Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 07, 2013 Letters
Dear Editor,
When speaking about the future of the youths in Guyana, it is a paradox of the developmental dysfunctionality that has and continues to take place under this regime. While their parents, many of whom are single mothers, work menial jobs to send their children to school, unemployment among the youth remains stubbornly high.
Statistics we thoroughly studied from the UNDP Human Development Report reveal that unemployment among the youths in Guyana (aged 15-24) is at a shocking high of 50% which is thrice the reported national unemployment rate. This is essentially a human tragedy.
It was the parents of these youths who worked tirelessly to rebuild the country’s economy after 1992: working in the sugar, bauxite and rice industries and in the public service doing the night shifts on guard duty and driving the minibuses around the clock. And a generation of women (many of them single parents) has and continues to make valuable contributions to the health, education and social services, and has never been properly acknowledged and celebrated.
Back to the tragedy of our youths. The high youth unemployment is very troubling and disappointing, especially for the males. As a result of extremely poor national planning, the economy has struggled to create the new type of highly skilled jobs demanded by the new generation.
When we were growing up in Guyana there were companies such as the Ruimveldt Industrial Estate, GNEC, Ayanganna Construction, Versailles Dairy Complex, Guyana Timbers, Guyana Rice Board in Kingston, LIDCO Milk Plant, the sugar and the bauxite sectors, all of which were full of manufacturing and light-engineering jobs in addition to the physically demanding jobs in the fields and the mines. The youths of those days owe their existence partly to just those employment opportunities. But over the years, these jobs have largely vanished from Guyana due to privatization and in some cases, due to the lack of entrepreneurs and the government’s inability to create the environment to attract foreign investors.
Let us be clear, we are strong supporters of the concept of private enterprise, but any experienced national planner and politicians would have ensured that there would have been an evolving employment plan with privatization. Our ancestors found jobs and were able to climb the economic ladder with hard work even in the most difficult times during the colonial period and the PNC days. Now there are dwindling job opportunities for young people with or without formal qualifications.
A generation ago it was still possible to leave school with good grades at 17 and become a bank clerk, a nurse, a local government officer with no political connections and earn decent wages to make a good living. Now these jobs are so few and scarce that many employers recruiting for similar roles are demanding a degree from applicants.
There is no question that a lack of qualifications has held some young people back, especially our male youths. But there is anecdotal evidence that most of the young people who are getting the best jobs in the country are those with less qualifications than their peers but have godfathers in the PPP, thus leaving the others to join the army of the unemployed or settle for low-paying jobs or join the criminal gangs and rob and sometimes kill innocent and law-abiding citizens.
The empirical evidence is emerging that the lack of qualifications alone does not account for this level of high unemployment among the youths. The major problem is that the PPP government is yet to establish an economic strategy that would provide such employment.
The PPP is more interested in covering up corrupt practices, spreading propaganda and governing as a majority than creating employment opportunities for the youths. We believe that the regime has committed the most offensive act; that is they have abused and abandoned the young people of Guyana.
What is clear is that this economic lethargy is hitting the youths disproportionately hard. And the figures will only get worse if this administration does not get its act together quickly. The youths, particularly the young men, are more likely to fail in this new PPP developmental malfunctionality.
Some people will be antagonised by any discussion of the fact that spiraling unemployment is hitting the young people the hardest. They may think of it as a price worth paying. But the more unequal a society, the more unstable it is. As a politician, the President must be made aware that the temperature among the unemployed youths has reached the boiling point and the pressure is rapidly building up and is likely to explode if there is no relief soon. Sweeping this issue under the carpet is not an option; it will only set the carpet on fire.
The PPP regime cannot afford to ignore the reality of youth unemployment and the hopelessness, anguish and frustration that accompany it. They must examine carefully what the underlying results might be if they do not provide good jobs for the youths.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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