Dear Editor,
The diaspora recruitment venture held at the La Guardia Marriot on Saturday, July 27, 2024 was poorly attended. With the customary lengthy speeches focused on solicitation of Guyanese to return for good jobs in Guyana, the event turned out as a futile exercise with the accompanying waste of taxpayers’ money. Private Sector Chairman, Komal Singh, lamented the shortfall of skilled labour in the areas of plumbing, welding and bricklaying while highlighting the shortage of electricians, doctors and skilled medical personnel, however, the learned gentleman made a gross omission: the salary package and conditions of employment.
Most speakers floundered in giving an accurate assessment of the real scenario governing the shortage of personnel and the underlying conditions that produced the exodus in the first case; instead they all parroted the ‘ return to your country’ mantra . Not a single speaker indicated any system in place to facilitate and expedite any remigration that may occur and one is left to wonder if the existing horrendous procedures for re-migrants will remain. Main speaker, Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud, a resurrection of the PPP- missing in action from 2015 to 2020 was superficial to say the least as his clarion call to return to Guyana. For this apparatchik who held several ministerial portfolios, his speech was deprived of any somber attributes, relying on ‘patriotism’ as the driving force to the Land of Many Waters (which now imports water).
There was no need for such an event and it is indeed mindboggling to understand those who conceived such an ill-fated and costly undertaking. My discourse with three of the top executives at the forum left me disappointed in the mediocre quality of the country’s top echelons of administration. Finally, in a country plagued with a litany of social infrastructure pitfalls: blackouts, poor water supply, regular flooding, garbage pileups, lack of simple health care (patients have to buy bandages) and widespread bribery in all facets of society the salient question remains: which Guyanese living in the US (with top class health care and education systems coupled with suitable salary and pension benefits) will be inclined to return to Guyana?
Sincerely,
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine