Expectations are high in the face of oil

Mar 15, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
With much interest, I have been following the discussions on the ‘supposed prosperity’ that the oil industry will bring to Guyana from 2020.
Numerous seminars, workshops and conferences are being held to edify and sensitize people about the impending bright future for all.
Many people have criticized the contract with ExxonMobil, while others are contending that in the absence of information on the presence of oil in Guyana, that was a good contract.
The Government, in particular, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, said that with the oil money, each Guyanese will become rich.
This was reported on January 20, 2018, filed under Kaieteur News captioned “Guyana’s oil needs minimum refining.”
He said, “…With an economy where it is now and the population where it is now with less than a million people, each one of us is going to be wealthy in US dollars in a few years’ time.”
This, I think is the general view of the government, hence they are solely depending on the projected income that the oil industry will generate and the prosperity it should bring to all Guyanese.
I can’t begin to fathom who the Minister was referring to when he said ‘each one of us’. Was it each Minister or each citizen in Guyana? Realistically speaking, it can never be each citizen, since that defies logic.
Unfortunately, many Guyanese are buying into this theory and because of that, we are gradually abandoning our rice, sugar, agriculture, fish, forestry and gold industries, for this promising oil sector. This is a colossal mistake we are making as a nation.
Name me one country where oil has made all its citizens wealthy. In fact, all the oil dependent countries are going through ‘real life’ problems presently. So, it’s time that we wake up Guyana!
Ashan Bacchus.

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