Budget 2026 came early in the New Year. It might have been better for it to come later in the year, or not at all. Budget 2026 took six and a half hours to present. It should have been all of six and a half minutes, and not a second more. Not one item would be lost.
A budget is a financial plan. I say without fear of contradiction that those who had a hand in that budget had a dark plan for the Guyanese people. The poor; they are still citizens. I have to question that, considering how sparse the trickles that dribbled down to them. The weak and needy and vulnerable, and they also should count as Guyanese. Did they in that budget? I have my doubts; just consult with the budget numbers, those unspeakable, insulting, allocations for Guyanese low on the totem pole. A dark and seemingly sinister plan to add more distress to the already distressed.
Who wants to hear, or read about, that kind of news this early in a new year? In a country floating on sweet, thin, oil, and where Guyanese are classified as high-income citizens (GY$2.5 million plus per year, per the World Bank), there is the puzzle of half in the population that can’t buy something as low to the ground as a gallon of rice; or two l’il loaf of bread in one go. Time for the numbers, only some.
Budget 2026 is over a trillion and a half dollars, and all that the poor people sections of Guyana can get is $3,000, or $5000, or $10,000 increases, or a new $20,000 travel coupon. Old people, sick people, young people, lost people, that’s it; their bloated share of Budget 2026. It must be a five-year budget to top a trillion and a half. It is unbelievable, more than unconscionable, that so much can be allocated for the lifeless, but so little for those clinging to life in Guyana by a thread. The same numbers tell a deeper story.
Hundreds of billions for wood and stone, sand and steel, and a measly $5000 (or ten) increase for Guyanese who are forever pulling their hair out of their head to make a pot come together. A stock of public goods is being built up for this and the next century but there is the stark contrast of some half of Guyana’s population wondering how they are going to make it to the end of the day, or week, without trapping their next foot in the grave, and toppling over into it. It is timely to revisit that point where I asserted that the 2026 budget could have been read and done in 6 and a half minutes. Watch me.
So many hundreds of billions for public infrastructure with roads and schools and hospitals getting so much each; then so many billions for farmers and national defense and technology, and Part I is over in less than three minutes. One minute to rush past the maagah dawg numbers for the poor, famished, and fearful in Guyana, and two thirds of the national budget presentation is over. Why waste time with people who don’t count that high on the priority ladder? The scanty budget numbers for those segments of the population confirmed that, didn’t they? With two and a half minutes left, use 50% of that to speak heartily about economic growth in 2025, projected economic growth in 2026, and new developmental projects in the pipeline, plus a little jawing about the biggest bulldozer in Guyana, the national oil bonanza. Remember that, it is still around and coming up from under the sea in geysers that spout their riches at accelerating rates into tankers.
Try this one for size, fellow citizens, fellow strugglers. With all this economic growth, those stupendous double-digit percentages, somebody needs to explain to the public why the average Guyanese is continuously stuck in a land called stagnation and depression. Because the Lenten Season is closing on the horizon, I took a detour and bypassed using starvation. With all the required fasting, the demand for food items should lessen, leading to lower prices for stomach basics. Reality check: please think twice about putting any eggs in that shaky basket.
Some difficult folks slapped the budget down. It is for elites. I stick to basic English. The budget is for the rich and famous. The overfed and the overweight. The movers and shakers who shook the sweet budget tree and moved all the juicy plums to land in their lap. Meanwhile, the hungry, the thirsty, and those in captivity to poverty hear the budget and kneel to pray. How long more, Lord? Let this cup pass, Lord.
