Guyana has made significant progress

Dear Editor,

The most recent Oxfam study found that the income gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. The richest 1% grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth created since 2020 amounting to some 42 trillion US dollars, almost twice the amount of the 99% at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Something must be fundamentally wrong when there is so much concentration of wealth in the hands of such a tiny fraction of the population. Poverty is structural and can only be remedied by a new global human order based on a more equitable and fair distribution of the world’s resources. I have always held the view that there is more than an enough food to feed the world’s population but there are still millions of people who go to bed hungry and who do not know where their next meal is coming from. In fact, roughly one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line, calculated by the United Nations to be below two US dollars a day.

In Guyana, we have come a long way in terms of poverty alleviation, thanks to the several pro-poor measures taken by the PPP/C administration over the years. I believe that as the oil revenues begin kick in the economic fortunes of the country will continue to get better.

Fortunately, Guyana has now advanced beyond the status of a poor, highly indebted country, thanks to twenty-eight years of PNC undemocratic rule. The records will show that during the early 1960’s Guyana was ranked among the more developed countries but was reduced by the end of the 1980’s to one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. Regards,