Leave Us Homeless, Give Outsider So the Granger-administration will spend upwards of US$200 million dollars for a bridge across the Demerara that will be closed twice a day to allow ships to pass. Yes, I am not kidding! After Burnham built a retractable bridge 40 years ago, 1977, the PNC lead coalition will build a bridge in 2018 with the same archaic feature. They are saying that the bridge is different because vehicles will be allowed to remain on the bridge when it retracts.
What passes these days for political administration is laughable at best and downright retarded at worse. Just imaging that with the ever expanding growth and development on the West Bank and Coast of the Demerara; with the constant importation of vehicles; with the additional expansion that will come when because of the oil find, people will be able to import even more vehicles, this government is building a bridge that grinds traffic to a complete halt for 2 to 4 hours every day.
The country really can expect no better, after all, even the feasibility study was crooked. First the contract was awarded to one entity, and then it was withdrawn and handed to a Coalition crony. Then the government said that the IDB has funded the study, and then they said that it was actually the (broke) government that paid the $146 million to a PNC lackey. With this level of underhandedness, there must be a resultant level of ineptness and shortsightedness.
Let me here note that these are the very things they highlighted to aid them in removing the crooked PPP. Now they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Not that they would answer. Autocratic rulers don’t take time to answer to their citizens. But if they would answer, the United Republican Party (URP) would like to ask a few questions of the government.
1. How long do you plan to keep the new bridge for?
2. Do you plan to eventually build a bridge that does not retract? If so, When?
3. If you have to borrow money or partner with an investor to build this design, why not put some more money and build a bridge that does not retract and that you never have to worry about again?
This government is so confused that they even have the population confused. Do you know that there are folks who are arguing with me that the proposed bridge will not have to open for ships to pass? And some people who are arguing the loudest are the APNU supporters. Even they can’t believe that their leaders could be this dumb.
This government keeps highlighting Guyana’s potential from the oil and gas sectors. Now let’s work with that in mind. If Linden does get an oil refinery, as some are pushing for, and if bauxite is smelted there: both of which are now possible because of the local oil find. Can you imagine the substantial increase in maritime traffic along that Demerara River? It would mean that the traffic delays would then double or quadruple, or they will have to be more openings of the bridge, to allow for the increase in traffic.
Either way, the approved design of the bridge is a backwards steep. Or as my aunt used to say, “Ayah dotish?!” I live on the West side at Vreed-en-Hoop, and one the most unnerving things is having to remember to check the bridge schedule. Another really unconvincing thing is sitting in that traffic – sometimes for more than an hour – waiting for the bridge to reopen so that you can get on with your business.
I would like to say unequivocally that a URP government or substantial representation in the parliament, will immediately take steps at making a crossing across the Demerara a permanent one. If the Coalition government goes ahead with this backwards bridge design, we will make a permanent bridge fixture an item on our 2020 platform. That is how strongly we are opposed to this crooked design. Which causes me to wonder: If the government has to change this design, what happens to the $146 million us dollars? Does it remain with the crony?

Literally thousands of foreign investors and persons of interests are flocking to our shores to get their piece of our oil reserves. And these people are not petroleum neophytes. They kind of folks that we have been reading about and seeing on our news are multi-millionaires and hug prospectors and business conglomerates. And most of them are Caucasians.

Guyana must therefore play the oil-hand we have been dealt, properly. Those foreigners, who are flocking here by the plane and helicopter loads, are not coming because they have a new found love for Guyana. They are coming because they smell oil and money. These are people who have been in this business for very long and they know that Guyana is new to this sector. They want to make as much as they can; as quickly as they can. They also see the reports that the average Guyanese politician can be bought, easily.

The United Republican Party (URP), is therefore putting forth a recommendation to the Guyana Government. We are asking the Granger-led administration to immediately send 500 students to study 1 to 4 years courses, in subjects that have to do with the oil and gas industry. They must enroll in subjects like engineering, safety, physics, hospitality, environmental science, architecture design, civil defense, management, community preparedness, disaster maintenance, etc. The government can pay for these tuitions by leveraging the estimated oil wealth. They can contract with Universities for delayed payments. They can also borrow monies from the IDB, the World Bank, or even from local banks. They can even offer Treasury Bills as promissory notes to local companies that are flush with cash and are willing to buy into Guyana’s development. Additionally, the Government can seek grants from donor agencies to facilitate this academic drive.

Some might think that this is a pie-in-sky approach, so let me hasten to remind us that Trinidad has this model with their GATE program. Thousands of Trinidadian residents are trained – free of costs – yearly, through a nationally funded program, paid for from their oil revenues. The recipients of the scholarships will be required to return to Guyana and work for a minimum of three years. No doubt, with the right remuneration packages, these skilled workers would be inclined to remain after their contracted periods.

Additionally, the Government should send Guyanese to study in areas of advance best practices and techniques in commercial forms of cash-crop agriculture. Our agricultural sector is languishing, when compared to our Caribbean counterparts, even in a country with the most favorable of weather patterns, among our CARICOM neighbors.

May I also suggest, on behalf of the URP, that all the contracts written for our extractive sectors, include “knowledge transfer” clauses? There should be mandatory provisions in these contracts for the international agencies to employ and train Guyanese in whatever sector the contracts are written for. (We saw what happened in the construction of the Marriott. Not a single Guyanese was trained in the kind of technology that were used there).

The earlier Guyana invests in educating Guyanese in these needed sectors, the earlier Guyana will reap the full benefits of our natural resources. Furthermore, until Guyanese are professionally trained to take the reins from these foreign professionals, most of our monies will go into the coffers of overseas nations. All the oil producing nations of the world (even Barbados. Yes, Barbados has oil), have their own citizens managing their extractive sectors.

We understand that because of our ignorance in the skill-sets of most of these sectors, Guyana cannot now take the helm. However, what the URP is suggesting, is that the Guyana Government, rush ahead, immediately, in preparing Guyanese to do what all the other developed nations have done; trained their own people to man these multi-billion dollar sectors. This does not have to be a politically partisan issue. Guyana and its resources belong to all of us. This is commonsensical. Can we do it? Yes we can!