00:00While we talk here, they are producing soy beans.
00:05They are producing corn.
00:08Soy bean and corn are two of the essential ingredients in the feed for chicken.
00:12We are one of the highest consumers of chicken per capita in the world.
00:16What are we doing? Every day you read the newspaper
00:20it's about some kind of new pilot project. Some kind of new
00:24experimentation. The country doesn't want to hear about experimentation.
00:27The country wants to know that you are producing something. Former government minister
00:32Suruj Rattan Rambachan is urging the government to implement
00:35a new development model as TNT continues to rely heavily
00:39on volatile oil and gas markets, 60 plus years
00:43post-independence, while countries like Guyana make diversification
00:48strides. We are dealing with economic uncertainty
00:51despite what Dr. Munilal is projecting in terms of the energy sector.
00:55I think that is not just about the energy sector, it has to be about
00:59the non-energy sector in particular.
01:02Especially when you view that
01:03oil prices have gone down into the
01:05mid-70s now
01:07and gas prices also have gone down
01:09so that they are not within the range
01:11that has been projected in the budget.
01:14Rambachan says based on his
01:16observances, the gap
01:17between the haves and the have-nots
01:19is ever widening.
01:21If you, like me, go into the grocery and listen to people
01:25rising food prices
01:27unstable employment
01:29and not just at the lower levels
01:31at all levels, stagnant wages
01:33all of these are creating
01:35pressure on households
01:37so economic hardship
01:40is often
01:41becoming social instability.
01:44Challenges such as
01:45these, he notes, give rise to crime
01:48despite statistics
01:50suggesting otherwise.
01:51Although the police service
01:53is indicating
01:54that in several areas, crime has gone down
01:57but one home invasion where
01:59a 75 year old lady killed doesn't say
02:01that crime is going down in the eyes
02:03of the people.
02:04And law enforcement is critical
02:06but
02:07side by side with law enforcement,
02:09social reform is equally important.
02:11My view is that, you know, no nation
02:13whatever part of the world
02:15a nation cannot
02:17arrest its way out of every problem.
02:20Rambachan also laments that racial tension
02:23is at a high.
02:24We must move in this country
02:27beyond the politics of division
02:28and I want to address
02:30the question of race and division.
02:33Our diversity
02:34has always been called out as our strength
02:37but has our diversity become our strength?
02:41Nationhood, the building of this nation
02:43cannot survive if people feel
02:45that their personal identities
02:47or group identities
02:48matters more than their citizenship.
02:51The former government minister
02:53describes the country as being
02:55in a deep political and social strain.
02:58He's advocating for a reset.
03:01We are dealing with
03:03weakened public trust in the country,
03:05weakened public trust
03:06and growing social frustration.
03:10But that is not being pessimistic.
03:12I think within that challenge
03:14is also the opportunity
03:16for national renewal.
03:17But who is going to set
03:19the reset button in this country?
03:22Renessa Cutting, TB6 News.
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