Dear Editor,

In a recent letter captioned ‘Protect the children of Guyana from predators’ (KN 07.01.13) I had written: “The children of any nation are its most prized possessions/assets. It is therefore every citizen/parent’s responsibility to do everything possible to protect our children from danger.” That letter was written in the hope that Guyana would take precautions to avoid one of the most undesirable evils of the tourist traffic, that is, the sexual exploitation of our children. Little did I realize that my warning was already too late for some of our most vulnerable children.

Dr Gail Whiteman in Chapter 11 titled: “Forestry, Gold Mining and Amerindians: The Troubling Example of Samling in Guyana” of her book “International businesses and the challenges of poverty in the developing world,” wrote:

“Direct impacts of Barama (Samling is the parent Company of Barama).

Interviews indicate that the economic benefits for local Amerindians from large-scale forestry were not significant