An information black hole: Tracking inequality and poverty in Guyana

Introduction

For this and several columns to come, I shall be discussing a number of independent but related topics, under the broad theme of inequality and poverty in Guyana. In these columns, poverty will be treated as the flip side of inequality. That is I plan to portray Guyanese poverty as a relative phenomenon, which has at its core the distribution of living standards, welfare, and well-being among population groups.

The main reason for choosing this theme is that, in my estimation, there has been rather limited, sporadic, and intermittent media coverage of it for some time now. There has also been insufficient sustained commentary and close examination of the issues surrounding this theme. Moreover,