The administration has done nothing for the youth of Guyana

Dear Editor,

What will it take to end the apathy and complacency that shrouds this land? Is there no revolutionary zeal or fighting spirit among our youth? What has to happen for there to be a wake-up call?

The Champion of the Earth travelled to New York City twice, at taxpayers’ expense, and found time to spew antagonism and misinformation at a youth confab at the Convention Centre. Mr Jagdeo and his administration for the past 12 years have been boasting of the advances they have made in the infrastructural development of Guyana.

What they are silent on is the fact that they have made no investment in human development, the most precious resource of any nation. Where are the programmes to arrest the massive drop-out rates? Where are the community centres and playgrounds?

Where are the rehab centres and clinics for the addicts, and the reform programmes for delinquent youth? Where are the school buses, the safety nets that lift the poor and needy to self sufficiency and dignity? Where is the support for businesses small and large so that those businesses can become employers?

Youth account for over 35% of our nation’s population, yet they are the most neglected and abused demographic. Look at the state of the youth of this nation; someone deserves to be told off.

In any other part of the world now, youth would be marching in the streets. But this is Guyana, and what a sad irony, that the revolutionary zeal and militancy that brought this elected dictatorship to power, now lies spent and impotent, the masses downtrodden and beaten by the sheer daily struggle to survive.

I hope all young people are ready to go to the polls this year, and cast their vote against the PPP/C. The PPP/C has done nothing for the youth of this nation. They have neglected them, taken them for granted, and let them down. It is time for the youth to take their future in their own hands.

Yours faithfully,
Mark Archer