Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 13, 2018 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
In the mid-1960s my fatherm Aaron Blackman Snr, worked as a cane harvester and mason who maintained the kiln when the grinding of canes stopped and maintenance crew stepped in. Every year end the workers received a bonus which was commonly known as “once for all”.
I remember my father, with a one hundred dollar bonus, was able to purchase wood and zinc sheets that provided accommodation that covered an area of about 20 feet by 10 feet – adding a room to our small house that accommodated twelve of us .
Today that same space will cost almost one million dollars to erect, which is an uphill task to obtain as a poor person living in the villages where poverty thrives.
Anyone who denies the poor individual to lift himself or herself out of the slums of life, through his or her initiative, is unaware of the plight of the invisible poor, they have never slept on the concrete floor, or in congested spaces, that causes child molestation and sexual abuse to thrive.
They have never known what it is to not have a passage to join the bus that is three miles away from your school, find good friends to take your bag on the bus, then run that distance from Bachelors Adventure to Buxton Government Secondary School.
It turned out that I became the school’s top distance runner, Goalkeeper , Cricket all-rounder, and today I am a professional Social Worker and Football Coach. The youth is the truth, and the sooner we come to that realization the better will be the results for positive change in this God-blessed nation.
The politics is getting nasty; to deliver to the people of Guyana what is rightfully theirs is now seen as electioneering, while at the same time they are crying out that the poor are feeling the squeeze, sugar workers are suffering, and you are saying don’t give them no money. Where is the sense in your argument?
There would be no poor household that will get the opportunity to receive US$5000 and refuse it. This is what will intensify entrepreneurial development. This does not mean that there will not be negative behaviours from some that are bent in their ways. Businesses will be given a boost in the village community, and there will be smiles on many faces.
It is people who develop communities and not communities that develop people. Give people money and they will create a new day for themselves and their family, hence thriving communities.
I give Professor Clive Thomas my fullest support in the suggestion he made to give every household a cheque for US$5000 every year. This is very minimal when the magnitude of the financial returns from the oil industry is considered.
I pray that the politicians give love a try; stop the fighting for power and support positive development.
RAS Aaron Blackman
Social Worker
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