There are those of us who are critical of people who decorate their homes while the children go hungry. And this is common in many parts of the country. People are busy creating an impression for the neighbours while ignoring the people who matter. That seems to be the course of the Government. With the many road constructions and in some cases, the erection of tall edifices Guyana is going to look good for the visitors.
With its oil resources, people coming to the country will indeed say that Guyana is rich. Like those of us who travel overseas for the first time and see the skyscrapers and the lights and the vast network of roads, we will say that the country is a beautiful place. The first comedown is created in the inner city. There one sees the garbage and the street dwellers and the graffiti buildings, many of which are boarded up.
Those with money who avoid the inner city and go about their lives in splendor will always talk about the good life and the comforts of living in the country. These are the people who feature in magazines and in the movies. The images drag so many people to those countries to the extent that today, the best brains from Guyana are leaving. Those leaving are to be replaced by foreigners who live no better than the poor in the Guyana society. The difference is that they secured an education.
Like many Guyanese, having secured an education they cannot find jobs in their country. A simple research would show how many Indian doctors are undertaking menial jobs to eke out a living in their home country. These doctors come to Guyana, are paid better than Guyanese in the public sector doing the same job, and living a better life than they did in their homelands. And one must note that the government is stifling the Guyanese child from securing an education unless the parent is rich and can afford private tuition.
There is a young man who walks from Sophia to Dolphin Secondary School every morning. I see him about six. He said that he is going to lessons. His parents find money to pay for lessons but simply cannot afford the transportation cost. It would make sense for the government to pay the Guyanese better to keep them home. That would negate the need to provide accommodation and all the other allowances. Not that allowances aren’t being paid to some people.
The situation in Guyana, as far as wages and salaries are concerned, is that many public servants who are not leaving are gravitating to the foreign-based companies operating in Guyana. The Guyana Revenue Authority, one of the better paying agencies in Guyana, is losing its staff. Head of the GRA, Godfrey Statia, reported to the Public Accounts Committee, that he is training people only to lose them to the foreign oil companies. So it was that my attention was drawn to a foreign recruiting agency being given permission to recruit nurses from Bangladesh.
The number of recruits being bandied about is between 300 and 500. The salaries being offered range from US$700 to US$1,000 per month. The advertisement states that salaries will increase once these foreign nurses settle in Guyana. No income tax will be deducted. If a husband and wife are nurses, they will be provided with private residences. Living in Guyana for two years will allow the person or persons to apply for permanent residence.
Senior nurses left this country without ever earning US$700 per month. How can the government find the money to pay the foreigners and not the Guyanese? But there is another school of thought. One popular view is that the People’s Progressive Party is seeking to boost its electoral base.
Recently when this became public, the recruitment agency said that it was recruiting from anywhere. The proof of the pudding would be in the eating. The one thing that the foreigners will share with the locals is the constant blackout. Scarcely a day goes by without the power company removing the power from households.
Lying in the dark on a hot day, one cannot help but conclude that the government is preparing Guyanese for hell, said to be a very hot place. The thoughts continue to flow. How can the richest country in the region experience power outages to the extent that Guyana does? If these outages were intermittent, one could understand. They are incessant. The excuse is that the power company is experiencing technical difficulties. There are other power companies in the region. How is that they do not have as many technical difficulties as Guyana?
In fact, some of the power companies in the region are managed by Guyanese who left. There was a time when people leaving Guyana was blamed on Burnham. Burnham died thirty-eight years ago but people are leaving in even greater numbers. Most of those who leave talk about seeking a better life than the one they enjoy in this oil rich country. And surprisingly, within a few short years they return, some to build homes that they would have never afforded had they remained here.
They are then envied by their colleagues who remained who then decide to try any avenue to leave. Just recently, dozens of nurses left. The government complained but failed to recognise that it closed nursing schools in areas not known to be supportive of the government. There was the case of the government telling students of the Charles Rosa School of Nursing in Linden that should they try to apply to any other nursing school they would be banned from the profession. That was three years ago.
Today here we are recruiting nurses while those who could not be trained managed to become qualified and left. The few who remain for one reason or the other work at two or three hospitals each week. The doctors similarly split their time between hospitals and collect money from those who could afford. These are the lucky ones.
