THE new Government of Guyana has started working. Several ministers and the ministries they head have hit the ground running. The ministries which can be singled out in this respect are those of Foreign Affairs, Public Infrastructure, Finance, and that of the State. The respective ministers have left the gates flying, in spite of the heavy weight of financial restrictions on their backs.Like too many of our citizens, this nation is short on money. In fact, if we bother to listen to our countrymen and women talk — and it does take listening — we would find that ninety percent of their conversation is about money. It is the same with Ministers of Government, except that they talk about the national pocket, or national coffers. The problem is that, without money in the national coffers, there can be no projects like job-creation projects. If there are no job-creation projects, we will continue to have a desperately high unemployment rate. And if we have a high unemployment rate, we will have no taxation money going into the national coffers. It is a Catch 22 situation.

This is a very difficult cycle to break, and that most unenviable task falls on our still newly-elected government. As it is an even graver and more unenviable task to think about from whence cometh the next meal for our children and us, where will money come from for uniforms and books and pencils and paper?

And yet, the most serious quest in our country may not be for money. The most pressing need may be for competence. Each and every minister of each and every ministry must be on the constant lookout for competent people to do the work it takes to redeem this country. This is true for security and crime of all sorts, education, social cohesion, agriculture, public works, employment generation, finance, foreign affairs or international relations, youth projects, health and welfare, energy, and so on. This is all way above mere politics.

As a nation, we often talk about the brain drain. There is always that easy (and maybe mythical) excuse. It is an easy excuse since it takes responsibility away from us. Having made such an excuse, we then neglect or forget to think about ways to identify and employ what brains there may be in the nation right here and right now! We do not have to look very hard to find people of proven competence in this country; many of them are living from hand to mouth, their talent and competence laid waste. The sheer pity of it! Let us find them and put them to use, even if their area of competence is restricted or limited.

For instance, we could seek out, without too much trouble, an herbal scientist who has done some research and practical work in that field; or someone who may be competent in drainage and irrigation alone. We could seek them out and put them to use for the national enterprise.

Of course, one of the peculiar things about us is that, the greater and more varied the competence of an individual, the more difficult it seems to find places to employ them. We limit people through our own limitations. If we find a man or woman who can do just about everything, that man or woman ends up getting nothing to do. And then he/she sits uselessly by, suffering while Guyana goes in want of that kind of person.

This is really not about academic degrees alone; it is not just about publishing, and research, and formidable experience alone. It is about thinking around anything, and about thinking in different dimensions. Critical thinking is what it is called.

Once we find and employ these competent people, there will be jobs for others, who must then be cultivated in terms of even greater competence. Competence, like talent, must be ICED: Identified; Cultivated; Employed and Deployed.

To employ competence would yield great dividends, one of the most important being that we would be sending a clear message to our youths that education PAYS! If the youths see our talented, educated and competent adults unemployed, they will get exactly the wrong message.