HARD FETE IN HARD TIMES

THEY have been jamming in the streets of Suriname, too.

No, not to “Hard Fete” or “Come Home”!

But people angrily stormed the national Parliament to protest economic hardship, including the soaring cost of food, fuel prices and electricity rates, and other essentials.

Yes, global outrage against economic adversity has reached the region, in the tiny Caricom country of 600,000 people.

Suriname’s inflation and national debt are climbing, and the country is in the jaws of International Monetary Fund stipulations.

To be sure, the storming of the National Assembly and looting in Paramaribo are reprehensible and deserve to be punished.

The protests appear to have been modelled after fierce attacks on State houses in the United States and Brazil.

But a protestor named Agnes spoke for many: “I have two jobs to feed my three children, and I cannot make it to the middle of the month.”

It is always tricky to compare circumstances, but the situation in the smallest South American land does not appear as tough as those in Trinidad and Tobago.

Rough contrasts show that Suriname’s current food and fuel prices, and overall inflation, along with proposed electricity rates, are marginally less harsh.

The cost of living has gone up by 54 per cent in recent months.

In T&T, food prices have climbed by 46 per cent, if you believe economists, and 65 per cent, if you trust the spreadsheet analyses of grocers.

Domestic consumer confidence is low, evidenced by the weak Christmas trade.

The local small and medium-sized business sector is struggling, and some are losing their footing because of high loan and overdraft charges.

Commercial banks, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the, well, the bank.

T&T is the only known country in which banks scored historic post-Covid profits while workers lost jobs and small businesses went under.

The authorities sat back and permitted that untenable state of affairs.  

Suriname has replaced a 12 per cent turnover tax with 10 per cent VAT.

That country’s GDP decline over the past three years has been just over 20 per cent, while T&T’s economy ebbed to its lowest since 1983 before being bolstered by the current high energy returns.

The unemployment rate in Suriname is 10.7 per cent, while it is estimated at 20 per cent in T&T.

One in three people in both countries is under the poverty threshold.

Relative pharmaceutical prices are higher in T&T.

There were 60 murders last year in our fellow Caricom country.

T&T’s staggering crime rate has steered away prospective investors and is leading to a flight from the country of the middle class.

With the lack of government accountability and the low detection rate of crime, thousands of people are fleeing to greener pastures.

Suriname is still attracting investors into its mining sector, while businesses are leaving T&T at the rate of US $750 million a year.

Crime “is out of control and is affecting business in a big way,” says tycoon Derek Chin, who is encouraging locals to invest in Guyana.

T&T is staring at greater unemployment and poverty with the looming electricity and water rate increases.

Property tax is on the way.

As for Suriname, Economist Intelligence forecasts that the country would rise from its social unrest and strengthen its business climate, especially with offshore crude oil and natural gas discoveries.

In T&T, nationals remain passive amid grinding poverty,  lack of economic diversification and rampant violence.

Feisty large crowds are associated with Carnival fetes and not public indignation at the chronic state of affairs.

Political claimants have not been able to mobilise public dissent, with some mistaking social media momentum for electoral support.

T&T – especially the downtrodden small man – may be sweating it out, but no one could seemingly marshal their frustration.

There is something that Carnival inspires that hunger does not!