Dear Editor,
I am aware that the subject of this letter has been addressed by others. Yet, from my position of a member of the 40th. Anniversary of the University of Guyana twenty years ago and currently a long-standing faculty member of its Department of Law, I have strong convictions on the association between the University of Guyana and Demerara Distillers Ltd on the occasion of the University’s 60th anniversary. However the University and DDL may want to portray this unaged, 60th edition product, it is nothing more than the promotion of a substance which takes a heavy toll on Guyanese, the poorer class, youth, Amerindians, households and increasingly, women.
Two years ago, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) published a Regional Status Report on Alcohol in the Americas 2020. I am not sure which is worse – that the UG Administration is aware of the distressing findings of the Report but sells its intellectual soul and reputation for an uncertain sum of money, or that it does not know of the Report. Of the thirty-five (35) countries covered by the Report, Guyana ranks among the bad to very bad in most of the metrics surveyed – alcohol use by youth (aged 15 – 19); alcohol consumption among adults; alcohol drinks per day per drinker; alcohol attributable deaths; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome. Working class families are stuck in poverty because the “rum bill” is the first claim on the household’s income, leaving little for education, healthy living and savings.
Domestic abuse, miserable and unhappy households, lost working days, lives shortened, debilitating illnesses and inter-personal violence are some of the other common realities attributable to alcohol. Alcohol is itself a public health hazard, putting a strain on medical services with the society having to bear the consequence and cost of medical, pharmacological, psychosocial and rehabilitation and aftercare services. In Canada, the health cost associated with alcohol is higher than that of tobacco, itself a destructive product. That is probably true of Guyana as well. Guyana, including the University of Guyana, needs to undertake research on alcohol and its consequences. DDL does not need to make a contingent contribution to UG’s 60th. Anniversary.
In 2021, DDL reported a staggering $5.6 billion in pre-tax profits of which a meagre 20% is paid out as dividends. It can easily fund such an exercise, knowing that the tax laws would allow the cost as tax-deductible, meaning that the activity is in any case partly funded by the State. On the other hand, a premier institution of higher learning ought to adopt a policy on the type of companies, businesses and products with which it will engage. Alcohol ought to disqualify itself, along with companies whose activities harm the environment, which disregard their corporate social responsibility, which practise aggressive accounting and disclosure policies, or which engage in abusive labour practices.
The Government too must play its part. Management of the health sector requires relevant and timely statistics, better laws on the sale of alcohol as well as on driving under the influence, clear rules on advertising of alcoholic products and increased spending on research, all designed to mitigate some of the more serious
consequences of alcohol use across demographics. It must ask itself about the logic of applying a lower corporation tax rate on the producers of alcohol than on those companies that import and sell medical products to treat the consequences of alcohol!
Finally, it must ask itself why, and do something about the resistance of public companies to a binding corporate governance code for Guyana. I express my profound disappointment at this decision by the UG Administration, essentially celebrating alcohol. Hopefully, alongside the product at its Campus Store – virtual or otherwise – there will be some warning about the harmful effects of alcohol on users and society.
Sincerely,
Christopher Ram
