Dear Editor,
The selling of state land in recent months in the middle of a No-confidence Motion in the name of development is troubling. No one is against development but we have questions. Some are self-answerable in that we are approaching March 2, 2020, general election. They are intended to cast a positive image of the caretaker government. However, I do have one question and a possible solution to this wheeling and dealing with state land. Where are the land reparationists? They seemed to have slipped into a deafening silence. I wonder why. When the Indian, dirt poor, claims that a half-acre of land belongs to him, he is accused of stealing land from the descendants of Africans. Some have produced land certificates. We have a brewing situation in Guyana where we have a predominately African government in power and estate land which Africans enslaved on for centuries are being sold like ice water on a hot day. May I ask what would happen if this land grabbing was done under the PPP? Further still, are we experiencing the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, Guyana style land scramble?
I am scheduled to present a paper at a Guyana Historical conference in late June on this land thing. It will be explosive.
One solution to the land grabbing in the name of development is best expressed by sharing a real story. Quickly speaking, in 2002 I accepted a faculty position at the University of the Virgin Islands and within two months I was informed of a development and housing issue/problem there similar to what is going on in Guyana. The Virgin Islands experienced an upsurge in growth and development in tourism and so hotels, condominiums, resorts, and gated communities were developed to meet the needs of the tourism industry. The Governor then (the 1970s) of the Virgin Islands did the unthinkable. Within a half-mile of the tourist-related development, he built low-income housing communities. This development turned out to be a win-win situation regarding demand and supply of labour. This is what I call development. I do not have the money to build low-income communities alongside gated communities but I sure do have the will and mind for it. To dish out, cash transfer to low-income individuals will bury them further in their socio-economic misery.
Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine
