Food and Water

May 27, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It is part of standing convention, a settled aspect of political and diplomatic protocol. That is, to speak in strange ways to send strong messages. This is precisely what the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley made sure that she did with some words that she articulated directly to Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali.
It was on the occasion of the inaugural Agri Investment Forum gathering held in Guyana (KN May 20), and PM Mottley’s words were: “…to do what you have done in the last 18 months is nothing short of phenomenal and let me say my friends that we have suspected it but we know it; food and water are as important or more important than oil.” Politically speaking that was well said for it obeyed the nuanced etiquette of both leadership and diplomatic comportment. There is much embedded within that little kernel that the Barbadian PM shared with a look at her Guyanese counterpart.
As could be interpreted, the PM went out of her way to couch her introductory words with the smooth, some would say even the syrupy. But having paid courtesy to leadership necessity and diplomatic courtesy, the hammer came down in one unerring arc. It is worth repeating that strike to the jugular, which was nothing but a subliminal message that we hope did get through to our own President. To repeat PM Mottley’s words: “Food and water are as important or more important than oil.”
We totally agree, and are certain that most Guyanese would not disagree. Oil is important, and it is comforting that we have it in huge quantities since it could represent so much that is positive and beneficial for this poor society. But that is only one side of the oil story, when it is handled right by those political leaders put in charge of it, elected to deliver the best for all Guyanese from its presence and its mouthwatering wealth. The other side of the oil story is that it can’t be taken by mouth. It cannot be eaten or drunk; it can do many things, has been transformed to make many good things possible, but it cannot perform the miracle of replacing food, it is not a substitute for water.
This fits neatly with what some Guyanese voiced in their way to a British newspaper called The Guardian, when they said that “you can’t eat infrastructure….” In an indirect way, the subtle manner of skilled political practitioners, this was what the Barbadian PM put before her Guyanese host. Her choice of time and place could not have been more immaculate, for this was, after all, an assembly for agriculture, and in deference to the hospitality of her host, her words though gentle had a piecing quality about them. They had to have registered with anyone, regardless of how thick they may be, or tone deaf or resistant they are to Ms. Mottley’s careful words and phrasing, which should require little to no translation at all.
There could have been no better centre, no more appropriate chamber, than an investment Agri Forum to make that point and to sound a beautifully muted alarm over what should be the foremost priority. Agriculture with its roots in the Latin ‘agricola, is about the farmer and farming, and the products of such activities that can be put on a table, and taken from there. A barrel of oil is a lovely thing to own, and a billion barrels still lovelier. But it can’t wash and prepare, it can’t be eaten, it can’t be drunk, no matter the sophistication with which it is refined. Light and sweet is for iron and machines, and some other remarkable byproducts, but after those its utility comes to an end. It is not food, it is not water.
As we interpret this, it is more than about diversification, and evading the disease and curse that are the unruly and uncontrolled children of oil. It is about the kind of leadership that genuinely, and as a matter of principle, balances maximising the prizes of oil, while pursuing what sustains citizens, what energizes and inspires them, oil or no oil. It is food and water, and at the ready.

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