Dear Editor,
The United Negro College Fund had a slogan some time ago that read: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” As much as I agree, I think that there is another side to that, which is my own version of it, and now shared with my fellow Guyanese: a mind made warped is a waste and a woe of untold proportions. This is what I concluded from a recent story that the economists shouldn’t have much difficulty with, but which the small man living out there in Guyana’s barren wildernesses. On the one hand, it is accepted textbook authority of what too much money coming too quickly can do to an economy, and citizens of a country. On the other, there is reality. Harsh, grinding reality, as faced by Guyanese seeking to scratch out (literally) some sort of existence in this oil rich country straight out of the storybooks.
I agree with the Vice President, but he conveniently forgot something that his economist’s exposure should have warned him also plays a massive part on inflationary pressures, and in the costly spirals that result. The biggest spender/buyer in an economy is usually the government, inclusive of central and regional. And, as the VP ought to know, this country has embarked on a series of extremely costly public works undertakings, and almost all at the same time. If not so simultaneously, then so close to each other that they are almost tumbling over each other. They generate their own demand, and further fuel whatever existing price elements that were already in motion, due to such diverse bottlenecks as virus and global supply crisis and rising oil prices. So, for the Vice President to come up with this skillful parry (dodge) is for him to ignore the snake in the grass. It is an anaconda, and already squeezing the life out of Guyanese. My humble thought, now parlayed into a sincere suggestion, is that it would be helpful, definitely constructive, to take the feet off the gas that powers all of these costly projects at once, and ease some of the squeeze on demand and whatever supply we out there.
It should be noted that I wrote ‘feet’ on the gas, for it is that two-footed, and that heavy, as in clumsy. I think the Vice President is sure to know, but I dish out an assist. Poor, bottom feeding Guyanese, the massed multitude of minimum wagers and pensioners, and such other wide swaths of this country’s abandoned and neglected, are in short supply of money that gives them some whiff of spending power in an economy now slated to register north of 55% growth. I respectfully (though it is not due) urge the Vice President to find it somewhere in himself and have a heart. In this country of rampaging prosperity, give the people mired on the line of draining poverty some parity. Give them some purchasing parity, and I use this kind of language because I believe that the Vice President still has it in him to recall these terms from days gone by. Today, I keep things simple and refuse to believe (or visit) any powerful idea that the crafty and cheap foreigners planted this inflationary gimmick (as real as it could be) in the VP’s head. After all, I could hear the outsiders thinking that the Guyanese people got democracy and don’t know what to do with themselves. So, to give them more money is simply compounding their chronic problems. This may be what the Vice President has dressed up and now is the leading missionary for in this country. Guyanese must be the dumbest people in the world to let him get away with yet another such a leadership barbarity while they are hungry and angry and empty.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall