http://www.kaieteurnewsgy.com/editorial.htm
Hearing it from the IDB
Editorial, Kaieteur News, 7 August 2007
Guyanese are either the most gullible people or the most docile. Either
way, they have been lied to with such consummate ease, fed information
that is useless and told things that would make them believe that all
is well with their economic future.
They are also denied the right to find out anything for themselves
although there is much talk about democracy; they are promised the
silver lining behind the dark cloud and just about everything else. Of
course this has not been a recent development. We can still remember
the days when we were promised that all our woes would be over once we
completed the hydro-electric facility in the Upper Mazaruni.
With the gleam in our eyes we set about capitalising on the windfall we
got that year for our rice and sugar that we sold on the European
market. It was not long before the Venezuelans, with their clout on the
international scene, ensured that there was no hydro electric plant in
Guyana.
Then we decided to capitalize on the available land at our disposal. We
set about establishing the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural
Development Authority. All was going well until the international
community stepped in once more to prevent us from completing the
drainage and irrigation schemes.
The then President Forbes Burnham immediately sought to exhort us to be
prepared to use our fingernails to dig those drainage and irrigation
canals because they were important to Guyana's continued development.
We yelled our support.
Today the scheme is all but divested. The new government declined to
pour money into that project, something that we have come to regret.
But we were told that the project was a waste of time. We were lied to.
Yesterday, we got the biggest shock of our lives. The President of the
Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, told us that we
were paying the most for electricity in all of Latin America. But had
we listened to our leaders we would not have known this or even
believed this.
They told us that while the International Monetary Fund was against
subsidies, somehow or the other, the power company was saving us from
bearing the full cost of the electricity we enjoy.
It took the president of the Inter-American Development Bank to let us
know that we were paying 25 US cents per kilowatt hour while the rest
of Latin America were paying an average of 15 US cents per kilowatt
hour. This is some 60 percent more than the people in Latin America
were paying.
We earn less than these people, we have less to enjoy than these people
by way of infrastructure and we are definitely poorer than these
people.
The people at the power company have been meeting with the press from
time to time but they never told us that they were charging us a jewel
and a crown for electricity. Instead they told us about the cost of the
expansion programme, about the distance along which the power has to be
supplied and every other unnecessary fact.
Some may argue that the information is readily available. All one has
to do is access the internet and check studies on power generation. We
would come into contact with the various bodies that have done these
studies and their findings.
But not many of us in this society are so versed in seeking material.
And this is not common to Guyanese. People in the developed world would
seek information directly related to them but they expect their
government to level with them.
We would not be asking too much if we should expect the government to
let us know what we are paying for what.
The revelation that we are paying so much more for electricity is
surely a wake-up call. We wonder how much more than anyone else we are
paying for water, telecommunication services and the like. We could ask
our parliamentary representatives to seek the answers, but the way the
National Assembly is structured, it could be months before the answer
is provided, in that it could be months before the motion is tabled.
All is not well and we in this country have the unenviable position of
having no way of getting answers from our national leaders.
Hearing it from the IDB
Editorial, Kaieteur News, 7 August 2007
Guyanese are either the most gullible people or the most docile. Either
way, they have been lied to with such consummate ease, fed information
that is useless and told things that would make them believe that all
is well with their economic future.
They are also denied the right to find out anything for themselves
although there is much talk about democracy; they are promised the
silver lining behind the dark cloud and just about everything else. Of
course this has not been a recent development. We can still remember
the days when we were promised that all our woes would be over once we
completed the hydro-electric facility in the Upper Mazaruni.
With the gleam in our eyes we set about capitalising on the windfall we
got that year for our rice and sugar that we sold on the European
market. It was not long before the Venezuelans, with their clout on the
international scene, ensured that there was no hydro electric plant in
Guyana.
Then we decided to capitalize on the available land at our disposal. We
set about establishing the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural
Development Authority. All was going well until the international
community stepped in once more to prevent us from completing the
drainage and irrigation schemes.
The then President Forbes Burnham immediately sought to exhort us to be
prepared to use our fingernails to dig those drainage and irrigation
canals because they were important to Guyana's continued development.
We yelled our support.
Today the scheme is all but divested. The new government declined to
pour money into that project, something that we have come to regret.
But we were told that the project was a waste of time. We were lied to.
Yesterday, we got the biggest shock of our lives. The President of the
Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, told us that we
were paying the most for electricity in all of Latin America. But had
we listened to our leaders we would not have known this or even
believed this.
They told us that while the International Monetary Fund was against
subsidies, somehow or the other, the power company was saving us from
bearing the full cost of the electricity we enjoy.
It took the president of the Inter-American Development Bank to let us
know that we were paying 25 US cents per kilowatt hour while the rest
of Latin America were paying an average of 15 US cents per kilowatt
hour. This is some 60 percent more than the people in Latin America
were paying.
We earn less than these people, we have less to enjoy than these people
by way of infrastructure and we are definitely poorer than these
people.
The people at the power company have been meeting with the press from
time to time but they never told us that they were charging us a jewel
and a crown for electricity. Instead they told us about the cost of the
expansion programme, about the distance along which the power has to be
supplied and every other unnecessary fact.
Some may argue that the information is readily available. All one has
to do is access the internet and check studies on power generation. We
would come into contact with the various bodies that have done these
studies and their findings.
But not many of us in this society are so versed in seeking material.
And this is not common to Guyanese. People in the developed world would
seek information directly related to them but they expect their
government to level with them.
We would not be asking too much if we should expect the government to
let us know what we are paying for what.
The revelation that we are paying so much more for electricity is
surely a wake-up call. We wonder how much more than anyone else we are
paying for water, telecommunication services and the like. We could ask
our parliamentary representatives to seek the answers, but the way the
National Assembly is structured, it could be months before the answer
is provided, in that it could be months before the motion is tabled.
All is not well and we in this country have the unenviable position of
having no way of getting answers from our national leaders.
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