Dear Editor,

I have read about the increase that was instructed to be given to members of the Joint Services. Editor, one hundred thousand and thirty dollars ($130,000) has the name but sadly it don’t have the value to live a comfortable life. It is sad but the reality of the matter is that cost of living keeps escalating beyond control.

Editor, old people say “is only who feels it knows it,” and this is definitely true since we have more people who are unemployed than those who are employed. This new development got me thinking to ask Irfaan Ali how much monies he is taking home as the president since he is convinced that he is doing something grand? Ali, that money that you are throwing at the Joint Services personnel is “chicken feed” money. That’s one of the many reasons why people are migrating to what seems like greener pastures. As a leader, Ali has to do right by the citizens if he wants them to stay and work in their own country because if he doesn’t people would always find a way of migrating. And we are seeing the problem we have with our nurses, the government is now forced to orchestrate a plan to import nurses from where we are yet to find out.

But it is serious. I believe if we educate and pay our public servants more most of them would not want to leave their jobs and country for a foreign land, especially when they find out that it is not all “glitter and gold” in a foreign land and starting over can take a while to find your footing. So that one hundred thousand and thirty dollars is meagre and Ali has to stop giving out the nation’s funds without having an audit. Guyana should have a reserve fund in case of any natural disaster. We all should be thinking along that line.

Sincerely,

Yannason Duncan