Old ideas
GuyExpo might have presented new experiences for many Guyanese, but it also brought home the reality of the tragedy of the history of the country. The exhibition attracted foreign and local participation, but it also revealed that technology and initiatives which have been reported as breakthrough activities were in fact old ideas of the Burnham era that were once maligned by the PPP when it was in opposition. The ‘Rice Brekkies’ cereal which was highly touted by the government during the GuyExpo festival and reported in the Guyana Times as innovative is relying on locally produced rice as the principal ingredient for the production of the cereal. This idea of creating value-added economic activities in Guyana is no different from the initiative of the Burnham era which promoted the production of rice-based and other products with local content to help expand and diversify the economy of Guyana under its ‘Feed, Clothe and House’ the nation policy.
Rice initiative
This PPP-led government criticized that economic vision of Guyana when it was in opposition and undermined the national effort at enabling local producers of agricultural products to provide the foundation for economic growth and diversification. The rice initiative was wilfully taken out of context and presented as a personal affront to many supporters of the PPP since it was accompanied by the banning of wheat flour. Some writers on the Guyana economy even boast of how rice producers, who were largely PPP supporters, were encouraged to reduce rice production and did in order to undermine the initiative. This is similar to the destruction of sugar cane crops by supporters of the PPP to destroy the economic hopes of Guyana and increase its exposure to the vicissitudes of the global economy, the oil shocks and to powerful external forces during the 1970s. While that was happening, the world had already discovered the value of rice-based cereals as nutritional baby food and had begun to produce other rice-based products.
Principal idea
Today, rice flour, a principal idea of the Burnham era, is also regarded as more nutritional than wheat flour and is considered a darling of nutritionists. Twenty-two years after taking control of the reins of the Guyana economy, the PPP-led government has finally shown the courage to emulate the Burnham idea of achieving value-added economic activities using locally produced agricultural products, in this instance rice. The tragedy therefore of
