fbpx
  • Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • Opinions
  • Features
  • Letters
  • Videos
  • Editorials
  • Columns
Ravi-Dev

Yesu and economic growth

January 23, 2022
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Chinese Undermining Guyanese Business and Truckers; Cause of Concern for USA

June 1, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

India Delegation Visit to Guyana was to reach out against Terror; Guyana and world must stand against Terror

June 1, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

PPP most organized party for Sept 1 Elections in Guyana

May 31, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

PPP heading for Thumping Majority in Guyana

May 31, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana & Caricom Must unquestionably support India in battle against Terror

May 26, 2025
Remembering Aunty Betty of Port Mourant, Guyana

Remembering Aunty Betty of Port Mourant, Guyana

May 23, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Do Guyana Governments respond to Objective, fair, balanced editorials? The attack on Hindus and Hinduism in Guyana

May 21, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana must Seek American Assistance to deter Venezuela’s Aggression & Halt May 25 Election

May 21, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Exxon, Liability, and Guyana’s Growth

May 21, 2025
Dool Hanomansingh

Why the Hindu community remains weak despite personal achievements?

May 17, 2025
English rendering of PM’s interaction with the brave air warriors and soldiers at the Adampur Air Base

English rendering of PM’s interaction with the brave air warriors and soldiers at the Adampur Air Base

May 17, 2025
Ashook-Ramsaran

THE INDIAN DIASPORA COUNCIL CONVENES CONFERENCE SESSION AT ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY

May 17, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Condition
Sunday, June 1, 2025
  • Login
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News
  • Home
  • Columns
    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Chinese Undermining Guyanese Business and Truckers; Cause of Concern for USA

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    India Delegation Visit to Guyana was to reach out against Terror; Guyana and world must stand against Terror

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    PPP most organized party for Sept 1 Elections in Guyana

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    PPP heading for Thumping Majority in Guyana

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Guyana & Caricom Must unquestionably support India in battle against Terror

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Do Guyana Governments respond to Objective, fair, balanced editorials? The attack on Hindus and Hinduism in Guyana

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Guyana must Seek American Assistance to deter Venezuela’s Aggression & Halt May 25 Election

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Indian Caribbean Diaspora Support Surgical Strikes against terrorists; backs PM Modi’s tough response

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Will Azruddin and Glenn Team up in Guyana?

    Dr. Jerry Jailall

    The Adrianna “scrapehead” riots must be a wake-up call to Indo-Guyanese as we race towards the 2025 elections

  • Letters
    Guyana Rohee’s mocking of Illegal Guyanese & Green Card Holders in America

    Guyana Rohee’s mocking of Illegal Guyanese & Green Card Holders in America

    Charles Sugrim

    Authenticating Dr Bisram’s Poll in Guyana

    Gary Griffith

    United We Stand, Divided We Fall

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Democrats More Dangerous to Dragon Gas than Republicans

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Who Really Lost in the Junior Sammy Matter in Trinidad?

    Jai Lall

    A challenge to become the rainbow in Leonora’s cloud

    Rabindra-Moonan

    The opposition UNC led by Kamla Persad Bissessar has gone into meltdown mode.

    Jai Lall

    Residents of Leonora, Guyana are ashamed and embarrassed

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Trinidad & Tobago REPUBLIC DAY MESSAGE 2024 OF LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Crime has reached a high level in Trinidad and Tobago

  • Community News
    Remembering Aunty Betty of Port Mourant, Guyana

    Remembering Aunty Betty of Port Mourant, Guyana

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Exxon, Liability, and Guyana’s Growth

    English rendering of PM’s interaction with the brave air warriors and soldiers at the Adampur Air Base

    English rendering of PM’s interaction with the brave air warriors and soldiers at the Adampur Air Base

    Indian-Caribbeans Observe Hanuman Birth Anniversary

    Indian-Caribbeans Observe Hanuman Birth Anniversary

    Ram Navami 2023 Observed

    Indo Caribbean Americans Observed 2025 Ram Naumi or Navami

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Gowtam Maharaj: “Phagwa is much more than gulal and abeer; it is building family love and strong communities.”

