OPINION: Red Thread speaks out on Pres Ali’s ‘eating out’, buying places

Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2026, 15:22 by Denis Chabrol

We don’t need President Irfaan Ali to tell us where to shop. We are our own economists.  As poor people, we are forced to shop around. So when the President wants to tell us where to shop, he should first get his facts right. We are the ones who compare prices before buying, not because we like shopping around or have time on our hands to lick from pillar to post to find a bargain, but because we are forced to do so due to the outrageous cost of living. Yet in his remarks the President seems to be blaming us for this very situation!

So Mr. President, let us just tell you something you do not seem to know. Your remarks suggest that you do not shop, and were not briefed by people who do, so you should be the last to speak on this issue. For your information, as of Saturday August 22th, 2026, these are the prices for some simple items in one Georgetown supermarket as compared to the market. I’m not advertising the supermarket here, but in Bounty supermarket, the smallest packet of Caribbee brown rice costs $214.  In Bourda market, the price is $300. The smallest packet of Demerara Gold sugar is $189 at bounty and $250 in the market, a small packet of thunderbolt flour costs $312 at bounty and $340 in the market. One packet of natura milk costs $691 at bounty and $700 in the market.

If you want to talk about shopping in the market, Mr. President, then please talk about things that you know.  It is all well and good for you to sit in your office and dictate to ordinary citizens what you think we should do when you you’re not wearing our shoes.  The cost of living is not high because we shop in supermarkets rather than markets. In this hard guava season, we shop where we can save a dollar. Why do we need to do that?

Mr. President, you also want to tell us about eating out.  Don’t you and your family/friends eat out at fine restaurants?  Does it mean that because we are poor, we should not be entitled to go out and try to have a decent lunch or dinner? Why is it that you and a few are to have the privilege to be able to do that, but not “ordinary” people?  It’s like saying to the poor woman, “yuh poor, wha’ yuh want with a washing machine or dining out? Talking about changing our eating patterns, many times we cannot eat a nutritious meal. We have to eat for belly full, just to ensure that we don’t faint. The high cost of living has put us in that position.

Sometimes we choose restaurants because it’s cheaper and more convenient than preparing a meal. For example, there are some Chinese restaurants where one box of food could serve 3 persons and it only costs $1600.

Why should we be victimized for being poor, when the reason we’re poor is because we live in a system that is designed to keep us down.  We have the national minimum wage at $60,147 and public servant wage $100,000 in this so-called “oil rich country” (fastest growing economy). A country where ordinary citizens are supposed to be grateful for handouts like cash grants, that you Mr. President made fun of in one of your speeches at one of your fancy events.  Just a few days ago, we were helping a young woman to find a place to rent for her family.  As a public servant, I asked her what her budget is, and she said $55,000. We couldn’t find any place to rent for that price.  The cheapest we were able to find was a 2-bedroom small apartment for $70,000 monthly and that is on the East Coast. So, what of her salary, Mr. President? She works in Georgetown and has two school aged children.   What is left for her to eat, feed her children and send them to school, not forgetting the utility bills, transportation for her to get to work among other responsibilities? The $100,000 cash grant doesn’t take us anywhere and that is a short-term fix.

So, Mr. President, when we want to talk about easing the pressure on the cost of living, it starts with you and your government. Give people a living wage and deal with price control. Mr. President, you are the one who says you care about the people of this country but your salary is over $3 million a month and you probably don’t even have to touch your salary because you have all the perks that we don’t have. You don’t have to pay any utility bills, you don’t have to pay taxes, your medical expenses and that of your family are being covered by taxpayer dollars. You don’t have to pay to go on your vacation either and the list can go on and on.  We don’t have any of those privileges, so when you want to talk to us about the cost of living, start with what happened to the money that was allocated in the budget to ease the cost of living, where did that money go? How did that help us? We only heard about it in the budget and so far, we have not as poor people been able to see where that money went.

Some of us have supermarkets near our homes. Are you saying to a pensioner who receives a meagre $46,000 monthly to skip the supermarket near her/his home to travel to the market and have to find transportation money to do so? We also need to take into consideration the deplorable condition of the market. Some of us don’t want to go there because of this.  When we had that long spell of rain, the flooding market left much to be desired. This is not about condemning the market people, it is not their fault that they are working under such horrible conditions. Some of us were consciously refusing to go in the market to buy food, because we were not sure how the flood waters affected those foods and we were not willing to take chances for our own safety and that of our families.

So, Mr. President, if you really care about the cost of living and people’s well-being, then make the budget poor people friendly. Let’s see that money being spent on the things that are necessary for poor peoples’ existence. Create more opportunities for poor people.  We are the ones who have to wait years to get a house lot, a very small piece of land less than an acre, with no proper infrastructure, in a country today where people with money and connections are coming and getting acres of land in the blink of an eye. Mr. President, you want to talk about fixing things, start with a living wage and affordable access to goods and services for ordinary citizens: fix the market places, drainage, all the broken systems that make Guyana an impossible place to eat three square meals for most of us. But please, don’t blame poor people and our eating habits for this situation.

Yours truly,

Joy Marcus

Halima Khan

Vanessa Ross

Susan Collymore

Wintress White