Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990

Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990 PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 166413283X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
Much of Guyana's 20th century history was defined by the PNC dictatorship and the political and economic wreckage it left behind. In "Guyana's Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990", Dr Ramesh Gampat presents a comprehensive study of these specific years when the national economy contracted by 2.7 percent annually. He explores the multiple facets of the country's political tribalism which "does not value freedom, liberty and the flourishing of all people; it values only freedom, liberty and flourishing of tribes." The study reinforces the widely held belief that until and unless these adversarial groups subsume their respective selfish interests and commit to the common cause of national peace and development, the great downswing might not rest as a historical event but could well re-emerge with further economic devastation if the lessons go unheeded. Dr Gampat makes a strong case for federalism as a solution to Guyana's ethnic politics. Federalism, he posits, would ensure that all Guyanese have equal access to opportunities and resources since a system of provincial governance would be better placed to address discriminatory policies and practices at a localised level. With the country sitting on the cusp of transformative development to be propelled by new-found oil wealth, there is an urgency to settle the divisive politics if every Guyanese is to benefit fairly and equitably from the economic boom. "Guyana's Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990" offers up a studied and comprehensive analysis that should be part of that bipartisan discourse going forward. --- Ryhaan Shah, Novelist, Social Activist A few piecemeal academic articles analyzing Guyana's economic evolution over the period 1977 to 1990 were written, but they are scattered and lost away in various journals. What was missing is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of the era of Cooperative Socialism. Dr. Ramesh Gampat's book fills this gap. It is a superb synthesis of historical, theoretical and econometric exploration of the Great Downswing. The book not only provides estimates of important macroeconomic concepts such as Guyana's total factor productivity and long-term growth, but also produces the useful statistics and reviews of poverty, inequality, life expectancy, education outcomes as well as a detailed analysis of the rice sector. As if these are not enough, Gampat sets the tone by situating the exploration in the country's long standing and debilitating ethno-political dynamics. This self-contained book will be of tremendous use to policy makers, journalists and students interested in the historical context of present-day outcomes. I highly recommend this book to public libraries and home reference libraries. ---Tarron Khemraj, William and Marie Selby Professor of Economics and International Studies, New College of Florida

Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990

Guyana’s Great Economic Downswing, 1977-1990 PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 166413283X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
Much of Guyana's 20th century history was defined by the PNC dictatorship and the political and economic wreckage it left behind. In "Guyana's Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990", Dr Ramesh Gampat presents a comprehensive study of these specific years when the national economy contracted by 2.7 percent annually. He explores the multiple facets of the country's political tribalism which "does not value freedom, liberty and the flourishing of all people; it values only freedom, liberty and flourishing of tribes." The study reinforces the widely held belief that until and unless these adversarial groups subsume their respective selfish interests and commit to the common cause of national peace and development, the great downswing might not rest as a historical event but could well re-emerge with further economic devastation if the lessons go unheeded. Dr Gampat makes a strong case for federalism as a solution to Guyana's ethnic politics. Federalism, he posits, would ensure that all Guyanese have equal access to opportunities and resources since a system of provincial governance would be better placed to address discriminatory policies and practices at a localised level. With the country sitting on the cusp of transformative development to be propelled by new-found oil wealth, there is an urgency to settle the divisive politics if every Guyanese is to benefit fairly and equitably from the economic boom. "Guyana's Great Economic Downswing, 1977 to 1990" offers up a studied and comprehensive analysis that should be part of that bipartisan discourse going forward. --- Ryhaan Shah, Novelist, Social Activist A few piecemeal academic articles analyzing Guyana's economic evolution over the period 1977 to 1990 were written, but they are scattered and lost away in various journals. What was missing is a comprehensive and rigorous exploration of the era of Cooperative Socialism. Dr. Ramesh Gampat's book fills this gap. It is a superb synthesis of historical, theoretical and econometric exploration of the Great Downswing. The book not only provides estimates of important macroeconomic concepts such as Guyana's total factor productivity and long-term growth, but also produces the useful statistics and reviews of poverty, inequality, life expectancy, education outcomes as well as a detailed analysis of the rice sector. As if these are not enough, Gampat sets the tone by situating the exploration in the country's long standing and debilitating ethno-political dynamics. This self-contained book will be of tremendous use to policy makers, journalists and students interested in the historical context of present-day outcomes. I highly recommend this book to public libraries and home reference libraries. ---Tarron Khemraj, William and Marie Selby Professor of Economics and International Studies, New College of Florida

Essays

Essays PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669802450
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
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Domination by Region 4

