Guyana beware

Apr 06, 2022 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Kaieteur News – The PPP/C Government is engaging in a huge gamble using the rich assets of this society to entrap it and endanger it. This was the stark warning embedded in the article titled, “Guyana may not steer clear of failure with oil if fatal flaws in oil deal not corrected -Int’l Analysts” (KN April 3). Fatal is a frightening word, and we don’t use it recklessly, for it has a world of meaning. As we use it (fatal), our hope is that what happened to Angola does not become Guyana’s nightmare.

Since the 1990s, Angola has been the destination of the hunter-predators that are oil companies. They went there in droves, and the names should be familiar to Guyanese because they are right here now. America’s Exxon and France’s Total are two of the bigger names that led the charge into Angola. From a peak of 1.9 million barrels a day, production declined to around 1.4 million barrels daily last year. One would have thought that Angolans were rolling in prosperity, among the most well taken care of people in the world. They are not, and now come the lessons, another cautionary tale for Guyanese.

“One in three Angolans live below the poverty level, and more than half live on less than US$1.90 a day” (KN April 3). Despite all that oil production, this was the harrowing reality of Angolans. This was despite that other reality: their country was “ranked 15^thin the world of top oil producers.” This was while Angolans were trapped in poverty and scratching out a living on about GY$400 a day. Here is a country, a lesson for the dunces we have for leaders in Guyana, that was producing almost 2 million (1.9M) barrels of oil daily for years, and almost one and half million (1.4M) barrels of oil daily in 2021, and Angolans were still mired in debt and corruption.

Speaking of debt, Angola has a national indebtedness of US$76B. The usual financing sharks, the pawnbrokers and sleazy moneylenders known as the IMF and World Bank, were in the thick of running to the rescue of stricken Angola to help it juggle its debt on a year-to-year basis. The usual financing gimmicks put to work by the IMF and World Bank, among others, should also be well known to Guyanese: refinancing and debt forgiveness, they are called. This was the spectacle of a country ranked 15^th among top oil producers in the world with well over a million barrels produced daily, and it is forced to beg for money to get by.

We are not prophets of doom, but unless Guyana takes stock of what happened elsewhere with countries that had more oil than us, produced more than us, then it is destined to be blighted with the same fatal spiral of Angola. Unless Guyanese citizens force Guyanese leaders not to go down the same road, then there is the highest risk that we could end up like Angola. Right now, we are the talk of towns in Texas, New York, and Washington; we are the toast of places in Trinidad and Toronto and Toledo. Everybody loves Guyana, everybody wants to lend Guyana money by the hundreds of millions and billions, and the PPP/C Government is a flurry of borrowings for numerous big money projects.

However, press leaders in this PPP/C Government to do what the international analysts and experts insist must be done, and both the President and Vice President transform into a state of paralysis. They who were energetic and excited before are suddenly struck dumb, crippled into inaction. Because they fear the wrath of the foreigners, they prefer to kneel to the dictates and interests of the men of Exxon. The Vice President engages in destructive practices. First, he balks at confronting Exxon to correct the enormous deficits (“fatal flaws”) in our oil contract by demanding renegotiations. Second, he bets that high oil prices will boost the oil fund. Third, he splurges on borrowings for possible white elephants. Fourth, he paves the way for more corruptions everywhere. Last, he gambles that he can deliver on this measly two percent deal. Should he continue this way, and Guyana could (would) be the next Angola.

Latest News

Guyana beware

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Eagles survive shaky start on Rain-affected opening day

TCL hand over trophies for Mashramani Street...

Nagassar was re-elected as President of GCUC

Herstelling and Eccles SC chalk up wins in latest...

Golden Jaguars CONCACAF home match against...

Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport endorses...

Features/Columnists

An Open Letter to the election observer missions

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Azruddin Mohamed development-the constants

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Guyana beware

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]