Oil and Guyana’s future

Jul 08, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I think that any person looking at that EXXON-Guyana oil contract would conclude it could have been better for Guyana in comparison to other oil explorations around the world.

To argue however that because (1), it is an ill-shaped contract, Guyana should halt oil operations and (2) because of climate change, Guyana should get out of the fossil fuel business is not only unconscionable but plainly unacceptable.

One rebuttal to these two articulations is so potent and persuasive that it should penetrate any sensible mind, Guyanese or non-Guyanese. The answer is three-fold. 1 – Why a small poor country should bear the burden of cleaning the world’s ecological system by removing its fossil fuel industry when there is no replacement for the lost income?

2 – The industry is going to be around for another 50 years. In that interregnum, countries incredibly rich and billions of miles ahead of Guyana will sell oil within those 50 years. 3 – After the industry dies a natural death, Guyana will not have the funds to finance things that so many rich countries have today. For example, Singapore, a country of 280 square miles has a fleet of post-modern commercial airplanes one of which Guyana will not afford in the foreseeable future.

There isn’t anything that surprises me about the psychic expressions of Guyanese. With over five decades of experience, I will not be surprised. We are an incomprehensible nationality but there are three things that worry me all the time.

One is that so many people that tell us about how our future should be shaped either do not live here or will not come back to live here. Secondly, many persons that tell us what Guyana should be like have the means to acquire medical and other treatments when a majority of Guyanese have to endure the pitfalls of local service.

My eyesight was going in 1993 and I went to Bascom Palmer Eye Hospital in Miami for treatment funded by the hospital through the instrumentality of my editor at the Catholic Standard, Father Andrew Morrison. I would not have saved my eyesight because I couldn’t have afforded such American treatment.

Why then these people who live outside and literally enjoy post-modern facilities do not consult us when they arrogate the right to speak for us? Do they speak for us when they demand we scrap the fossil fuel industry because it is harmful to the environment? Do the Guyanese people want this?

The third factor is the state of development of Guyana. Lady luck smiled on us. We will have a few petro-dollars. We need the money. The industry will dry up and we will still need the money because our development is so low. Whenever I write about Guyana’s low level of development and how far we are behind a majority of Third World countries, I think of two memories about UG.

I entered UG in 1974 as a freshman, and I have observed several times in these columns that the first structure that you see when you enter the compound of the university itself is the security lodge built when UG moved to Turkeyen. It is the identical thing in 2022. Please do the arithmetic for yourself. How many decades there are from 1974 to 2022?

The second memory has to do with the then head of the student union, Jason Benjamin, who is long gone from Guyana. He went to UWI in Jamaica on student business. When I saw him on campus the night of his return, I will never forget his expression. Since I will never forget it, I know it by heart.

This is how Jason exclaimed, “Freddie, Freddie boy yuh should see dem people gym.” He was referring to the student gym at Mona Campus and made an unfavourable comparison with what obtained at UG at the time, a description of which I will avoid.

Anyone who has been abroad will embrace the oil industry in Guyana. The reason is that they see what other small, poor countries have and we are not even near to having those things. Against the background of our poverty, can there be Guyanese that can tell the citizenry of this country that the fossil fuel industry is an environmental threat and Guyana should get out of it?

The answer is yes. There are such people. And my question is; do they speak for us? If the answer is yes, then I live in another country. Guyanese all over this country believe that the EXXON deal could have been better. But they want the continuation of oil exploration because they know Guyana needs the money. They know there is no godfather waiting to save us.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

Latest News

Oil and Guyana’s future

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival returns for 19th edition

Louis 97, Athanaze 90 give West Indies slight...

Vladimir Woodroofe backs out of World...

Exciting Double-header bowls off today with...

YMCA and Hard Knocks battle for Futsal supremacy...

Sukhwa delighted to score most runs at GCB...

Features/Columnists

Let us not be silent witnesses!

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

Welcome, Mr. PM

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Oil and Guyana’s future

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

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 […]