Mid-year report

Jul 01, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

More oil, more celebrations, more speeches, more plans are among the first things that impress about this first half of 2022. Peering into the fine print, I come across the half-truths of leaders, the shaded language of those with things to conceal. Leaders and their kind live large. Then, there is the rest, and it looks and sounds like a country with oil, and without it.
There is justification to question whether this oil is really here, and in its copious quantities; well, at least, by those not touched by its sweet, rich breaths. Of course, there are those others who can testify that it is actually here, those few (less than a hundred in the inner circle) who drink deeply of its drafts on land and downstream, who are all over in the slipstream of oil. They had given before and by the millions, so now they collect by the billions, which is a handsome return on an investment that pays off in aces. It is more of politics than business. At least, a few Guyanese got something back for their commitment, confidence, and their cash.
But lest we forgot them in the frenzied rush, what about the others, the bulk of Guyana’s crushed mass of humanity? Indeed, I hear of economy and GDP and prosperity, but for whom? I am loathe to report that they missed the boat – no room at the top. Come to think of it, might be better to say that the boat overlooked them, didn’t stop where they are huddled in hope, in want and fear. They are the ones wondering if all this talk about Guyana being visited by oil is real. Ask them what they got from it, and their faces convey messages of blankness. Perhaps in their ingratitude, they are forgetful. Maybe it is more on the money to assert that because they got such a comparatively piddling patrimony that it went in a jiffy and it just didn’t register.
Meanwhile, we have a President feeling so good about himself that he spares a few curses for selected folks. Hotels being built, and infrastructure on the move; get with the programme or get out of the way. Now we are talking, but how I wished that he had mentioned that little bit of how money is being laundered in this country today using those ventures as covers; and of how he himself doesn’t look too good when his name comes up in certain whispered contexts. The other, bigger feller for a leader swears innocence. In my time, I have encountered atheists, serial killers, and pathological liars claiming the same when cornered and confronted with the goods. It is when they are all piousness and pureness. My position is unchanged: having been near to the best in the world where the worst is conducted, I know perversity when I see it. There is a certain smell about it that makes dogs growl and howl nervously. This is my verdict, given that local leaders like slumming with overseas gangsters. The absolute worst part of this is not the one fingered, but those who run to the rescue, thus proving their worth again. Men perjure consciences for a rusty penny. And the nation is being told that there isn’t money to spare for public servants and pensioners and the dratted poor that refuse to say out of sight, so that the better things in Guyanese life can be prioritised and pursued. It is where every project and every contract and every undertaking have its benefits. Please understand what I mean, and which is what they used to call here the 10 and 15 and 20 percent society. Thinking of all this, I come to one conclusion: we have a leader who lives in an alternate universe and the other who rules in his own separate governance kingdom.
But nobody wants to hear about these little distractions. Tell them about prosperity, no matter that it is a mirage for the men and women that don’t matter. Some say that people can’t eat infrastructure and GDP don’t translate to Guyanese having a good time, as in being able to afford rent money and medicines. My advice is that citizens on the wrong side of the equation and the sticky end of the stick had better start figuring out just how to do that, since that is what stares in the face, as Guyanese may be forced to eat grass. Yes, we have oil, but for the big people only; I recommend checking Nigeria and Venezuela. For sure, there will be jobs galore. Fetchers of water and pushers of wheelbarrows and servers of masters, which should suffice to keep contentment on the palate. I close out by reminding my brethren that if they think that that mob on the warpath along the East Coast was about a police killing, then they had better come to their senses. Sixteen may sound sweet, but everyone please get some sense, as there are multiples of that number who are disgruntled, which is a grave problem. It is the one Guyana of which we can be sure, and as the oil comes that state of mind is here to stay. It is intense and widespread, and not going away, like I now do. Hopefully, the second half of 2022 will be better. Different?

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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