October 17, 2018 issue

Readers' Response

Harris was wrong on the conceptualization of NIS

Dear Editor:
To mark the 49th Anniversary of the National Insurance Scheme Kaieteur News Editor and Columnist Adam Harris devoted his September 30, 2018 column with the paean to Forbes Burnham with the opening line reading “Forty-nine years ago, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham conceived the idea that there should be a National Insurance Scheme.” In his second sentence Mr. Harris, wrote “Whatever sparked the idea I would never know because the thought process was not documented.” These two sentences are a serious cause for concern.
First, Burnham did not conceive of the idea of the NIS in Guyana. The idea goes back to British Guiana in 1954, which the PNC Labour Minister Winslow Carrington acknowledged in introducing the NIS Bill in 1969. And second, although the NIS is not a popular subject for academic interest, the diligent researcher – or journalist – has no major difficulty in finding quite useful and at times counterintuitive information on the NIS, thus avoiding any quixotic search into some dead person’s head.
It would be harsh to suggest that the misstatements in the column were deliberate or an attempt to rewrite history. Still, the column states rather loosely and dubiously that the then political opposition protested that Burnham was taking money from the poor people, without acknowledging that despite their criticisms of the Bill that the pensionable age of 65 was too high and that casual workers and domestics should be covered, the parliamentary opposition, miniaturised in the first of a series of rigged elections one year earlier, voted in support of the Bill.
The columnist must also be aware that the Government eventually reduced the pensionable age and ironically, that it was the perpetuation of Mr. Burnham’s economic policies which first placed the NIS in difficulties in the eighties.
Moving to contemporary matters, Mr. Harris also reports Ms. Holly Greaves, General Manager as “insisting” that everyone gets their entitlement from the NIS. Having served the NIS in a senior capacity for decades, Ms. Greaves would be acutely aware of the serious deficiencies in its maintenance of contribution records.
While there have been some commendable improvements, there are still hundreds of thousands of contributions which for various reasons have not been credited to the respective workers. But perhaps even more serious are the number of workers’ contributions which were deducted but not paid over to the NIS by employers who the NIS did not pursue.
The law requires that such contributions be recognised and credited to the workers. Perhaps out of concern about the financial impact arising from claims from thousands of affected persons, the NIS has been resisting such claims despite compelling evidence of which the NIS management is aware.
Taking the General Manager at her word, I would like to ask that the Board and the management of the NIS make a public declaration and invite persons who have been deprived of their entitlement for years and years to go into the NIS and establish their claims by providing reasonable evidence of their employment history. To expect them to have better records that the NIS is unreasonable, irrational and callous.
I would also like to see the Board and the management must pursue not only those companies, but also their directors and officers, which have conspired to cheat and rob the workers of the country while threatening the viability of the NIS.
Christopher Ram via email
 
Oh, how the world has changed,
but to what end!
Dear Editor:
“The first part of solving any problem, is recognizing we have one”
This is an age where you’re ridiculed for being a virgin, laughed at for having morals, called nerds as if intelligence is disgusting, called freaks for being different, called weird for loving to read and not watching television.
It’s a generation where speaking properly is snobbish, where girls feel the need to dress provocatively to get a male’s attention, where guys disrespect women as a form of affection, an age where the old are out living the future generations.
A time where it’s easier to steal than get a job, where dropping out of school is cheaper than getting an education. A time where race is more important than friendship and political ties are more important than family. A time where one person’s disgrace makes it ok to shun an entire religion.
There was a time when helping the poor meant something more than publicity and doing a good deed didn’t mean getting something in return. A time where children respected their elders and the elders set a good example. A time where a community could be just that, a community. Now it’s a war zone, divided through politics. A time when freedom meant something. Now we’re all slaves to our own making.
A time where we encouraged children to strive for greatness like Mandela, Armstrong, Pele, Jane Austin; but now they strive to be like Kanye, Kim K., Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber. What has this earth come to when having a boyfriend defines your worth, and how many girls you’ve slept with makes you even more popular?
This is the age where a girl is considered a dyke if she’s a little boyish, where apparently guys aren’t allowed to do anything girlish (not even play with their sisters) because it’s considered “gay”. A time where we discriminate against someone’s sexual orientation, where you not only discriminate but harass and emotionally abuse them.
Yes, I know most of these things have been around a very long time, but it’s more prevalent now. We say we’re advancing towards the future. But at what cost? It’s like the more we develop the less humane we get.
You cling to your religion, brandishing it as a weapon to hurt others, but yet preach about not doing harm to another? That is pure hypocrisy. I’m not saying the world is lost, because there are many people who still value morals and family and being a good human. But what I am saying is that if people do not open their eyes and see what they’re doing to the world, then we will have a future of chaos and distrust.
And if you’re going to take offense to this message or misinterpret what I am saying, then go ahead and be ignorant and then take a second to look at yourself and ask yourself why did you get angry? Was what I said not true?
One pebble at a time can cause a ripple that some day will become a wave, so take a stand and try to make this world better, if not for anyone, but do it for yourself and your future generations.
Carina Westford via email
 
Alcohol sponsorship detrimental
to sportspeople
Dear Editor:
The body responsible for sports in Guyana, should put an immediate stop to alcohol beverage companies sponsorship.
When a beverage company sponsors a game or a tournament, it is all about that product and importantly profit, but on the other hand it is detrimental to our young sportswomen and men.
As a former cricket administrator, a disciplined approach was taken on alcohol abuse. Now with more disciplined heads around let action speak louder than words.
Yours-in-Sports,
Parmanand Ram via email
 
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