Colin Tasher is a former national footballer-turned-entrepreneur. He recently visited Guyana and sought to deliver a lecture on the topic, ‘Education: A path out of Poverty’. Tasher was the first captain for Western United Football Club, now BK Western Tigers Football Club.  He represented Guyana in 1975, back when Lennox Arthur was coach, playing against Trinidad & Tobago before migrating to Barbados in 1980 to become the first Guyanese footballer to play in the Second and later First Division football league for Pinelands Football Club. He played for that Barbadian club for years. The following is what he hoped to be his presentation on the topic at reference.

CHURCHES and other religious organizations have waged aggressive campaigns against poverty; but in today’s world, education, rather than charity, is the most effective weapon to fight poverty.
Is it time to adopt a new strategy to fight against poverty? In the hardscrabble world of Guyana’s depression era, my mummy said there were two pictures on the wall: Jesus and President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.
There was more behind those pictures than the wall, of course. Both men were viewed as saviours: One from sin, and the other from the worst effects of poverty.
Poverty is a monster; it saps the will, and can kill the spirit. For Guyanese children who grew up in it, poverty is also a dream snatcher, oftentimes snatching the dream of a better life before it can rise above the cracked plaster ceiling.
One of the five pillars of Islam is almsgiving, aimed at helping the poor. The Hebrew scripture laid out an entire economic system designed to eliminate poverty. There were strict laws requiring that a certain amount of grain be left behind for the poor; and tithing laws that provided similar sustenance. There were even laws that prohibited lenders from charging interest. So strong was the Hebrews’ commitment to ending poverty that every seventh year, all outstanding debts were to be forgiven. After a 50-year cycle, land was returned to its original owners.
Guyanese churches have also done their part to confront the scourge of poverty. No wonder the Bible is filled with these little gems: “Happy are those who help the poor. The Lord will help them when they are in trouble (Psalm 41:1).” And “When you give money to the poor, it is like lending to the Lord; the Lord will pay you back (Proverbs 19:17).”
Even Jesus’ inaugural sermon in his hometown of Nazareth begins thus: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”

A different world
But here’s the wrinkle: The world has changed. Soup kitchens and emergency shelters alone can’t do the job; and handing out money certainly won’t solve the problem. On the contrary, such charity might well create in the beneficiaries a dependency syndrome that undermines their long-term chances for success. Even job training doesn’t go far enough if it’s geared to an economy that no longer exists.
We can’t just teach people to weld; we have machines that can weld. We can’t just teach people to paint; we also have to employ again and again. We are living in an information communication and technological (ICT) era. People are now being paid for what they know, rather than what they do.
When knowledge becomes the commodity that drives an economy, education is the only ticket in. In fact, a high-quality education is the only long-term solution to poverty in the highly competitive economy of the 21st Century.
For my Guyanese brothers and sisters, this is the time that we look to the future with an ICT mindset.
As for the new administration and the new Parliament, if you want to win the war on poverty, then remember this: Education is the key. (Transcribed by Mark Bradford)