Dear Editor,
With the permission of SN’s editorial team, I am writing to preempt its weekly Cost-of-Living series that comes out on Mondays. The objective is not to one up SN, but to register what is anticipated as the grim cost-of-living (food) reality of Guyanese in another place visited and another 10 Guyanese sharing their pain felt at varying levels of intensity. In so doing, I lay their circumstances at the feet of Bharrat Jagdeo, chief decision maker and controller, and Dr. Ashni Singh, a man who knows even more than the vice president does about how the technical aspects work.
I assert upfront that at least 5, if not as many as 7 of the 10 Guyanese interviewed and speaking the truths of their punishing conditions today will be about how rough things are. It is all about food. Food basics that are already unaffordable are slipping further away from the frail grasp of villagers or urbanites. Food that has to be done without. Food items that must be looked at, and then left behind by the many with a pit in the stomach. That’s real pain and real shame, it is my humble duty to inform Dr. Singh and Jagdeo. That’s the suffering nature of the food condition, the human condition, of too many Guyanese, Dr. Singh and Jagdeo.
Not one whit of gaudy statistic can diminish or wish away that condition that afflicts. From the mists of memory that is a quarter century old, I can dredge up and put out cold statistical and analytical conventions that may comfort some. Conventions such as the Sharpe ratio, covariances, and Black-Scholes, among a host of others such calculations. The Black-Scholes model can be used to compute volatility in a staggering array of areas. Perhaps, the Bank of Guyana, the Bureau of Statistics, and the Ministry of Finance, could employ that to refine their cost-of-living (food inflation rate). But what would be the point of all this? It can only be to prove how much I know; how smart I think I am. And that Dr. Singh and Jagdeo are seeking refuge in statistics, when they should be offering structured and sustained relief to Guyanese who are short of buying power, and hungry and letting the world know their food tribulations through SN’s channel?
I am damned if I know how any display of financial acumen (such as is rare here) and proving of points help one shorthanded Guyanese crying for help get that help. In the richest country per something (head, GDP, barrel of oil), there is the shame of Guyanese public calling in the wind for a listening ear and a helping hand. I am ashamed when their pain goes unanswered. Because Guyana has at its disposal today, the levels of assets and the mental levers that know full well what must be done to assist Guyanese in managing their day and life better. Endless and pointless arguments about luscious statistics are exercises in evasion and obfuscation.
Whether a point is scored (or not) about the truth of inflation, there are still too many Guyanese living not too far from the brink of starvation. The fact is that in a time of abundance, numerous poorer Guyanese across this country are gasping for economic breath. I think that the honest in Guyana (the truly honest, and not what passes for analytical or political honesty) will discern and acknowledge that our people grapple with not having enough, and that should be a blot on our conscience.
When poor Indians, poor Africans, poor Amerindians, poor mixed combinations, and poor Venezuelans, are hungry that is a stain on whatever intellect we claim to possess. And when their anguished moans go unanswered, each one of us who is doing better should feel smaller. I do. As has been said, people can’t consume roads and bridges as tempting as such may become. Similarly, citizens have no use for arguments with impressive charts and graphs that stand in support of doing nothing for them. While some may get psychic value from such subterfuges, I regret that I can’t. When people are hungry, I can’t be happy.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
