Dear Editor,
Things are rough here. As Guyanese would say forlornly: ting baaad. That drone strike at the Saudi Arabian facilities just converted hard Guyanese realities to the dismal. My hope is that the situation will defuse quickly. It is going to take some doing. Here it is going to be some hard living.
Business is bad; and the small man (it is really the women) trying to keep his nose out of the water finds it rougher; on many a day it is a losing battle: not enough. Prices are out of reach, which means that many things must be gone without. And this is only talking about reputable places offering aboveboard prices for items, which were already out of reach. Try medicines, for example, and many have to pass by, or buy bush. I have been told by one senior after another that almost every visit to the pharmacy brings a new shock. The situation is worse still when one drug house has a monopoly on that desperately needed pill.
I get my utility bills, and I hesitate to open them, whether online or on paper. Sticker shock, it is called. This has the potential to add another ailment: preshaah! And by the time the numbers settle down, the next bill arrives. I brace for the GPL bill from now; and this is even though I have a little help on the side. Before anybody gets any ideas about illegal connection and teefin current, I assure citizens (and the GPL) that I am a follower of the above, a true sun worshipper. The government owes me, and I am angry.
Other people are angrier. A number of those I thought were sensible citizens have quietly whispered that the government should declare an embargo on its narcotics and money laundering assaults. Gawd! Guh a li’l eezy pun de people nah. Leh de monee flow; den aal ah wee gun be happy. I like it. A number of powerful government people like it more than me. They run interferences, protection rackets, unofficial reprieves, and the rest. Word is that the other side, not to be outshone, has promised a return to the good old days of: no regulation, no tax, and no enforcement. That just might be the solution. Think about this: fuget bout who in charge ah de country, we would all see how quick business would galvanize and strategize and synergize to accelerate an economy languishing in the doldrums. The Hon. and Mighty Minister of Finance spoke of low single-digit growth. Wah is dah? Tell that to the little people, who don’t have bread; or minibus money; or a li’l runnins going on the side. That is why I recommend ease and press to the government. I am serious.
That would be the solution for a private sector crying out; and the hustlers suddenly faced with real life and real poverty. Welcome to a familiar world. Then, there are public servants struggling with reduced emoluments. Government should beware: there are some negative electoral sentiments embedded in those state-induced cash shortages. Clean governance? Who gives a…. dah doan feed nobody. The bottom feeders aka once poor people (or in the vocabulary favoured by economists: the downstream effect) are also bawling. Everybody looking to government for pola boohd relief. It took me all the way into adulthood to figure out that that stood for Poor Law Board. I will be contented with that kind of richness. At least, it is pure and principled.
I can’t buy (like before) at the swank eateries and shopping malls; but remember, I know about sampling the fare from the folks selling by the roadside. During the long, chronic blackout time of Burnham time (come to think of it, that might have been the best of times) I didn’t care about eating what I couldn’t see. Or the health content of the ingredients that made up this or that pot. It was hard and very scanty; but those days were where men were men, and the rest (like those of today) a bunch of crybabies. Guvment? Yuh bin pun yuh own. Swim or sink. All the way to the bottom; somehow some of us survived.
God forbid there is another ‘incident’ in that volatile, and now extremely edgy, Middle East; hopefully no oil tanker is seized. That would be curtains. John Bolton is laughing; the man in the White House is convulsing; and the Iranians are denying. I hope that Guyanese will not be forced to more crying. Oil already up; things look good for gold. One more lash and it would be great ($1800 an oz.). All the market timers (that’s how they would like to be seen) would suddenly be producers and exporters and supporters (of government). The man from Finance might even get to adjust those growth numbers upwards.
Of course, the bus fare would go up, and bread, and this and that bill. The only thing that would hold steady is booze. Guyanese are going to need a barrel of that to manage the unsteadiness that comes from a world already bad here, and one which now promises to get much harder. As hard as it is, I remain a praying, believing man. What else is there….?
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