    Queens Boro President hosts 2025 Holi (Phagwah) Celebration

    Queens Boro President hosts 2025 Holi (Phagwah) Celebration

    Indian-Caribbean Americans in 2025 Phagwah (Holi) Spirit

    Indian-Caribbean Americans in 2025 Phagwah (Holi) Spirit

    Indo-Caribbeans Spellbound by the Maha Kumbh in India

    Indo-Caribbeans Spellbound by the Maha Kumbh in India

    Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers Observe Shivratri

    Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers Observe Shivratri

  • Editorials
    cliff-rajkumar

    VANISHING FOOTPRINTS

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Trinidad and Tobago OPPOSITION LEADER addresses TOWN HALL MEETING ON EDUCATION IN SAN FERNANDO WEST

    Jai Lall

    Guyana Leonora’s villagers are inseparable

    Dr. Vishnu Bisram

    Indo-Caribbean to speak on India’s Soft Power in Delhi

    Jai Lall

    Empty vessels make the most noise – politics in Guyana

    Ashook-Ramsaran

    In Commemoration of the 23rd Anniversary

    Kamla Persad Bissessar

    Hope for UNC of Trinidad?

    Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

    Is there No Other Musical Instrument Indigenous to T&T?

    Guyana-map

    October 2024 Hindu Conference bring back memories of Humiliation of Indians in Guyana

    Jai Lall

    Is Kamala Harris the “Trump” card for the Democrats?

  • Opinions
    Dool Hanomansingh

    Why the Hindu community remains weak despite personal achievements?

    Leyland-Chitlall-Roopnaraine

    A CHILD’S DEATH PLUNGES A COUNTRY INTO CRISIS

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Pakistan has always been a puppet nation

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Never too late for Dinesh to redeem himself!

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Bhadase and Sat were successful in so many ways

    Dool Hanomansingh

    The UNC is a Bullet Train Today

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Why is the EU Grant for Ex-Cane Farmers Not Paid?

    Dool Hanomansingh

    PNM hates Poor Black People

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Why whites are fleeing South Africa?

    Dool Hanomansingh

    Crime and the Hindu Community

  • Videos
    Dool-Hanomansingh-003

    US Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard condemns the ongoing genocide of Hindus and other minorities

    Geeta-Vaahini

    Geeta Vaahini, President of the  Hindu Prachaar Kendra speaks on the social significance of Ganga Dhara Festival.

    Geeta-Vaahini

    Geeta Vaahini, President of the Hindu Prachaar Kendra speaks on the Hindu view of the environment.

    swami-brahmadeo

    Swami Brahmadeo – Hindus are top CEOs and Medics in North America and Europe

    Gowtam-Maharaj

    Gowtam Maharaj, a farmer of Barrackpore, South Trinidad, shares his challenges being a farmer.

    BAMBOO #1 Flooding – Frustrated Residents

    BAMBOO #1 Flooding – Frustrated Residents

    NATIONAL-LOTUS-THEATRE

    NATIONAL LOTUS THEATRE – Performance of Niyantran

    radica-jairam

    Story of RADICA JAIRAM from Orange Valley

    fisherman-trinidad

    Families of Orange Valley felt neglected by PNM Government

    Dr Subramanian Swamy

    Dr Subramanian Swamy – Dharma Rising London April 2015

  • Features
    ravi-ratiram

    Trinidad MP Ravi Ratiram Condemns Government’s Failures Amidst Rising Crime in Central Trinidad and Calls for Immediate Action to Protect Citizens

    Pandit Ramdular Singh

    Pandit Ramdular Singh on Guyana’s Dharmic Sabha

    Vassan Ramracha

    PNM bent on Africanizing Trinidad

    Baldeo_Chanderpaul-3

    West Indian cricketers must strive to emulate Shiv Chanderpaul of Guyana

    Jai Lall

    Who in Guyana will ever buy the PNC/AFC/APNU “honesty, integrity and decency” pitch again?

    cliff-rajkumar

    Non Indians Embracing Sanathan Dharma

    Mr. Rudranath Indarsingh

    INDARSINGH ON RELOCATION OF PRINCES TOWN FIRE OFFICERS

    Vassan Ramracha

    TRIBAL AFRICANS DO NOT CONDONE INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES

    Jai Lall

    Guyana President Ali and Cabinet Ministers Engaged West Coast Supporters

    Dr Jerry Jailall

    PPP Government responds quickly to changing “Negro” on Government forms, will they also add “Indian” to Arrival Day?

No Result
View All Result
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News
No Result
View All Result

Yesu and economic growth

by Ravi Dev
January 23, 2022
in Columns, Opinions, Uncategorized
0
Ravi-Dev

Photo : Ravi Dev

0
SHARES
3
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

With the discovery of oil off our shores, there is much talk about economic growth and development and how to make it “sustainable”. The passing of business tycoon Yesu Persaud reminded me of a comment by Robert Lucas, the Nobel Prize winning economist who pioneered “endogenous growth” theory. While, like the “exogenous school”, the role of technological progress for growth is stressed, internal factors like “human capital”, as stressed by Lucas, is critical. Human capital embodies the skills and knowledge in the labor force which can be augmented by further education that leads to an increase in their productivity.

