and bemoaning the palpable absence of efforts to raise the bar (no pun intended).
Yours faithfully,
E.B. John
