Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 23, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
With all the subsidy from Govt. to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per crop, and with no end in sight to these and other atrocities committed by this State owned, or people-owned corporation, Guysuco and the Board of Directors continue to operate as if they are on a run-away train, destined for destruction when the track runs out.
Put in clear Guyanese language this group of faceless, talentless, no-vision people who comprise the Board and other management structures “deh pun s…….t.”
How many of these people are citizens of other countries. When our poor people emigrate in search of the better life that eludes us here; these fat cats who are honoured citizens will live in New York enjoying their huge pensions. We will continue to hope for the better life the President of Guyana envisions for us. We want the better life now, not in the next life; we deserve to live as ordinary folks, knowing the origin of the next meal.
KN has reported sufficiently on all the high salaried personnel, perks of office, other benefits that the colonial masters used to enjoy, yet this group of people behave as if they have been placed on the Board to destroy this flagship of our patrimony, sugar. In missives contributed earlier, we feel that no one is listening to us, the people of Guyana, who are the owners of Guysuco, Hello people at Guysuco, we are watching you, and we will be on your case, on your back.
What if Guysuco was a private corporation, do many of you think you would have been brought out of retirement to continue the same old ways of doing business? There must be evidence in Corporate Law of a line of jurisprudence that can bring to justice those who have brought sugar to beggary. Can we get some help here from decent attorneys at law?
Planting rice at Wales is the last straw that this drowning person can grasp. To prepare 435 acres of cane fields for flat land cultivation will cost tremendous sums of money, and look they are hoping to do so with laser equipment. All the lands in rice all over this Guyana; have been cleared of jungle to make rice fields. Our fathers used the most primitive means to prepare lands for rice. We are not suggesting that present day agriculture must revert to primitive means to prepare lands for farming. We abhor the thought of converting well laid out bed and drains of the cane fields for a crop like rice, which in this age require state of the art equipment for land preparation.
Editor, the issue here is why would a bankrupt entity wish to embark on the cultivation of a crop that will require enormous cost not only for land preparation, but other machinery for crop husbandry, harvesting, drying and storage and perhaps milling of the grain?
The next humongous question is; where do they plan to sell the rice. With the loss of the Venezuelan market with all its perks, where will Guyana sell these extra few hundred acres of production? It is a fact that Guyana has to diversify its rice industry to other crops. Dr. Jagan had advised rice farmers: “do not put all your eggs in one basket” We do not listen to proper advice that is why we are in a hole. To save the rice industry we have to cut back on production, the State has a role to play in rice’s future. Wales’ future has been discussed by RURAL PEOPLE in previous articles. We plan more discussion on this issue of land for the tiller, not land for the failures. Wales is our prime target.
It is known to all rice farmers that the cost to produce a bag of rice is almost as high as the selling price of rice. That the rice farmer exists up to now is a mystery of economics, and perhaps collectively they should be awarded the Nobel Prize, for either being human or economic wizards.
It is now time for the Granger Administration to take heed of the path where Guysuco is taking this nation. Yes sugar is too big to fail. Sugar must save sugar through sugar. There is abundant evidence and information on the viability of this sweet product. Valuable resources are available, both human and, innovation on what sugar can do for itself. Those in the leadership are spent. The Bakra left us with a good thing. Must we trample it underfoot? We need new blood to pilot sugar forward in these turbulent times, not through other crops. Sugar must not be contaminated with false ideas.
If Guysuco Board is the Jonah, let Guysuco Board go. Failure begets failure. There are others who can resolve Guysuco’s dilemma. Our cane harvesters and shovel men also have ideas to save Guysuco, but not by engaging in failure after failure. All previous investigations on our property (Guysuco) have been shrouded in secrecy; the decisions have been made by persons who were around when things began to slide, they are now again in the driver’s seat. They are not seeing with the sight of persons who have clear vision of the way forward.
The President must appoint a Tribunal to take evidence from the people of Wales and surrounding areas on how they the people who have been living one day at a time can find work for themselves and family on the lands that cannot feasibly produce cane, but can sustain all the people from Pouderoyen to beyond Free and Easy.
HAFIZ RAHMAN
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
Apr 18, 2024
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