Agriculture, race relations, community development

AGRICULTURAL activities, race relations, issues of youth and community development were raised with President, Dr Irfaan Ali, when he met with residents of Paradise/Belladrum, West Coast Berbice on Friday.

The engagement follows a meeting held with a community group Thursday evening, where several issues affecting the community were raised.
The Head of State thanked the residents for engaging his office and for their openness in sharing their concerns relating to their community.

“I am a President for all Guyana and I want to work with every community. I have asked the group to come together, representing the community, so that we can have continuous dialogue. This must not be a one-off dialogue. We have to see how we can work with the community to improve community life, community relations and to ensure that all our Guyanese brothers and sisters, everyone, has a better standard of living, a better way of living. I am here to support that. We want to build relationships and we want to build on programmes and policies that touch the lives of all Guyanese,” President Ali said.
He pointed to the importance of continued dialogue to the success of any intervention within the community and encouraged those present to form working groups to ensure that more will be achieved in a structured manner.

also reminded of the measures provided in the Emergency Budget that will bring even more benefits to Guyanese families.
The residents raised concerns about the support of agricultural activities, including rice cultivation and issues of youth and community development.
“This approach by the government is one that will see continuous engagement, meeting with communities, listening to communities. At the end of the day, we have to build a strong country, a resilient country, a country that is unified and one that represents the interest of all Guyanese, through the implementation of policies and programmes,” President Ali said.

The residents also raised concerns over the inciteful comments on social media that foster division and which they view as “disgusting and distasteful” and which only serve to create tension in the communities.

President Ali reminded of his stance on this issue and pointed to his recent, public statement, condemning such acts.
He said: “I addressed racist statements on social media and I just came from other communities which have the same fear. If we all have the same fear then we should all work on the same solution. That is why I said in my statement that we will address very sternly, using all the laws, those who are using social media to spread hate, those who are using social media to spread racism and those who are using social media to divide us. That is why I also said, through the

international Commission of Inquiry (CoI), we have to examine all these statements. It does not help you, it does not help me, it does not help the community; it does not help the country. That is why I am out here today, to tell you that as President, I am leading a government that wants to work with everybody.”
President Ali’s meeting with the Paradise/Belladrum community followed his visit to the relatives of slain teenagers Haresh Singh, Joel Henry and Isaiah Henry in Number Three Village and the family of Prittipaul Hargobin who was also killed during the protest action that erupted along the West Coast Berbice corridor.