Do not breakdown Guyanese, build them up

Apr 21, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Though carried in colour, it is as plain as black and white. It is our headline titled, “Given Guyanese lack of capacity…American group and TT firms take over Exxon’s multi-million-dollar waste management contracts” (KN January 17). It conveys the state of this nation as it struggles to come to grips with aspects of this overnight oil wealth, which is clearly lacking in many areas to deal with expertly, even with some efficiency.
We don’t have capacity in many areas, and everybody knows that, from those in the region to those in America and Europe, who look on and then pounce to position themselves to take advantage of the rich opportunities that are begging for the taking in suddenly oil rich Guyana. We have been told before that we don’t have sufficiency of capacity to conduct expert audit of billions in bills from Exxon, which is something that we have some difficulty in agreeing with, or accepting for the lateness of that disclosure and its baldness. We know that we lack the scientific knowhow in such areas as geology and petroleum engineering and environmental management, among many other much-needed disciplines, which is one of the reasons that we cannot agree with, or support in any form, the termination of the employment of a Guyanese of the calibre of Dr. Vincent Adams. We could go on, but we think that the point is made as to what we have and what we lack. As we gird ourselves to manage this oil, we are made jarringly aware of the many limitations that dog us and leave us on the margins of the rich opportunities made possible by our ballooning oil business, whether considered from a national angle, a downstream one, or one that involves sometimes the mere basics of daily operations.
This is what our headline pointed to, and made clear in the starkest terms. Look at us, even in an operation as fundamental as waste management, we do not measure up, we are not gearing up, and we are, therefore, dependent on outsiders to do the hauling and heavy lifting. One American group has seized the opening, and several neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago firms have stepped in to fill the vacuum created by the absence of Guyanese entities to do the job. It is of both hazardous and non-hazardous materials removal and disposal, and it embarrasses that we still curse each other and fight one another, while something like this occurs before the eyes of leaders in government and citizens who are consumed by our age old entanglements and passions.

We have frequently used the local expression that if we are not careful that ‘cat would eat our dinner.’ That is, the dinner of almost all Guyanese, and this is precisely what is happening, while we look on helplessly. We all are familiar with the problems that are encountered in the capital city from time to time with daily basic commercial and household garbage disposal. If we can’t put our arms around that in a competent and authoritative manner, then it is obvious that we are at sea when such waste management involves hazardous materials. How to go about such tasks, what to do with the detritus of oil production, and all of its related subsidiary activities, it must be said are beyond us. And yet we argue and are endlessly hostile to each other; as we do this, foreigners come and make hay while the sun shines on them, and we are content to live in darkness.
The Guyana Government of today is most comfortable targeting, degrading, and breaking down obstinate citizens, through its platoons of protective and scurrilous agents. Many citizens try their best to do a good imitation of their government and leaders in how they attack and destroy their neighbour. All the time, the opportunities to make good money are going down the drain, meaning, to others not from here. We should be building up Guyanese, not breaking them down. We should scour the diaspora for those who could lend a trusted hand, but we don’t want them, if they are not a certain kind of Guyanese. Meanwhile, the foreigners reap, while Guyanese can’t even begin to sow.