Dear Editor,
The news item (SN August 28, 2022) `UG Foundation, DDL launch limited edition rum for university’s 60th anniversary, fund raising,” refers. I admit that I had no knowledge of the UG Foundation which was launched in February 8, 2022; incorporated November 2021 or (?) July 6, 2022, Virginia, USA.
Very commendable indeed! There are several heavyweight academics and other professionals who are integrally connected with the Foundation. They have spoken glowingly of the many philanthropic objectives, a major one being “Investing in human Capital for a sustainable future”. On the same day August 28, the Chronicle news read, “UG reopens on September 12.” So I ask: Who or what will greet the students? A bottle of the splendidly packaged El Dorado?
DDL is a huge business conglomerate with several active arms. One of its products is the manufacture of rum. Those who know rum can attest that the rum is great. And consuming it is a matter of personal choice. It’s your poison!
The liquor industry, like the gambling industry, is a ‘sin’ business. Rum drinking dates back to indentureship and before – canefield, paymaster, rumshop, drunkenness – and has permeated the society at large, so much so that some allude to it as part of a culture, i.e., rum culture. There is enough evidence to show that the rum culture leads to alcoholism, domestic violence, and even murder among many diverse individuals.
Indiscriminate consumption of rum erodes the moral fibre of the individual, and then it consumes the individual – something akin to the multiplier effect – leading to decay and degradation of the self. Thus it becomes imperative for a moralistic reorientation and reconstruction, individually and nationally.
It seems strikingly inappropriate that the highest institution of learning is lying in bed with the biggest rum producing enterprise. Whether one is a connoisseur of fine liquors or a layabout ‘rum-sucker’ –merely difference without distinction – in location and context, it is apropos that you should look before you leap. It is not unusual that big businesses artfully clean up bad practices. For example, it is known that Iwokrama and a couple of other organizations in Guyana receive financial support from big oil. Some major billion dollar businesses in the U.S. engage in such practices on a humongous scale, where it appears to be normative. They create a facade of good practices. It’s an ongoing sanitizing exercise.
Now the UG Foundation is being lured with donation from DDL. Regrettably, its overarching, impressive and praiseworthy objectives are thus compromised. The old adage caveat emptor is so befitting. Two advice: trust but verify; always look the gift horse in the mouth.
Yours truly,
Gary Girdhari
