WHILE I agree with most of R.O. Bostwick’s analogy (in an article titled ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall’, published in the Sunday Chronicle of March 27), one must be fair about the decline of the bauxite industry. The bauxite industry, as operated by Alcan, was a thriving operation employing thousands of Guyanese directly and indirectly.

The industry supported the population of Mackenzie, Wismar and  Christianburg. It built schools, churches, hospitals, a library, etc. The Government did not have to bother about that part of the country.

It had a reputable trade school from which hundreds of young men gained competence in a number of trades that positioned them for lucrative jobs with the company.

Alcan paid for the surfacing of the roads in Mackenzie…the company also paid the highest wages in the country. Hopefuls arrived every day from all over the country to try to get employment with the company.

They are all overseas now to the benefit of their adopted country. Many people in the area benefitted from the overflow in terms of contracting and sale of goods. They benefitted from the overflow of electric power generated by the company for its operations.

In the late 60s, the company was going through a vast expansion programme. Construction work had started at the alumina plant, the bauxite plant and the mines. The bridge was built over the Demerara River to extract ore from the western bank.

Additional kilns were installed at the bauxite plant. Tailings were  extracted from the tailings pond to be reprocessed into alumina. I was responsible for training Leading Hands to become competent for additional positions of Foremen. I was also directed to work up a price for the resuscitation of the mullite plant.

I met with officials of the Telephone Company to arrange for additional telephone lines to meet the demand of the expected increase in employees.  But the PNC Gov’t put a stop to all that with its nationalisation programme.

It put persons who were not familiar with the industry in positions of leadership.

It had to start from the bottom to obtain customers. It removed the security fence from around the plants, and we all know what was the result. The comrades stole everything in sight, because the industry now “belonged” to them. I left the country in 1970 and was appalled when I visited the area in 1978.

It was a shadow of its former self…I hope the comrades are happy.