Dear Editor,
I was entirely bemused reading Ms Elizabeth Daly’s fulminations vis-à-vis Dr Tarron Khemraj. Her last missive (KN July 1) however has forced me to add my two cents.
Dr Khemraj did not knock the ‘Grow More Food Campaign.’ He acknowledged it was a step in the right direction, and critiqued it as any respectable academic would.
Why is it that when informed criticisms are made, there is an immediate defensive posturing, and the person is accused of being unpatriotic, in particular if he/she resides overseas? What sense does it make for people, especially rational and qualified people to knock where they come from for the fun of it? These people more often than not, are legitimately concerned about the welfare of their homeland.
Ms Daly, if she does exist, would, as practically every Guyanese has, have relatives and friends overseas who no doubt will from time to time have something negative to say about Guyana – will she brand them unpatriotic and tell them to shut up too? This immaturity is as amusing as it is disturbing. The emptiness of her responses is equally startling, and shows an ever increasing disrespect by Ms Daly for the common sense of the Guyanese people. As Dr Khemraj pointed out, economic stability can be very much divorced from all being well (as Ms Daly would like us to believe).
Very few economists concern themselves with ethical issues – for them, if a stolen item is kept within the economy it balances out, and therefore will not have an economic negative effect.
Also, in a stable economy even “low-level corruption can lead to the inefficient and unfair distribution of scarce benefits, undermine the purposes of public programs, encourage officials to create red tape, increase the cost of doing business and limit entry, and lower state legitimacy.”
Therefore “measures of economic growth are an insufficient measure of the quality of state/society relations and of the effectiveness of the public sector” (quotes are from International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, 2006).
For Ms Daly to simply state that an IMF report says our economy is stable and has grown, without offering a broader examination, is entirely puerile and an eye-pass.
Dr Khemraj asserts that the growth presently occurring is from old sectors, past their prime and therefore experiencing diminishing returns, and not from new and innovative sectors which are more critical to our future economic welfare. He went on to explain that the IMF does not articulate these transformation-based policies.
Ms Daly as such, is futilely attempting to engage in a pit-bull attack that has become a fashionable modus operandi against perceived ‘outsiders.’ Unfortunately for you Ms Daly, your attack has proven even less effective than that of a regular GT rice-eater (common mongrel).
I am certainly no expert, and I will therefore look forward to Dr Khemraj’s responses, and would like to see instead of the rice-eater type attack, an informed and civil response from a suitably qualified and non-fictitious government economist. I can only hope that some time in the future there will be an academic synergy to the benefit of Guyana as a whole (good girl, Ms Daly).
Yours faithfully,
Gerhard Ramsaroop
If you are not an economist and are not an expert, then your entire letter is an exercise in condescension and as offensive in its own way as Ms Daly’s. Let Dr. Khemraj speak for himself: he does not need help from you.
He never said he is not an economist; he said he is not an expert. I am aware that this AFC member holds a degree in economics from UG.Anyway, compared to Ms. Daly, he is a more ‘rational’ consumer of Dr. Khemraj’s offerings.
Pantha ! I warned Ms. Daly , after reading her last letter to SN Editor, that academic probation is in play.( I graded her analysis, very generously ). She needed to return with something substantial. It seems she took it to heart and sought refuge, academically , in the confines of Kaieteur News.
As the man said, nowhere did Ramsaroop say he was not an economist. Seems like you used to cut class in primary school when it was time for comprehension.
Panther, you have to admit that what Ramsaroop is saying here hits home very effectively. Have you ever looked closely at the smallest man in a group of hunks? He will puff his chest and swagger to look like one of the group. Same here, Ms Daly is very lacking in ‘back-up’ points or a rebuttal so she does the next thing she knows when her back is against the wall… attack the personality or whatever else of the person who cornered her and forget about the topic of the discourse!!
First, I doubt Ms. Daly is the real name of the person authoring the letters being publcished, as I also doubt certain other names I see attached to letters that appear regularly in the state-run Guyana Chronicle. And to be honest, I cannot recall ever reading letters from Ms. Daly in Stabroek News, and there must be a reason: she is not whom she calls herself by name. Some critics of her writing have actually identified her as a male cabinet minister and leading PPP executive whose forte is information/writing.
That said, I think the responses ’she’ has evoked from Tarron are educational and informative enough for ‘her’ to learn something; and not just her, but her colleagues, too!
Gerhard Ramsaroop respect to all those, who have figured out that Elizabeth Daly and Prem Misir are one of the same.
“And so”..uncle Freddie sey na tek dem nuff-up PPP dudes serious man, dem think dat only dem alone smart but ah we ova hay pagalee.
Ms Daly needs to come much better than that,if she? want to make any sense she needs to refute Khemraj’s arguments, point for point!Or maybe she can’t? Sic,em Gerhard!
Ms. Daly / Dacta Evil all these nuts are PPP nuts who are living in their own virtual reality.
They have no vision, no idea of how to measure progress or really what is success.
They are so trapped in the abyss that is the PPP they have no idea how to see beyond. Just take a look at our boy Space locknut who comments on here from time to time with his boys solideer and squibee.
I agree with that Samaroo…man these PPP guys are not putting up any robust challenge. But I think Gerhard hinted at the clue. These guys are signaling to the rum shops. Once they can keep the run shops entertained they are in business. But our task is to demonstrate how official policy of the PPP is intended to keeping the masses in penury and at the level of the rum shop. I am reading the LCDS and its fascinating how proudly the Jagdeo Administration proclaims the benefits of subsistence production…now as economist I cant believe they will push that crap in the year 2009…this has to be exposed.
sa-moron, i told you before i was never a ppp member or supporter. i left guyana before the ppp came into office. i went back after eleven years and i was impressed with the progress i saw. so open your eyes and start supporting progress.
Samaroo will walk right into progress and knock it down and would not know it’s progress he just knock down. The only progress he would accept , is if it comes from the AFC . He’s always slamming PPP supporters , failing to realize that he’s in the same catagory when considering his beloved AFC . The pot calling the kettle black .
Ultimate I am begging you to please help me enlighten me and show me what it is I cannot see. Please show me the great progress the PPP has delivered on that will deliver our people from bondage and protect them from being slaughtered by criminals daily.
Please help me see what I cannot see.
Thanks for this Gerhard! Gerhard and I were classmates at UG from 1992 to 1996.
samaroo, you are one negative old dude who has nothing constructive to add to the letter in question. grow up! Add one critique and make a genuine effort to add substance to topical issues.
please, you cannot respond to my comments nor can you defend the fraud that is the PPP so instead you are criticizing me rather than answering the pointed questions I ask. If I am old then you must be in kindergarden.
Tarron, it is I that must thank you – you have given me a renewed sense of hope.
I am extremely proud of Tarron and always had the utmost respect for him when I got to know him at UG – unlike me, he did not have silver spoon in his mouth (educationwise) and has made so much of himself. I was luckier by going to St. Margarets and QC enjoying the best of teachers while standards were still high, but I did not manage to get as far academically.
Pantha, I empathise with you nothwithstanding your cheap shot. It took me thirteen years after the PPP took office to part ways with them (I was actually with them from age 4 to 34 – from Pioneers to PYO to PPP), and I understand the conflicts involved. Living here in Guyana certainly made it easier when you experience the day to day wrongs, and after a while you just have to acknowledge the truth regardless of what else you are afraid of. Hopefully one day you will be cured of your myopia – in the meantime I am forced to point out it is you who is similar to Daly – using a pseudonym and offering a shallow response.
I say thank you also to the rest of you that offered supporting comments.
Mr Moderator, save my credentials thank you