The Economics Of Thievery…I Want My Money

Bringing Guyana Into the 21st Century

are happy spending their lives doing, and whether it is something in which they would have their children and future generations involved.

Do sugar workers enjoy job security, upward mobility and adequate incomes to buy a home, car, take care of the family and send children to university? Because if they do, then fine. If not, then sugar workers need to explore other gainful opportunities for earning an income.

Although these questions are very relevant to other jobs and industries, sugar workers and their families especially have borne the brunt of much political manipulation by the Peoples Progressive Party at the expense of their welfares, and they need to be treated more fairly. It goes without saying that diversification of GUYSUCO had been on the cards since in the 1980s. Although this was suspended by the World Bank/IMF under a terms of agreement to accommodate for the rehabilitation of the sugar industry and allow the corporation to refocus on its main product37 , the EU’s intent to cut sugar prices in 2006 should have resulted in a rethink of the industry’s future at the time.

The corporation’s now apparent complete failure can very probably be tied to the former President’s disdain and disregard for professional advice38 leading him to choose a company with no experience in building state-of-the art sugar factories for the Skeldon Estate39 . His willingness to disregard what was then widely considered as the inevitable beginning of the end of sugar at the time, was a calculated effort to keep the sugar workers employed for political gain. The results of this are now available for all to see, with probably the only thing of benefit to sugar workers being what they will be able to negotiate with the corporation as their turn comes around.

37 Stabroek News - World Bank/IMF required GUYSUCO to terminate the original diversification program; Aug 11, 2015. 38 Kaieteur News - Jagdeo should be living in jail for Skeldon factory; March 31, 2015. 39 Kaieteur News - Jagdeo bypassed experienced Indian firm for Chinese; April 07, 2015. 13