Anticipating a pay rise that was never on the cards

By Adam Harris- There is nothing funnier than to see children, particularly babies waiting in anticipation of a morsel. Some mothers tease these tots only to watch them actually open their mouths in anticipation even as the mother directs the spoon or fork to her mouth. Of course, it is almost the same with dogs but they are often not as passive as babies. We watch them. We salivate—some say you mouth run water—at the sight of watching someone eating something sour. That could be the same reaction when someone talks up a mouthwatering dish or something of the sort. It is often not a nice thing to do when one knows that there would be no sharing. Those of us who never had enough to eat know the feeling.

Growing up I loved condensed milk. I would suck some from a tin my mother had, and think about the beating later. The desire far outweighed the punishment. I suspect that it is the same with thieves and bandits. I also vowed that when I got old enough to work there would always be a tin of condensed milk at hand. It was the same with fried fish. I am more than old enough but I can’t comprehend myself drinking condensed milk. I am diabetic. Fried fish only goes well with cook-up or as cutters. But those things do not stop me from dreaming.

When Budget date was announced I had become immune to Budgets so I didn’t drool. The budget did not induce any mouthwatering because I knew it would only remain in my imagination. It was ethereal, like a cloud or a ghost. For some the anticipation was ephemeral—very fleeting. And so it was. If you can afford two meals per day, you are better off than some seventy percent of Guyanese. In terms of numbers, you are better off than at least 520,000 Guyanese.

If you are certain about one solid meal, then you are better off that some 225,000 Guyanese, nearly a quarter of the population. This sounds shocking when one thinks that per capita Guyana is the tenth richest country in the world. About a quarter of the population is hungry. There is no need for me to go back to the details of children going to school hungry even as each year the government announces massive budgets.

Budget 2024 was by far the largest. It is more than a trillion dollars. That is money that most of us cannot wrap our head around. Some people listened and waited. They wanted to know if the budget had anything for them. Only the pensioners in our midst got a small piece that is not large enough to buy a cylinder of cooking gas. People hoped that their lot would be changed. They desperately wanted something extra to foot the food bill, not struggle with the rent and transportation and certainly to put something in their children’s kits. There was nothing but a promise that there could be something toward the end of the year.

Analysing this massive budget with all the oil money, one finds that more than two-thirds—some $667 billion– would be going to contractors. One speaker said that there could be about one thousand contractors. That would be a huge number of contractors. I don’t think local contractors number more than twenty. That would mean that most of the contractors are coming from overseas. They are the ones who are going to make money. And Member of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan says that they will be collecting twenty per cent of the contracts as their profit. Twenty per cent of $667 billion would amount to $133 billion. The public servants and the pensioners who number about 130 thousand will get no more than $23 billion. And that is really stretching the Maths.

This is happening because the government says that it is focusing on infrastructure. People cannot eat roads, bridges and houses. This is perhaps why there are not enough people to do the work. Empty bags cannot stand. There have been repeated calls for the government to pay attention to people but there are those in the government who say that feeding people will not boost development. This is shocking to the point that the general view is that there is no caring for people.

Just the other day the government and the police were talking about a whopping increase in crime. Murders have gone up; young motorcyclists test fate by being reckless on the road. They probably prefer to die than to live hand to mouth or hungry. I suspect that some people have taken to burning their homes with the hope of collecting the insurance. At the same time, the few skilled people are leaving for what they consider greener pastures. And this can be understood when one looks at the migration of Venezuelans. They comprise the largest group of migrants to the United States. The others are settling anywhere else but in Venezuela. Guyanese are following suit.

In the not too distant past, another government with a promise of a good life for all, actually concentrated on improving wages and salaries. And that was done without oil money. I had pointed out before, that Trinidad with no more than a quarter of the oil that Guyana is producing, made its people very happy. To this day, its teachers are earning more than three times what Guyanese teachers are earning. Here, something is wrong.

There was a time when budgets really meant something for the people.  Shopkeepers set their eyes on the budget because it meant that they too would get something. Today, the shopkeepers have to depend on the contractors. But most of these contractors send their money back to whence they came. And the extent of poverty and indiscipline in Guyana is clear for all to see. Children can be seen at odd hours on the streets heading to school. Perhaps they were waiting for a meal before they left home.

Old people do not eat much so they could get by on little. But the bulk of the nation is young. The government is not listening to the cries of the people. One newspaper has a regular column of the reaction of people to the cost of living. That column is revealing but then again, the government is either not reading or listening.