THEY were contrasting newspaper Articles: those of Sunday 16th August 2009 and

Monday 17th August 2009 Kaieteur News was narrow, very selective, restrictive and painted a picture of neglect, despair and inadequacy in the Mabaruma area of Region One. The third which appeared in the Guyana Chronicle of 18th August, 2009 and which represented the views of two well known Guyanese Culturists, offered a  window of opportunities for promoting, inter alia, Eco-tourism, in the Mabaruma sub-Region and invited persons to grasp at these opportunities and help to make their Communities and obviously they themselves better off.

I reread the three Articles. They all referred to aspects of life and livelihood in a section of an administrative region in which I have lived and worked for more than three decades. I reflected:

Did the Author of the Kaieteur News Articles go to Mabaruma with an enquiring and open mind to view and to make objective appraisals of developments in the sub-Region or with fixed and preconceived notions and fixation centred around specific areas pointed out to him ?

The latter could only find “limited electricity supply stifling business in Mabaruma”;

Accelerated erosion at the Kumaka water front and a dilapidated Hymac at Morawhanna.

His fixation with pointing out these specific areas undoubtedly caused him not to notice the new Mabaruma Hospital Complex or to consider it worthy of mention; or to observe the 29 teachers in training at the CPCE in service training Centre at Mabaruma or to meet the Community Based Volunteers or the VSOs involved in the implementation of a National Hinterland Secure Livelihood Programme in fifteen Communities of the

Mabaruma sub-Region.  The author was only interested in highlighting events and issues that he felt would serve as indicators of a lack of progress in the Mabaruma sub- Region of the Barima/Waini Region.                                                                                     

But for me, equity and impartiality; which are a sine qua non of balanced reporting, requires that progress or the lack thereof in areas of infrastructure and socio-economic development in the Region be examined not only in terms of our achievements but also as a function of the depths from which we started.

My thoughts went back to 1992 when the state of infrastructure and the scope and qualityof social services in the Mabaruma sub Region, and indeed the entire Region One left one aghast.

The number of hours of supply of electricity was zero and the required infrastructure to provide electricity was sadly missing. Seventeen years later, not only has the PPP/C government provided the resources to procure the requisite plants, generators, poles, transformers, lines, trained staff etc.but we have been able to provide electricity to the more than 700 households in the Mabaruma Settlement, Thomas Hill, Mabaruma Township and Compound, Kumaka, Hosororo Stretch and Hosororo Hill Communities, and this, despite the increased supply of electricity to an increasing number of dwelling houses, business premises and a concomitant increase in household and other appliances occasioned by the improved living standards of the population.

And may I inform the populace and remind “the members of the business community and residents” to whom the Author Mr. Eleazer  refers and who I assume are not a figment; that while I am aware that electricity supply from the RDC Generator is restricted to a minimum of  five hours per day; I am equally aware of the RDC’s efforts which have allowed for the extension of electricity supply to the Yarakita, Port Kaituma and the Santa Rosa Communities while we continue to spare no effort to extend the service to the Barabina, Bumbury and Wauna Communities in the Mabaruma sub Region and the Matthews Ridge area also. And may I remind beneficiaries of the service who understandably would wish to benefit from longer hours of electricity, that you have an obligation to pay for the service received which is already subsidised by the Regional Democratic Council.

Resources- human and material are limited relative to the demand for them. As a government and consequentially our Regional Democratic Councils are compelled to focus, as a priority, on the things that matter most for the development of our people. These include education, health care, transportation, communication, water, agriculture etc..In other words, they are competing uses for these scarce resources and the PPP / C has worked with the people and their elected Leaders to focus on those socio-economic interventions that make a difference to people’s lives. If all these interventions and improvements are merely “cultural events” as termed by one Opposition Leader; we are happy to bring them to our people.

If only Kaieteur News Gary Eleazer had visited the newly constructed Mabaruma Hospital and interacted with its staff and patients, he would have heard expressions of delight at its spaciousness and comfortableness. He would have observed that DOTS, malaria and dengue tests and treatment are being done in the new building, and, equipment and apparatus for the setting up of  the X-Ray Unit, the laboratory and theatre are already in place. And equally important, he would have been informed of the positive results of our  investment in training of health staff and the provision of improved transportation and vaccination, cold chain facilities for medical outreaches in very remote areas of the  Region, viz; in the areas of immunisation coverage from 47% in 2006 to 80 %, Reduction in malaria morbidity and mortality by 37 % between 2007 and 2008;

Reduction in the number of cases of medical referrals, to mention a few areas of improvement. But, perhaps, some people see only what they want to see.

There can be no denying that there have been improvements in Education; transportation and communication between villages, electricity including solar power, water supply and quite recently, the introduction of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs’ low-carbon National Hinterland Secure Livelihood Programme with its focus on increasing output of existing producers and processors by implementation of 7 production and value adding enterprises in 15 Communities in the Mabaruma sub Region.

These Enterprises include Citrus and Passion Fruit Production, Crab Fattening, Peanut ultivation and Peanut Butter processing .etc.

These areas of focus in the development of Region One or more specifically the Mabaruma sub Region, are important in the fight against poverty. Perhaps Kaieteur News may wish to examine the progress in these areas. But I should not be too optimistic.

Some people see only what they want to see.
NORMAN WHITTAKER M.P