Dear Editor

SOME people are of the view that social class is a bigger issue than race in Guyana. I recall my father saying that a lawyer can lose a case in court on the basis of one lawyer being perceived as a member of a higher social class than another. That is how pernicious social class can be and it has been with us from the formation of the colonial society under the British following the abolition of slavery. The British came to the Caribbean with their mentality of royal-blood-nobleman-commoner distinctions which served to justify acceptance of social stratification.

I have been following the discussion in the newspapers on the giving of US$5000.00 per year to every household, specifically with assisting the poor. I have no problem with that because it is about time that something is done for the poor in this country; GY$1 million on an annual basis is no money. It will disappear before one can even begin to spend it with the rising cost of living, which will likely rise even more when the oil begins to flow.

This means not only will the numbers of the poor increase, but even the not so poor will begin to struggle. As an aside, I went to the market last Saturday and at one point I stopped and started to count my money, wondering if I had dropped some. I had not dropped anything – it was all properly spent. I “see” the stressed look on faces and “feel” the struggle to exist whenever I go out. And the fear of many people is that they will not get a share of the oil proceeds; and if this is the situation now, when the oil starts to flow it will very likely be worse, because oil and political corruption go hand-in-hand. But some sort of remuneration must be given in some form or another, so that we can all share in the oil wealth – but particularly the poor.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs recently stated that President Granger will be spending the money on education, because he will use the oil money to teach people “how to fish.” I have no problem with money being spent on education — particularly with the high level of functional illiteracy in Guyana – which means some kind of overhaul of the education system is necessary. The education system needs to take into account that the students are not as good as they used to be and adjustments therefore have to be made. But people also need to eat, and hunger is a major issue in Guyana at the moment.

One of the hardest hit groups in the society are women and which is contributing to the high level of violence against them. Horror stories are circulating on how some of them are surviving and men are feeling stressed out about their change of behaviour. It is amazing what can become acceptable when you are struggling to live. This brings us back to the issue of a hierarchical social-class structure, which was created during the British colonial period and whereby the group of people at the bottom were seen as “lazy”, thus unworthy of the title of human being, and thus have no entitlements. The label of “lazy” is being spoken about the poor and circulated in the media at the moment, and thus an indication of what will very likely be their fate.

Yours sincerely
Professor Kean Gibson