Guyanese are celebrating another Christmas although this one will be far removed from the kind of Guyanese Christmas people had come to know. Many homes will have the traditional foods. There will be the pepper pot, garlic pork in those where pork eaters live, pickle onions and above all, the cake.
Except for those who have a bit more disposable income, these things would not be in the accustomed quantities. Throughout the year food cost has been rising while wages and salaries have remained static. What could have been bought for a certain sum now costs twice as much. Chicken, the most popular meat in Guyana, now costs more than $500 a pound.
Not so long ago Guyana was importing chicken and selling it for less than the locally produced chicken. The local producers vowed that they could supply the local market for about $200 per pound. They would now argue that feed prices and workers’ wages have gone up. Inflation has knocked the wind out of the sail of the promise by the local producers. In a few short years, inflation has gone up by some 200 per cent. And that is only for chicken.
Just about everything has gone up by as much if not more. Vegetables, fish, and the condiments are just as costly. But what is really different is that people have come to rely on the government for cash donations. There were those of us who grew up hearing that education would take us out of poverty. We believed and found our parents to be right.
Education placed the children of the poor into the top schools in the country. It paved the way for them to rub shoulders with the best and to learn. Not everybody was academically inclined. Those who were not were directed to trade. They did very well.
Forbes Burnham started national service precisely to aid those who were less academically inclined. Parents did what they did and raised their children without depending on grants from the government.
In the village of my birth, Beterverwagting, there was always food and merry-making. The people weren’t rich but they were largely self-sufficient. A lot has changed. And people should have seen this from the time the People’s Progressive Party came into office. One of the first actions of the PPP was to close the national service centres. That was the beginning of the end of skills training for the children of the poor.
They were expected to attend the other training institutions that had been denuded of teachers. In those days, parents wanted their children to do well. The government did not help. At the same time people were seeking cheap labour. These unskilled people were there at a dime a dozen.
But they were not motivated so increasingly they fell from the labour market. The nation is seeing the result. These people never had a safety net. And so it is that there began this dependence on handouts. To compound the situation, there was the influx of migrants who grabbed any job. They worked for cheap and they had a work ethic that was lacking among the locals.
But Guyanese, when they went overseas, displayed the same positive work ethic. It had to be that they were out of their comfort zone in the foreign country.The end result was that there was often no additional income coming even as members of the household were growing in direct proportion to the food bill. The government knew this so it dropped some crumbs as the September elections neared.
To sweeten the pot, President Irfaan Ali added the promise of some money called the cash grant. Having grown dependent, the people sat back and waited. Hunger is a common feature this Christmas. Toys are also absent because the children are being forced to grow up faster than they needed to.
In years gone by numerous Christmas parties would have been announced. People would have been dressing in what passes for their Christmas outfit. For the record, how many Santa hats or hats that the elves wore can be seen parading in the streets?
Homes that were decorated two years ago are devoid of decorations. That sends a message but the government is not heeding it. It has achieved its objective. For starters, Black people who celebrate Christmas more than any other race group in the country have been impoverished.
Women who would normally have been responsible for the decorations in the homes are busy serving as security guards. Many have to spend less time with their children who are left to their own devices.
In this oil rich country this should not have been the case. To justify the non-intervention into the rising prices and the low wages, President Irfaan Ali claims that he must spend whatever money there is in the coffers, wisely.
That translates into further impoverishment of the people. They are now like rats. The psychology of the rats is that when the nest becomes overcrowded, killings become rampant. This is exemplified in the number of armed robberies and murders being executed in the many communities.
People are also shying away from the automatic teller machines—ATMs—because there are people in the vicinity who are just waiting to rob them. Not many of these robberies make the news because people have lost faith in the police. Is this the death knell for Christmas in Guyana?
