Dear Editor,
There are reports that President Granger celebrated the liquor industry’s contribution to Guyana in the launch of the $500,000 + VAT bottle of rum.
According to the Kaieteur News “The President also identified rum as being a `major’ contributor to Guyana’s exports; its employment and excise revenue”. The report quoted the 20,000 jobs and the 9 billion in taxes.
The capitalist defence of the alcohol industry for industry sake in terms of dollars and sense is not surprising. The cost to Guyana Governments over the last 50 years is not much.. after all.. the Government does not really fund any rehab for alcoholics, and provide any support for the lives of those whose lives have been destroyed by alcohol. That is probably why the Ministers of Business and Tourism were at the event… there were no reports of the presence of the Ministers of Public Health, Social Protection or Public Security.
The economists who advise the President probably have no model on which to value the lives and livelihoods of Guyanese which have been destroyed as a result of consumption of the products of an industry we are told to celebrate.
A Guyana Chronicle report notes that the President said that “Guyana’s Rum Industry thrives because it is committed to high standards and quality assurance; it has devoted the time, the energy, and resources necessary to developing a strong brand.”
There was no mention that the rum industry thrives in a culture of addiction, in a culture where the regulatory laws are a joke, and where children are beaten when they try not to buy liquor for adults.
The rum industry thrives when the marketing pushes more alcohol consumption, not less, and where there are no public funds to counter the effects of the industry.
It is an indictment on our nation that the liquor industry thrives when other major industries are in jeopardy.
Guyana’s acknowledgement of its alcohol problem seems as far away as National Unity.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
