Canouan - The curse of foreign investors and their investment (4/6/2016)
As a child, as most children had, I had an idealist perspective of the world. But I knew that the English pound was worth a much more than the East Caribbean dollar. This was so for the simple reason, I remembered when my mother received letters from her siblings in the UK, twenty or fifty pounds was worth a lot of money. However; I was shocked when I discovered the value of the Guyana dollar. In those days, the East Caribbean (EC$) was valued at eight or so Guyana dollars. At that stage of my life, I actually though that the EC dollar was the lowest in value there were.
When I inquired about Guyana, I discovered that that country was very mineral rich (from precious stones to industrial and other minerals), and had some enormous forest, and as much wild life and minerals as Africa had; although not in the quantity that Africa possessed. So the big question was: How can a country that has gold, silver, diamonds, and other precious stones, and lots of industrial and other minerals could be so poor as to be classified as an under developed or a developing nations, like most African nations at the time were.
For years this baffled me; however, the explanation came some years later, when I began to interact with people from Guyana. By this time, I had still not found the answers for my childhood questions. So I had a lot of questions for my Guyanese counterparts when I met them.
My first point of business was to verify that Guyana had the precious stones, industrial and other useful minerals my mother told me that country has. Then my next question was, if your country is so mineral and precious stone rich, why it is the country is still so poor and the value of your dollar is so low?
It was then I discovered that most of the precious stones and minerals are mined under the control of white foreign investors; these investors lease large quantity of arable land, which they mine. They employ the locals as labourers and pay them minimum wages or below minimum wage to risk their lives to mine these precious stones and industrial and other minerals; they bring in their people from their country who are put in high paying posts, they pay their taxes and they pocket trillions of dollars, which they bank overseas. They also get the Uncle Tom Government to pass laws, making it difficult for locals to mine and utilize the minerals.
When they leave the country or the land they were mining, the land is destroyed and polluted; the rivers and other fresh water sources are polluted also. Once beautiful landscapes are turned into rubble and wasteland that will take millions of dollars to detoxify and rebuild. The wildlife that once roamed the land are killed, misplaced or are driven from their natural habitat. The animals that inhabit the sea and the inland bodies of fresh waters or use them in the course of their daily survival are killed.
The mass waste of animal wildlife and fish life that makes those bodies of water home that are killed goes unnoticed and the country is uncompensated for the damage to the ecosystem that these heartless white foreigners cause. They leave large bodies of fresh water source unfit for human use and consumption. These investors rarely give back to the people, the community and the country that made them extremely wealthy. But they spend their money and effort greedily taking more and more at the expense of the general population.
When I look at Mustique, and especially Canouan, I remember Guyana and Africa. I have never thought that St Vincent and the Grenadines would have been put in the same situation where we would have leased out vast portions of our lands to white, ruthless investors who only care about making money. And our government officials would have become such Uncle Toms that they will be sitting idly by, while the citizens for whom they work are treated like dogs by these greedy white foreigners.
Here are some questions we are to ask and find answers for: what percentage of their annual profits made does these investors give back to the country in charitable aid: to institutions like the school for children of special needs, Marion House that provides critical service to the unfortunate within our community and sports and culture? What percentage of the annual wages these companies pay goes to locals? What instrument does the government have in place to make these companies live up to their corporate responsibility to civic society?
Soon and very soon all this will end. I am on a personal mission to ensure that all foreign investment that calls for the utilizing large portion of St Vincent, especially the Grenadines, or land based investments, will be no more. If you want to utilize our human resources, then they can come and invest, but other than labour intensive industries you will not be welcome.
For years this baffled me; however, the explanation came some years later, when I began to interact with people from Guyana. By this time, I had still not found the answers for my childhood questions. So I had a lot of questions for my Guyanese counterparts when I met them.
My first point of business was to verify that Guyana had the precious stones, industrial and other useful minerals my mother told me that country has. Then my next question was, if your country is so mineral and precious stone rich, why it is the country is still so poor and the value of your dollar is so low?
It was then I discovered that most of the precious stones and minerals are mined under the control of white foreign investors; these investors lease large quantity of arable land, which they mine. They employ the locals as labourers and pay them minimum wages or below minimum wage to risk their lives to mine these precious stones and industrial and other minerals; they bring in their people from their country who are put in high paying posts, they pay their taxes and they pocket trillions of dollars, which they bank overseas. They also get the Uncle Tom Government to pass laws, making it difficult for locals to mine and utilize the minerals.
When they leave the country or the land they were mining, the land is destroyed and polluted; the rivers and other fresh water sources are polluted also. Once beautiful landscapes are turned into rubble and wasteland that will take millions of dollars to detoxify and rebuild. The wildlife that once roamed the land are killed, misplaced or are driven from their natural habitat. The animals that inhabit the sea and the inland bodies of fresh waters or use them in the course of their daily survival are killed.
The mass waste of animal wildlife and fish life that makes those bodies of water home that are killed goes unnoticed and the country is uncompensated for the damage to the ecosystem that these heartless white foreigners cause. They leave large bodies of fresh water source unfit for human use and consumption. These investors rarely give back to the people, the community and the country that made them extremely wealthy. But they spend their money and effort greedily taking more and more at the expense of the general population.
When I look at Mustique, and especially Canouan, I remember Guyana and Africa. I have never thought that St Vincent and the Grenadines would have been put in the same situation where we would have leased out vast portions of our lands to white, ruthless investors who only care about making money. And our government officials would have become such Uncle Toms that they will be sitting idly by, while the citizens for whom they work are treated like dogs by these greedy white foreigners.
Here are some questions we are to ask and find answers for: what percentage of their annual profits made does these investors give back to the country in charitable aid: to institutions like the school for children of special needs, Marion House that provides critical service to the unfortunate within our community and sports and culture? What percentage of the annual wages these companies pay goes to locals? What instrument does the government have in place to make these companies live up to their corporate responsibility to civic society?
Soon and very soon all this will end. I am on a personal mission to ensure that all foreign investment that calls for the utilizing large portion of St Vincent, especially the Grenadines, or land based investments, will be no more. If you want to utilize our human resources, then they can come and invest, but other than labour intensive industries you will not be welcome.
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