President Ramotar sang an old, old, old song

Oct 02, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If some Third World leaders had their way, they would let a select set of countries aid and feed the developing world while they do absolutely nothing to propel development in their own poor economies. If you research the UN speeches of Third World leaders the past forty years, they centered around a recurring theme – we need the understanding and assistance from the developed world; we are small and poor and more assistance is needed.
Back home, these leaders did not show to their subjects the kind of understanding and generosity that they demanded from the developed world. They ran their economies into the ground, development was stultified, the future disappeared. Nothing has changed in these leaders since Independence came. Of course there have been outstanding exceptions like South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and even our own Trinidad.
Here is what President Ramotar told the UN in September 2013; “While it appears that the latter two regions (Europe and the US) are emerging from these crises, in the Caribbean, the effects are still devastating.” Mr. Ramotar was referring to the enormous financial collapse of the US economy in 2008-9 that pulled the major world economies down. The Kaieteur News went on to state that Mr. Ramotar called on the international community to revise “how it treats with countries such as Guyana … when it comes to accessing financing.”
Sounds like the usual begging bowl mentality.
In relation to Guyana, it must be recalled that President Jagdeo (and repeated by Mr. Ramotar since he became President) publicly stated that Guyana was one of the countries that did not feel the shock of the world’s financial disaster. On occasions too numerous to mention, Mr. Jagdeo said that when compared internationally, Guyana experienced better growth rates than most nations during the global recession.
The question is (and this comes from the mouth of Mr. Ramotar) why the US and Europe are recovering and why isn’t Guyana? Why if Guyana withstood the lava of the American meltdown, do we still need better terms of financing? Why aren’t we on our way of climbing further up the index of countries that are doing well? Most of all, Mr. Ramotar and Mr. Jagdeo (trained economists) need to explain to the Guyanese people why the US has survived the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and has rebounded, Europe has recovered too, but Guyana still goes begging in international forums?
Could one of the answers be genetics? The superiority of the white man?
Well, it can’t be. Singapore, Japan, China, Trinidad, South Korea, etc., are doing well, and the white man is not in charge there. The answer is in sociology and the political economy of Guyana. Mr. Ramotar called on the developed states to be more understanding while he and his party show no similar empathy to the Guyanese people.
Where are the creative and innovative changes in Guyana, one of the Third World’s potentially rich lands, that as a matter of exigency we must have if we are to stop out begging habits?
While in Northern Ireland, bitter enemies have put aside more than sixty years of fighting each other, Guyana’s great divide is expanding. Belgium has a power-sharing government. Even Mugabe conceded such a formula. If you travel the globe, you see ancient hotspots are healing, but not in Guyana. We go to the UN in 2013 and ask for consideration by countries that have their own problems while we refuse to solve our own self-destructive dilemmas.
Why should any developed country help Guyana when Guyana refuses to embark on pathways to progress that are so urgent? Why should rich economies help us when four hours of rain inundates the capital city, with tremendous financial losses to citizens, and we do nothing about it? Why should any large state pour money into Guyana while we continue a sixty-year-old battle between Indians and Africans and PPP and PNC?
Mr. Ramotar may have returned to Guyana. I don’t know at the time of writing. But once he is back, the battle that is so old will continue – them versus us. And development, progress and the future of Guyana continue as casualties. We will endure the hardship, the country will get poorer, pessimism and angst will continue to grow, but as September 2014 is reached the President of Guyana will return to the United Nations once more and he will sing an old, old, old song.
And by that time, Greece which has become poorer than us in 2013 will leap past us by billions of miles. In other words, the world moves on, not Guyana though.

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President Ramotar sang an old, old, old song

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