THE LATE President Cheddi Jagan once argued that democracy could prosper only in an environment of stable economic, social and ecological development. He laid much emphasis in the importance of human development for the preservation of society’s welfare. Dr Jagan sounded this clarion call in November 1995 when he addressed the General Conference of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris.

Poverty, he told his audience, atrophies the vigour and initiative of the individual and deprives the society of incalculable human resources.

“If left unattended,” President Jagan warned, “the expanse of poverty, with hunger, will undermine the fabric and security of the democratic state.” And in listing some of the effects of poverty in the Caribbean such as the disintegration of the family, the crushing debt burden, unemployment and underemployment, Dr Jagan advocated that any development strategy for the eradication of poverty must be global.

As this nation knows, early in his tenure as President of Guyana, Dr Jagan had articulated the tenets of his New Global Human Order (NGHO) through which he promoted his ideas for an integrated programme of world development based on enlightened governance, democracy, a mixed economy and grants for poverty alleviation.

This was Dr Jagan’s grand vision for redressing the social and economic injustices that plague the planet and cast a dark shadow over the brilliant achievements of the civilisation.

While medical experts are preparing to read the book of the human genome system, and while electronic wizards are devising more incredible uses for the microchip, other sections of humanity are involved in savage ethnic strife and decades-old wars of attrition. Millions of people in the South endure a lifetime of drudgery. Some of them barely eke out an existence on approximately US$1 a day.

The World Bank estimates that approximately 700 million people go to sleep half hungry each night with little hope that tomorrow their fortunes would be reversed. The plight of the poor is etched in more dramatic relief in those societies such as Brazil, where the gap between the wealthy landed gentry and the masses of the dispossessed is a deep and almost unbridgeable canyon.

The body of literature on underdevelopment often cites numerous theories for lifting poor economies out of the dungeon and replicating the miracles of the Asian tigers or countries such as Switzerland, which have few natural resources, but have ingeniously achieved wealth and modern economies through a number of expedients. Very often, analysts and political leaders seek inspiration from the industrialised west only to come away with a sense of being overwhelmed by the breadth of human progress in those countries.

Structural development in Europe and North America has attained such heights, that some six years ago, the British were complaining that they have too many highways, while the Americans were discussing the need to scale back the construction of shopping malls.

In the poor nations, sadly enough, the situation is reversed. Government functionaries in the fields of health, education and public works have to “feel the edges” of every dollar that is allocated to various departments in order to extract the greatest possible value for the highest number of persons. Community health workers have to extend themselves daily in an effort to meet the health needs of people suffering from diseases bred by poverty, lack of potable water, and poor sanitation.

Let us hope that with sound development policies and the cooperation of all communities, over the next decade, the worst manifestations of poverty in Guyana will disappear forever.