Where is the rest of the media?

Dec 04, 2020 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The biggest, richest, most promising development this country has ever had, is its oil discoveries and the prosperity that could be possible, but only if handled right.
In view of the deep pools of oil being found and more believed to be present, there is the likelihood of this oil of ours, outstripping in volume and dollars all of Guyana’s other wealth streams, inclusive of gold, forestry, and bauxite. But the dreams that come from that oil are only as good as how well, how honestly, it is managed and watched.
As several revelations have confirmed, this nation’s oil wealth has not been managed well by successive governments. It is now becoming more apparent daily, both prior and present PPP/C governments, and the coalition APNU regime, have all miserably failed Guyanese with a series of wrongdoings.
But that is only part of the looming disastrous problem for this country, that is directly traceable to ignorance and incompetence (in part), and corruption and cover-up (in full) on the part of one leader after another, in one government succeeding another. Moreover, their trusted agents and henchmen have been part of the surrounding cast, heavily involved in the criminalities that are so draining and damaging to the present hopes and future welfare of citizens.
When we speak of citizens in this society, we speak not of PPP/C supporters or of those who are for the APNU coalition. We speak of each and every citizen of this country, rich and poor, but especially the latter, who stands to lose the most.
And as all of this is placed before the Guyanese reading public, we ask ourselves, why are there no more voices in this business of ours, which is about the pursuit of truth and facts that are standing up and speaking out and representing the ideals of this calling.
Not this job or this profession, but this calling. To take this to another level, where duty is done in an honest and dogged manner, that informs the public accurately as to the positives and the negatives surrounding our oil. That the independent media is silent is pitiful, given that government-controlled media was all that Guyanese knew at one time. Guyanese need the check and balance of vibrant media, and not what we have with this oil.
It is known that the Exxon(s) of the oil world play up to, invest in, partner with, and make moves on host country influence centres either to propagate their storyline or diminish those against their interests. It is also not an unknown that this country is suffused with the partisan, prejudiced, and compromised, which all disadvantage this society. It is no secret that there are media centres that have their own constituencies, which range from political to racial to governmental.
In a nuanced manner, sometimes unknowingly, the noble practitioners of journalism that hold themselves out as fortresses of fearlessness wilt, as some have done with our oil. They, companies or company leaders, wilt and shrink from the responsibility to be about the pouring out of both the frank and fair (regardless of fallouts) on this tempting, corrupting oil. They unconsciously commit to a certain line of thinking and behavior that aids and abets, and also comforts, those powerful people and groups that abuse public trust and lay waste its prospects. In fact, it equates to playing upon divisions and naiveness to put a paper bag over the nation’s head with how this oil is being handled.
Most Guyanese, who can read, are well aware of the enormous upheavals and devastations that have occurred over oil power and oil participation in places like Nigeria and Iraq, which stick out as harrowing examples of what we do not wish ever to take place here in this tiny vulnerable society.
We appreciate the turmoil and trauma, the human horrors, visiting neighbouring Venezuela, since we have had our share of those in the latter decades of the last century. Oil inflames wherever it is. Oil corrupts massively. Let there be more voices, please. There must be more willing to have their say to make a difference with our oil. It starts with our partners in this business making oil their business.

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Where is the rest of the media?

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