Domination by Region 4 PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669864766
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This book argues that Guyana presently operates a system of domestic colonialism (DM). DM builds on institutions established during imperial colonialism, strengthened and expanded since independence in 1966, and regionalization, which balkanized the country into ten administrative regions. Regionalization is a flexible instrument that enables political and economic control, with one strengthening the other, further empowering Region 4 where the “metropole” is located, and enhancing the dependency of the nine satellite regions. Both political parties exploits regionalization when in power, the PPP principally through financial strangulation and discrimination, the PNC and its various incarnations via political control. Regionalization is the symbol of domestic colonialism. PPP-I (last six years of its previous regime, 2009 to 2014) allocated an annual average of 11.1 percent of public funds to the regions, the APNU+AFC 14.1 percent from 2015 to 2020, and PPP-II, the current PPP administration, 12.5 percent during its first two years in office. Over the fourteen-years from 2009 to 2022, the four largest agencies consumed 42.5 percent of total Central Government expenditure. Under PPP-I, these agencies spent 15 percentage points more on capital costs than they did under APNU+AFC. However, under the latter government they spent more than 10 percentage points on the amorphous category “Other Charges.” These anomalies are hard to explain because there were no functional enhancements or reach of coverage by these agencies. Incredibly, the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the largest agency for all but one year, spent 46.1 percent of what the Ministry of Public Works incurred on public infrastructure for the entire country. An important avenue of political patronage is the employment of contract and temporary workers, who are hired outside of the public service legislative framework. These workers comprised half of the MoF’s workforce over the fourteen-year period and the last six years of PPP-I; for the Ministry of Health, that figure is around 37.0 percent for both periods. Employment patronage rose during APNU+AFC’s term of office, to 53.8 percent in the MoF and to 41.8 percent in the MoH. Employment patronage at these two big agencies was lower during PPP-I than the six years of the APNU+AFC Government. “Patronage employment” is considerably lower with the PPP-II than all previous regimes. The strategic deviation is explained by the rise of three separate categories of low- and unskilled workers, who account for 48.5 percent and 57.7 percent of workforce of the MoF and the MoH, respectively. These figures are more than 10 percentage points larger than those of all previous administrations. In effect, the PPP doles out patronage away from hiring outside of the public service legislative framework to hiring within it. Not only has the PPP “legalized” patronage, it has also increased it significantly.

Guyana: from Slavery to the Present

Guyana: from Slavery to the Present PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503546322
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
It is common knowledge that slavery and indenture were characterized by long hours of physical labor, restriction of movement and other basic human freedoms, and severe punishment for violations of draconian labor laws. Less well known is the fact that nutrition was very deficient and a range of infectious diseases maimed, debilitated and killed on a large scale. In trying to narrow the knowledge gap with respect to Guyana, Ramesh Gampat shows that extremely poor sanitary conditions, awful hygiene and malnutrition hastened widespread infections and created a vicious cycle. The British protected its own soldiers, officials and colonists by establishing a medical enclave that lasted until Emancipation in 1838. Former slaves were then quarantined to neglected and decaying villages and Indians to plantations. Concern with health conditions appeared only during periods of epidemics and even then it was essentially for the protection of Europeans. Colonial medicine opened the way for stereotyping, labeling, racialization of disease, neutralization of potential leaders in the struggle for justice, and crystallization of the view that Europeans were superior to Blacks and Indians. Shorter stature and shorter life expectancy are good indications that slaves and indentured immigrants fared considerably less well than Europeans. Several infectious diseases sickened and fell Blacks and Indians, including malaria and undefined fevers, pneumonia and bronchitis, diarrhea and enteritis, tuberculosis, pneumonia and hookworm. The conquest of malaria in the early 1950s accelerated the epidemiological transition from communicable to chronic noncommunicable diseases, and today NCDs account for some three-quarters of all deaths in Guyana. Malaria has reemerged, fueled by a gold boom that consumes huge amounts of mercury. The potentially adverse public health consequences of this relatively new dynamic, the combined trio, have been neglected.

A Powerful Indian Voice Alice Bhagwandai Singh: Reflections on Her Work in Guyana

A Powerful Indian Voice Alice Bhagwandai Singh: Reflections on Her Work in Guyana PDF Author: Baytoram Ramharack
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1669858758
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Baytoram Ramharack was born in Berbice, Guyana. He teaches history and political science at Nassau Community College. His previous publications include Against the Grain: Balram Singh Rai and the Politics of Guyana (2005); and Jung Bahadur Singh of Guyana (1886-1956): Politician, ship doctor, labor leader and protector of Indians (2019). He remains a strong advocate and supporter of stable democracy in Guyana. Dr. Ramharack is working on a forthcoming book examining Cheddi Jagan’s relationship with Indians in Guyana.