So how does Yesu’s life enter the picture? While his work is quite esoteric, in his 2001 book “Lectures on Economic Growth, Lucas cited: “V.S. Naipaul’s great novel of economic development, A House for Mr. Biswas…(He) is born in rural Trinidad, a grandson of immigrants who had come from India as indentured servants. As a small boy, his ambition is to become a herder of cattle like his older brothers. (But) his life is a story of amazing progress. By the end of Biswas’s life, his oldest son, Anand—Naipaul’s own fictional counterpart—is a scholarship student at Oxford…Through all his misfortunes and setbacks Mr. Biswas is able to maintain the sense of himself as a man with possibilities, with options, a man who is in a position to set limits on what he will put up with. And equally important, he lives in a society that will let him survive with this attitude.” Lucas was stressing the role of education and human agency in generating growth at the micro (Naipaul) level and cumulatively at the macro level. Naipaul had, of course, received his Nobel in 2001.

But I believe Yesu’s life epitomizes Lucas’s point more aptly as a story of Girmitiya progress. Born in a logie at Diamond Estate to which his great grandfather had been “bound” from Uttar Pradesh in 19th century India, Yesu was born in 1928. He was one of the first in the estate to actually graduate from Primary School in 1943. This illustrates his parents’ drive to educate him since so many other children were sent to work to supplement the family’s income during the Great Depression. In 1939, when Yesu was 11, five workers at Leonora were shot and killed for protesting working conditions. Diamond and Leonora were owned by the same company.

Poverty did force him to leave High School(s) in Georgetown in 1945 to work in the kitchen at Atkinson Airfield (now CJIA). This had been built and run by the Americans during the war and exposed him to new possibilities. Unfortunately, malaria forced him to quit only to experience class and colour discrimination in Georgetown’s commercial sector while job hunting. Forced to accept menial jobs he returned to Diamond Estate in 1947 at age eighteen. He did a variety of low-level jobs in the fields but being diligent, was promoted to supervise cleaning cane punts. On each job he applied the motto of his parents to learn a job and always improve one’s performance. This was Arrow’s “learning by doing” which the endogenous growth school extolled.

But post-WWII had opened up further vistas – one of them being England where he could educate himself formally. Now married, he emigrated in 1954 at 27 to study accountancy and qualified while working in factories before landing an accounting job where he excelled. He returned to Guyana in 1966 to work in the government’s taxation department. In 1975 he landed a job with Diamond Estate corporate owner’s Sandbach Parker subsidiary as Chief Finance Officer. In 1976, the PNC would nationalize the entire sugar industry along with their two distilling operations – Diamond Liquors Ltd (DLL) and Guyana Distilleries Ltd (GDL). Yesu, has assisted in nationalization negotiations and was made Chairman of the merged Guyana Liquour Company (GLC) in 1983 on his initiative. He continued making a series of critical decisions that exemplified the power of human capital and his drive to success. Not the least was to strategically diversify away from supplying bulk rums by creating and marketing the premium bottled 15-year old El Dorado brand as a world class product in 1992. That he presciently bought out the trademark for a brand with that name and recently secured Geographical Indications was typical for him.

Founding Demerara Bank and IPED and pushing for a democratic environment further exemplified his developed human capital and Girmitiya, parental-imparted drive for success. Guyana needs more Yesus for economic development.

By ROAR of Ravi Dev 1-24-22

Facebook Comments Box
Tags: Dr. Yesu persaudeconomicGrowthGuyanaIndo-GuyaneseRavi DevTrinidad and Tobago
ShareTweetShare
ADVERTISEMENT
Ravi Dev

Ravi Dev

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Dr. Jerry Jailall

The Adrianna “scrapehead” riots must be a wake-up call to Indo-Guyanese as we race towards the 2025 elections

May 10, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

PPP heading for Thumping Majority in Guyana

May 31, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana & Caricom Must unquestionably support India in battle against Terror

May 26, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Guyana January 2025 poll puts PPP in lead against a struggling opposition with opportunity for new parties

February 25, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

Chinese Undermining Guyanese Business and Truckers; Cause of Concern for USA

June 1, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

India Delegation Visit to Guyana was to reach out against Terror; Guyana and world must stand against Terror

June 1, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

PPP most organized party for Sept 1 Elections in Guyana

May 31, 2025
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

PPP heading for Thumping Majority in Guyana

May 31, 2025

The most important world news and events of the day.

Get ICDN daily newsletter on your inbox.

ADVERTISEMENT
Indo Caribbean Diaspora News

© 2024 Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News. All rights Reserved

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and Condition

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Columns
  • Letters
  • Community News
  • Opinions
  • Videos
  • Features
  • Editorials

© 2024 Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News. All rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In