Nigel Hinds’ EIM takes cash grant distribution to Linden, as Gov’t squats on $500B in Oil Fund

Delivering on a commitment to help the less fortunate the Economic Independence  Movement (EIM)  moved into the Linden township recently.

Continuing what the Movement calls “groundings,” 50 households in the Block 42 Amelia’s Ward area were given $10, 000 each. The next day, March 24, another 50 households in the Victory Valley area received $10,000 each.

Linden, a once thriving bauxite town and a stronghold of the Opposition, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) continues to suffer economic marginalisation at the hands of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government.

Shortly after coming to office in October 1992 the PPP Government executed a plan to shutter the Linden Mining Company (LINMINE).

Thousands of workers were laid off, their pension plan, worth in excesses $2.5 Billion dollars, was dismantled by the Government. These economic cruelties plunged a thriving town and the country’s most skilled artisans into despair.

The community has never recovered to at least a semblance of its known prosperity due to the absence of a programme to revitalise the community. Veteran trade unionist and General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has called the Government’s policy “economic genocide.”

EIM’s chairman, Nigel Hinds, told Village Voice News the organisation aims to meet with grassroots people from 100 of the most disadvantaged communities across Guyana.

Marginalised Guyanese need cash immediately for food, transportation and clothes, Hinds pointed out. “The $10,000, will, in some cases, put food on the table or take short term care of medication, travel costs, and/or buy a much-needed school textbook, sneakers or shoes.”

EIM’s input into these communities highlights the economic inequities in Guyana and absence of a national human development strategy.

In the world’s fastest growing economy at last half the population is poor, living on less than GY$1200.00 (US$5.50) per day according to a recent World Bank Report.

Alluding to existing reality, Hinds noted that in face of pervasive poverty “the PPP government squats on approximately GY$500 billion in the Natural Resource Fund, as over 45% of Guyanese continue to live in poverty, the chartered accountant pointed out.”

This year Guyana is projected to earn at least US$ 2.8 Billion in oil and gas revenue, a figure that is likely to rise given more finds. Last month ExxonMobil announced another significant find in the Stabroek Block.

Prior to Linden, EIM visited Tiger Bay and Albouystown in Georgetown, and Ithaca in Berbice as part of its planned 100 communities outreach.