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism (Second Edition Volume 1)

Sanatana Dharma and Plantation Hinduism (Second Edition Volume 1) PDF Author: Ramesh Gampat
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1796078018
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Christian Missionaries worked hard to convert immigrants. Their first order of business was to denigrate Hinduism, designate Hindus as heathen, and disparage their culture, food and even attire. Immigrants stubbornly resisted, led by the tiny educated elite, including Brhmaas whom we call Brahmins. Conversion was a failure at least up to the end of the 19th century but picked up a self-generating momentum thereafter. The result is that the share of Hindus in Guyana’s Indian population declined from 83.5 percent in 1880 to 62.8 percent in 2012. The largest portion of the contraction was lost to Christianity. The loss notwithstanding, even a casual observer would conclude that Guyanese Hindus, at home and in the Diaspora, are a very religious people. Many of us do a jhandi or havan once annually; others do the more elaborate and costlier yajña, where everyone is welcome, once or twice in their lifetime. Most of us do a short daily puja – prayers, offerings, reading the stras and listening to bhajan – in our homes. An important, but perhaps unintended, way immigrants countered conversion to Christianity was an unplanned movement towards a “synthesis” that brought Hindus, regardless of caste or sect, under a “unitary form of Hinduism.” The “synthesis” began around the 1870s and was completed by the 1930s to the 1950s. Guyanese Hindus call the unified corpus of religious beliefs and practices that emerged from the “synthesis” Sanatana Dharma. Ramesh Gampat labels it Plantation Hinduism in this path-breaking book. The book argues that the brand of Hinduism practiced is inconsistent with Sanatana Dharma, called Vednta by the more philosophically inclined. Plantation Hinduism features an extraordinary dependence upon purohits (pandits), which has anaesthetized the Hindu mind and render him unable to think, question and inquire when it comes to Dharma. Rituals and bhakti have been degraded and turned into desire-motivated worship; devats have been misconstrued as Brahman rather than as limited manifestation of the one non-dual pure Consciousness; belief in the multiplicity of gods encourages image worship; and superstitions anchor Guyanese Hindus to tradition and mere belief. Plantation Hinduism is little more than desire-motivated actions, dogmas and superstitions. Absent is the idea that Sanatana Dharma is a spiritual science no less scientific than hard sciences, such as physics and astronomy. The central message of Vednta is the innate divinity of every person and the freedom to realize that divinity through anubhava, direct personal experience of Supreme Reality.

Great Divergence and Great Convergence

Great Divergence and Great Convergence PDF Author: Leonid Grinin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331917780X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This new monograph provides a stimulating new take on hotly contested topics in world modernization and the globalizing economy. It begins by situating what is called the Great Divergence--the social/technological revolution that led European nations to outpace the early dominance of Asia--in historical context over centuries. This is contrasted with an equally powerful Great Convergence, the recent economic and technological expansion taking place in Third World nations and characterized by narrowing inequity among nations. They are seen here as two phases of an inevitable global process, centuries in the making, with the potential for both positive and negative results. This sophisticated presentation examines: Why the developing world is growing more rapidly than the developed world. How this development began occurring under the Western world's radar. How former colonies of major powers grew to drive the world's economy. Why so many Western economists have been slow to recognize the Great Convergence. The increasing risk of geopolitical instability. Why the world is likely to find itself without an absolute leader after the end of the American hegemony A work of rare scope, Great Divergence and Great Convergence gives sociologists, global economists, demographers, and global historians a deeper understanding of the broader movement of social and economic history, combined with a long view of history as it is currently being made; it also offers some thrilling forecasts for global development in the forthcoming decades.

Beyond Reforms

Beyond Reforms PDF Author: José Antonio Ocampo
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804752732
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This collection presents the difficult challenges of the new economic era as well as a set of alternative economic policies for managing the open Latin American economies of the early twenty-first century. Ideas that were removed from the reform agenda over the past two decades are seen as critical to the improved economic and social performance that liberalization has so far failed to produce. These ideas include a role for counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies, including restrictions on capital mobility; active productive sector and technological development policies; and the need to pay greater attention not only to social policies, but also to the links between economic policies and social outcomes, in order to guarantee a desirable social performance. This collection sheds new light on issues that were largely overlooked during the reform period, and that must be faced squarely to overcome the deficiencies that Latin America has faced during its phase of liberalization and its dismal economic performance since the Asian crisis.

Taking Power

Taking Power PDF Author: John Foran
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521620090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Taking Power analyzes the causes behind some three dozen revolutions in the Third World between 1910 and the present. It advances a new theory that seeks to integrate the political, economic, and cultural factors that brought these revolutions about. It attempts to explain why so few revolutions have succeeded, while so many have failed. The book is divided into chapters that treat particular sets of revolutions and it closes with speculation about the future of revolutions in an age of globalization.

Technology Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations

Technology Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations PDF Author: Mr.Pau Rabanal
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451875657
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
Our answer: Not so well. We reached that conclusion after reviewing recent research on the role of technology as a source of economic fluctuations. The bulk of the evidence suggests a limited role for aggregate technology shocks, pointing instead to demand factors as the main force behind the strong positive comovement between output and labor input measures.