Rapid study and available data

May 27, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a body I respect. Ms. Simone Mangal-Joly is a Guyanese who has earned my regard for her selfless and untiring efforts to shed light, get to the bottom of sensitive things that trouble. As I consider this FAO study, and what Ms. Mangal-Joly’s writing(s) have led to, the air gets clearer, and it is not to the credit of the Government of Guyana.
This was what surfaced in the article titled, “FAO says “rapid study”, available data determined low fish catch not as a result of oil production” (KN May 25). I term this the ‘fine print’ of territory covered, and that could be possible, given those four finely tuned words: “rapid study” and “available date.” It is also relevant to include the disclosed time limit of the study, viz, 2020-2021, as was fleshed out by Ms. Mangal-Joly’s probing. I give my take on all three areas, which have more significance than they appear to at first glance.
First, “rapid study” means exactly what it says. To put objectively, it is an effort that looks at what is before it, gives a swift expert opinion, and quickly moves on. It is more of a consultation, than a deep diagnosis, more of a referral, and not so much an expansive in-depth review. I hesitate to say it is a surface job, along the lines of a hurry-up job, which is in deference to the FAO. To say differently, Guyana got what it ‘paid for’, and nothing else. When something starts out with the understanding, or Terms of Reference (if so), that it is a “rapid study” then that condition is sufficiently restrictive to produce a certain desired outcome, unless matters are really that egregious, and obviously so.
Second, and I think that this is the killer: the FAO’s quick fire study and still unfinalised report is “as based on available data.” Where fine print is concerned, there is nothing finer. In these circumstances, “available data” becomes loaded with meaning and menace. It can only be what the Government gives to the FAO. Available data can only be what the Government decides serves its objectives for the FAO to have and to study. In other words, the data made available to the FAO could have been subject to cherry-picking. Such filtering could mean that the Guyana Government didn’t think it necessary that other, most likely relevant, data (revealing data) be shared with the FAO for its study. Naturally, this forced the agency to come to the only conclusion possible: oil production has no relation to declining fish catch. I table this publicly, because of governments lengthy record of deception, and unscrupulous conduct. It is what characterizes the standard operating procedures of this PPP Government, from its leaders to handpicked public servants to tricky political operators placed in pivotal offices. In compressed form, “available data” is just that and that’s it. If the FAO people are not given what they are supposed to see, what would help their evaluation and determination, then the study will be “rapid” and the result will be foregone, as in ‘no nexus.’
Further still, when the period of this study (if such can be said with a straight face) is bounded by 2020-2021, then that is all the confirmation fair-minded, thoughtful, and reasonable Guyanese need. It is too short, too tight, too limited. I can understand now why the Hon. Minister of Agriculture has done a strategic withdrawal, and sits on his hands, after his bold speech about no connection (my words) between oil production and declining fish catch. He has nothing of substance on which to go, and even that is based on what I call the questionable. Guyanese have a saying: ‘mouth open, story jump out.’ In this instance, it is more accurate to say that the FAO mouth open and a big fish fall out. I thank the FAO folks for making their side of the story clear, and distancing its name from any fancy Guyanese footwork. The FAO did successful damage control, now it’s the Minister of Agriculture’s turn to do the same.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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