Originally Posted by VishMahabir:
LISTEN CAREFULLY MR DASILVA:
1) I am the product of a canecutter family. My dad worked all his life in the sugar industry. The sugar industry is a brutal labor-intensive industry which pays sugar workers pittances for their hard labor. Workers get up at 4AM, sometimes getting home at 7PM. Unless this system is mechanized, it will tie the workers (mostly Indians) to the industry as slaves and make them chattels.
Of course I agree about mechanisation,Ask the estate managers in Guysuco about that experiment and who kickbacks for sourcing extremely expensive machines,all which had to be abandoned.
No comparison to Trinidad where most of the canecutters drove to the canefield in cars.Canecutting was a second job for most of them.The land was sold off to the rich Indiand but the poor canecutters still try to get by by selling vegetables and catching fish even today.I know Caroni and some of the smaller sugar planters in Trinidad estate well.
Nothing political but if one is percieved as a nemakharam you are.Basdeo Pandey first used the term publicly.East Indiand always used the term to describe an ungrateful or worthless person.
I agree that if necessary there should look at alternatives use of land but at the same time one has to look into a welfare of those who may be displaced.
When hanoman who had his primary residence in England was CEO ,no one said a word.When the Afican chap (cant remeber his name) was the chairman of Guysuco under Burnham and who has homes in the US and England and used the company for first class flight throughout theworld for he,his entourage and family no one said a word He was a close friend of Burnham and a staunch PNC supporter.Yes you dare not say a word for fear of being beaten up or harassed.
What political issue.This is a political issue couched in all types of excuses,not profitable,inefficientetc.
Many talk but behind that talk there are no facts and data.Show me the data.Guess it is the same as asking Gecom for copies of Statement of polls.