Blacklist this imbecile Mr. Clifford Krauss’ for his ‘s…hole’ article on Guyana

Jul 22, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
In the bad old Burnham days, people had to get a tax exit certificate before they could leave the country. Journalists used to get harassed when they arrived in the country. And followed sometimes.
But times have changed: The “Silver Fox”, aka Desmond Persaud. Jimmy Carter. Counting at the place of poll. Election observers. Facilitating 23 years of PPP rule as a result of free and fair elections. “The return of democracy” some called it. No recrimination, no witch hunt, no “winner takes all politics”. Yea right!
And now (drumroll!!) oil, big oil, with the arrival of multinational behemoth, Exxon, and the prospect of salvation for the nation. Minister Trotman refers to the oil find as ‘providence’.
And with that, Guyana landing frontally on the international scene, first in petroleum industry publications, and now squarely in the glare of international media, with the arrival of a journalist, Mr. Clifford Krauss, ‘a national energy business correspondent based in Houston’, writing a “s…hole” article, which begins by announcing to the readers that Guyana has only three paved highways.
What did this man do? Did he take a helicopter from CJIA straight out to the oil rig!!?? He could not have traversed the East Bank Highway, or over the West Bank Highway to see the rice fields and Hindu temples he wrote about, or gone up to the Corentyne to put his finger on the pulse of a significant section of the Guyanese populace, as he ought to have done to write such an extensive piece as this. He must have sent his staff photographer out alone. Yes, write about the potholes and unlit roadways and opportunistic crime – no kidnapping of oil execs like in Nigeria, for example – but please be honest when you are counting paved roads! So what if the steps to Newell Dennison’s office need paint!? Venezuela is relegated to a solitary phrase – not even a sentence, much less a paragraph, being referred to as ‘the turbulent border’. A golden opportunity to internationlise our neighbour’s spurious territorial claim, including the ongoing efforts for a peaceful means of settlement, was missed: does he not want to take on Caracas?
He is mixing up Guyana with a country like Equatorial Guinea, at the same point in their developmental history, as if the number of unpaved roads is a factor when a major multinational is making an investment decision. Halliburton and Exxon are already here, Sir. Stuff and nonsense, all misleading and now entered into the annals of “responsible” mainstream journalism. Hello, fake news!
May I recommend the following courses of action:

a) We need to return to the Burnham days, just in this limited instance, and blacklist this imbecile. He has rendered irreparable harm and damage to our country, and should not be allowed to return to Guyana, neither as a visitor, nor tourist, much less as a journalist – Minister Felix, over to you;
b) A published apology or explanation needs to be issued immediately by the Editorial Board of the NYT;
c) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to get on the front foot and step up its PR game – their PR person (?) clearly is asleep at the wheel – using friends in the media like Jacqui Charles of the Miami Herald, to counter this negative nonsense.

Yours faithfully,

Proud to be a Guyanese