Wednesday February 19, 2014
Kaieteur News
Page 5
Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news
GuySuCo senior staff wants Glaring incompetence Ramotar to intervene has crippled GuySuCo
DEAR SIR, The GuySuCo senior staff once again would like to express their concern through your media. An audience with the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana was sought approximately three weeks ago with issue related to ‘No Wage Increase and ‘Performance Base Incentive’ for the year 2013 for senior staff. The response from the President was that he is awaiting the Chairman of GuySuCo to come into the country. Up till Monday February,17, 2014, we are still waiting for the Chairman to come in. A new circular was issued to all locations that a new CEO will be at the helm of GuySuCo with effect from 24/02/2014. With this new change, it seemed we have been ignored and disrespected. It has been alleged by the
current Chairman that the financial status of GuySuCo was solely due to the faults of Senior Staff, but the Chairman needs to realize that the senior staff are being guided by the Board members and other executive decisions and direction. Three per cent of the workforce (Senior Staff)cannot be paid wage increases based on inflation for 2013, but money was made available to pay 97 per cent workforce (Unionised workers) and a substantial amount could be sourced to contract Indian nationals at certain location in GuySuCo. It is alleged that these Indian nationals are being paid super salaries and other benefits. We are now calling again on the President to look into this matter urgently before the situation gets out of control. GuySuCo Senior Staffers
KAYMAN SANKAR... From page 4 especially when crop yields were low and farmers incurred losses. With is help, they were able to eat. Rice was the dominant industry that sustained so many lives. When the rice industry was neglected and rice farmers marginalized, Kayman played the right politics and was able to revitalize the industry. And his contribution was pivotal for the expansion of the agricultural sector in the economy. He had his manager take me for a tour of his rice milling complex including the packaging of rice exported to Trinidad. What an experience it was. I was raised on rice farming (and even did some rice harvesting and milling) but the rice cultivation of my family and those of others in the Corentyne was no match for Kayman’s huge operations that were mechanized as compared with ours on the Corentyne that was small scale. Uncle Kayman’s withdrawal from the rice industry was a serious loss especially after Dr. Jagan was elected to office. Nevertheless, Kayman’s contributions to rice will always be remembered. Uncle Kayman, as many called him, also played a critical role in the development of cricket sponsoring several tournaments in Essequibo and aiding several cricketers who did not have funds to pursue their career. As a result of his help, they went on to represent Essequibo and the national team. As Brij Parasnath told me, no one contributed more to the development of cricket in the West Indies than Kayman. No one in the region spent his personal money to develop an entire cricket ground for regional cricket. He flew entire teams and reporters to Hampton Court to
play four day and one day matches and flew them out at his personal expenses. No one ever did that in the region. Kayman-ji also helped several poor families to marry their female children as well as to perform funeral rites. Kayman-ji told me in our interview that he could not stood by while poor families lacked funds to marry off their children. So he offered them loans to purchase jewelry and gifts (dowry) for the groom and groceries for a wedding. It is a strong tradition among more prosperous individuals in village life and I want to applaud those who help the poor. He also supported religious functions like Bhagwats. Shri Kayman had a terrific personality and was very compassionate to the poor and elderly performing seva (service to humanity). As some pointed out, he was never aloof in spite of his great wealth. Everyone I met in Essequibo had only positive things to say about Kayman. I also interviewed his brother who hosted me for lunch about the rice industry in Essequibo and about Kayman. He was an extraordinary figure who was deeply admired by everyone who knew him.
People told me Kayman-ji lived a very simple, humble life and he was easily accessible. He never turned away anyone who came for help. He provided employment for so many at a time when job was difficult to obtain. As some have pointed out, Guyana is better because of the contributions he made to the economy and towards the upkeep of Indian cultural traditions. Shri Kayman was also very religious, a very devout person. He hosted Swami Datta of Mysore. Through his associates in New York and Trinidad, Swami-ji had asked me to convey his regards to Shri Kayman who hosted Swami Datta and his entourage in Essequibo as well as in Georgetown. Kayman chartered an aircraft to take Swami to Kaieteur Falls allowing the touring party to experience the beauty and warm hospitality of Guyanese. Swami Datta was also flown around for religious services around the country. My deepest sympathy to his son Beni, who I met a few times many years ago, and to the family and employees. May his soul have everlasting peace. Thank you Kayman for your contributions to Guyana. Vishnu Bisram
DEAR EDITOR, In a commentary aired in January 2004 I said this, “During the years [1966 to 1976] the average rainfall per annum was 132.45 inches; the past 10 years [1993-2003] produced an average [rainfall] of less than 75 inches per year and everyone went to sleep in complacency. They included the chairman of the D&I Board, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and the Government. In one of those years, 1967, according to the research in my commentary, we received an incredible 167 inches of rainfall. (All rainfall data I am using were recorded at Plantation Houston Estate, EBD) Despite all we are seeing now, in no year since 2004 did we receive more than 120 inches of rainfall in Demerara. In 2004 I said, “Today we are flooding after only a small shower, my question is what happened to the drainage system which took off that 132.45 inches per annum during the period 1966 to 1976, and in the mid eighties?”I said this one year before the great
flood in January 2005. I will tell you what happened to it; incompetence, victimisation and corruption destroyed it. All of the historical data we have tell us that the area which will receive this high rainfall and which has the lowest land level on the Guyana coast is Region Four. That’s why the Demerara Estates are not as efficient as the Berbice ones. The PPP and its board at GuySuCo—-not one member of the opposition is allowed to sit on this board—-keeps telling us that all of this poor performance is due to climate change and the unusually heavy rainfall that is accompanying it, and I kept saying that this is a distortion of the factssince my experience in sugar tells me that for Guyana this is normal. Mr Rashleigh Jackson always says “that you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to
your own facts”. The facts are that there is no evidence that this country has to this date, as far as rainfall is concerned, experienced an effect which is abnormal and can be blamed on climate change, it just another way for the PPP to obscure their incompetence by telling us lies. In my commentary I also said, “I don’t need to pay any British company to tell me [that] during the period of 1992 to 2003 this country received less that its traditional average of rainfall but that the drains that were existing prior to 1992 had to be maintained at those dimensions since every 12 years or so this country receives alternating high/low rainfall patterns” Recently my friend Mr Earl John uncovered a speech, on the sugar industry in Guyana, delivered by then Chairman of Booker Continued on page 30
A mini health check is the first step to donating blood.