Mr DaSilva displays an unwarranted optimism

Dear Editor,

I refer to Mr “John DaSilva’s” letter captioned “This Government inherited a shattered economy in 1992 and there have been many achievements” (07.10.16).

He says, inter alia, “92% of our revenue dollars.. were used to service our debts”. That’s wonderful, to have been able to manage the country on the remaining 8%! And how silly to compare a pre-1992 $3137 with a current $28,000. when all and sundry can see by their experience that the cost-of-living has gone through the roof, while the purchasing power of the Guyana dollar has plummeted as against all known currencies, the Caribbean not excluded.

That writer seems not to recognize the difference between what was housing development under the PNC administration, and what passes for it now. Then, there were complete houses, with pure water supply, usable roads and electricity. The reality today in many so-called “housing projects” is often a set of shacks and a cry for even the barest amenities. What is more, when “regularization” does take place, one perceives what is often the grossest discrimination, both political and otherwise.

John DaSilva refers to the Berbice Bridge, financed partly from National Insurance Scheme funds. We all know on whose initiative the NIS was launched, and how the PPP tried to destabilize it in those early days! And we all remember that the Demerara Harbour Bridge was the forerunner for this bright idea.

And just fancy having the face to boast about successfully hosting a part of Cricket World Cup 2007, when that segment would have been a debacle, had not the appropriate authorities intervened at the eleventh hour to save our own as well as the faces of the entire Caribbean. And by the way, does Mr. DaSilva know that the person who nearly embarrassed us all with empty promises has now gone back to head our water agency.

Perhaps this John DaSilva never knew that Carifesta I was held in Guyana, a PNC initiative, way back in 1972; that it is still on record as the best of the series, so far: that, out of that instance of imagination, was also born our national Cultural Centre and a location known as Festival City.

Let us not talk too boastfully about that law of the sea award. It could hardly have been possible had not there been an ex-PNC intellectual, former Foreign Minister, Sir Shridath Ramphal; another former foreign Minister of the much-maligned PNC, Mr. Rashleigh Jackson, and Dr. Barton Scotland, a third PNC intellectual, to do the brunt of the research that it entailed – after our institutional memory had been ‘lost” by those who “took over” in 1992. And where did they inherit Minister Insanally from?

Let us hope that Amalia Falls will be looked at professionally and not became another display of incompetence and indecent haste like Moco Moco. Just think of it, nobody seems to have known in advance, about the instability of that mountain side. They could have asked the local population!

Lastly, in this era of rising sea levels, to boast about constructing another hotel on the Georgetown Seawall, seems like flying in the face of the fates. It was bad enough to construct that costly Caricom headquarters, and the International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, but could there be any excuse for continuing the process?

Yours faithfully,

Walter A Jordan