Charity starts at home. Old Rant.

Oh beautiful flooded Guyana.

Guyana is in no position to help Niger

Friday, August 26th 2005

Desmond Persaud in his letter captioned "Did the government give money to Niger?" (13.8.05) aroused my curiosity as to the wealth of Guyana in his question, "will it be possible to discover from the government how much money the relatively wealthy nation of Guyana contributed to the relief effort to the 'Niger situation'?"

I refer to the 'Niger Situation' only because its President, Mamadou Tandja, is yet to admit his country is experiencing a famine despite countless claims from leading relief agencies that are present in the country at this moment. The World Food Program, an agency of the United Nations, has been the leading agency spearheading the relief efforts in Niger, and has disputed President Tandja's claim.

On the topic of rich countries' contributions towards the worldwide relief efforts on their way, Mr. Persaud would be disheartened to know that little has been done by those countries that are in fact relatively wealthy. The United States of America, a country proclaimed as being the richest in the world has contributed pennies in comparison to its potential. Its Global War On Terror or as its new war slogan proclaims its Campaign Against Extreme Islamists, has little room for side diversions like starving children, women and men, and most seldom mentioned, cattle and livestock owned by the starving families.

A nation such as Guyana, however wealthy one might perceive it to be, is in no position to help other nations in their times of need. This statement may sound crude and unsupported, but allow me to explain.

While Guyana's richness lies in our country's natural resources potential, our leaders are yet to emerge from their cocoons and demonstrate strong leadership in harvesting the bounties to be had by sustainably exploiting these natural resources, either through local investment or attracting benevolent (if there are any left) foreign developers. Companies such as Barama and Omai can be used as examples of natural resource development. Whether sustainable I am not convinced, however the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for making this charge. Unless we encourage more natural resources development in Guyana, with its revenues being used to expand the country's frontiers in terms of infrastructural development, providing the much needed employment our country so desperately needs, we are in no position to believe we are a "wealthy" nation - relative or not.

Moreover, we are still recovering from our own natural disaster. The recent floods devastated the country, and would certainly be repeated unless preventative measures are put in place now. The many lives lost, the farms destroyed, livestock damaged, and the infrastructural damage that may not be evident at the moment but which would be apparent soon enough, are present perils we are overcoming as a nation. Even with the outside donations we may have received to help us in our recovery effort, Guyanese tax payers are still left with a hefty bill to pay in these recovery efforts if we are to return to pre-flood conditions.

More recently, and I am surprised that there were not more discussions and revelation of a strong plan of action by the Guyanese government to supplement this imminent loss in revenue for the nation, the European Union has announced its withdrawal of subsidy support for Guyana's Sugar. Sugar has represented over our country's history, one of our most significant sources of foreign export and revenue earners. Apart from the much needed revenue derived from the export of sugar, many Guyanese livelihoods depend on this industry. I myself grew up in two sugar dependent villages on the West Bank Demerara region of Guyana, my father was employed by the industry before his migration to the United States. Thousands of Guyanese could be out of work and a Social Benefits Programme is non-existent to help them.

If I am to discuss an even more prevalent debacle - the unstoppable migration of trained, qualified, talented and young Guyanese to other countries that aren't as welcoming as they may have at first seemed to be - , I am afraid Mr. Persaud would be even more disheartened.

Clearly, with the abundance of problems that abound in Guyana and the lack of urgency in dealing with these problems, our country is in no position to donate money to other countries' relief efforts while we are in a desperate position of our own. If I am to find out that our country was generous in its donations to Niger, as sorry as I am about this tragedy, I will be disappointed, only because I am convinced that a nation should first take care of its own citizenry before being generous to others. After all, charity begins at home, and we are a country that is in need of charity ourselves.

Christopher A. Watson

Once more for the record. I believe in giving but when we are advocating to give to other countries and we are not helping our own, we have a problem. Today's Stabroek News is reporting Guyanaese checking themselves into shelters as a result of the floods they are experiencing. I wonder if the person asking for us to help other countries is advocating for his fellow Guyanese to be help by their leaders. Maybe it's time for him to write another letter.