Ever so often there is this hue and cry about the flight of foreign currency, specifically the US dollar, which has a spin-off effect on other currencies, when the solution to the problem stares us straight in our faces. The only thing that every single human being requires for sustenance is food. Not American food or European food, just food.
A surfeit of oil money has been allowed to fool us into thinking that we cannot survive without the fancy foods that are all imported from foreign countries, which are essentially bad for us and for the country’s foreign exchange position.
We continue to delude ourselves into thinking that we are oh-so-sophisticated because we know all about the food that Americans eat and we can discuss these things knowingly with our friends and associates.
In the meantime, local foods, which are far superior in nutritional value, are far less expensive and do not consume vital foreign exchange, languish in markets. The struggling agriculturists who slave away in the hot sun growing these products can barely make a living off their sweat and frequently, in frustration, give up the struggle and find alternative employment.
How difficult would it be for the state to invest some of the billions it spends in often unproductive exercises and give support to this depressed sector?
There are businessmen who boast of the importation of foreign products and foreign tastes and culture to this country with no apologies nor regret for foisting imported garbage on the population. Of course they would be right to point out that if the people did not want it they would not bring it, but they are not required to give priority to the national interest.
Only working class people are required to do so, I suppose.
KARAN MAHABIRSINGH,
CARAPICHAIMA