Over the last weekend, Guyana observed Emancipation Day. Traditionally in this country, this is a day of celebration. It is supposed to commemorate the date the slaves secured their freedom.
It was said that there was drumming and dancing on the occasion but according to one historian, there were a lot of prayers. The slaves had taken to Christianity like duck to water.
Sunday marked the 183rd anniversary of that event. Guyana now observes Emancipation Day on August 1. It used to be the first Monday in August, hence August Monday.
People have been asking me what is there to celebrate this year. I decided to give the issue some thought and came up with the mundane answer, ‘Life’. Some people would contend that it is better to die than to live in abject poverty or in conditions of hopelessness.
It is not easy to wake up every morning not sure where the first meal is coming from. It becomes worse when the parents have to look behind and see hungry children looking at them. Many mothers have abandoned their children. The men had already disappeared.
Just as the slaves in large part looked to the master for sustenance way back when people in this country still look to the government. But there were those freed slaves who were bent on their independence. They had their garden plots and they saved money.
And there were those who were keen to imitate the White ruler, right down to the way he dressed in his suit and tie. They pursued education. In fact, that is the best thing that people have copied from the colonial master.
As a boy growing up I found my grandparents with three large plots of land aback of Beterverwagting. My aunt in Plaisance, similarly, had three plots aback of the village. One plot in both villages was for sugarcane, the others were for agriculture. I can say that hunger disappeared when I moved to Beterverwagting.
There was no shortage of food and fruit.
Today, very few want to work hard. A few are planting but for those who want to, there is a need for money to get started.
It is the same thing with the government and the people. There is a lot of noise about people being given house lots. Many have a house lot but do not have the wherewithal to build on it. It’s like having a car without wheels.
And the house lot is not for free. The cheapest lot is some $300,000. For many people that is the equivalent of four month’s salary.
But there is the promotion that the government is doing so much for the people. There was the COVID relief package–$25,000 per household. Many people had to prove that they owned the house. If they were renting they had to provide their rent receipts. And if there were more than one household in a building then some form of proof was needed.
To this day many people have not received the COVID relief. The trend continued with the flood relief. There have been reports of selective distribution. Again, hundreds of people have not received one cent.
Then there is the ’Because We Care’ distribution. Parents are given a sum of money per child. From my vantage point, this money could be less than one month’s salary. It is supposed to last for an eternity. People are happy.
But this is not development. As Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon said over the weekend, the government is reducing people to mendicants—beggars. That is disturbing. Once people start stretching out the hand, that would become a habit. And I know that the government cannot sustain this donation drive.
President Irfaan Ali became upset when he was accused of giving handouts. He insisted that the distributions are not handouts. If someone gives me money for doing nothing then that person is giving me a handout.
I must admit that those 1,700 people dismissed when the Irfaan Ali government came to office would accept the handout. They were made jobless by a government that campaigned on a promise that it would create jobs for all.
There must be a lot of money to throw around. The government has poured money into the sugar industry and is still to get one of the closed sugar estates started. Money has been spent on machinery to aid in harvesting and cultivation but there have been no returns.
The re-employed cane farmers are being paid to do nothing. In fact, they are being given handouts. If I keep giving handouts I would be a nice person. The government is a nice person to some.
