Fisherfolk in a net

Jul 31, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Buzzwords, corporate speak, and leadership smoothies are the norm of communications today, and the higher up the ladder the deliver is perched, the better such PR ploys are. In the schemes of company jargons practised today, there are few as good as ExxonMobil. The American oil giant is readying to do a study (“ExxonM conducting assessment of Guyana’s ailing fisheries sector -refuses to disclose consultant, scope of study” -KN July 30). Without even going into the content of the article, it should be clear this so-called study has a number of weaknesses, if not trickeries, and which must be immediately called out.

For sure, the company has engaged a consultant to do the study of what is really wrong with our fisheries sector, but that is as good as if ExxonMobil itself is doing the study. This immediately takes on the appearance of a smokescreen, and nothing but a gimmick. It is to buy time and give the company some breathing space by taking away the glare of attention from what is happening to our fisherfolk, and what looks like the most responsible source of their woes. ExxonMobil coming up with its own consultant to conduct such an analysis is the equivalent of the Guyana Police Force investigating itself. Rarely, does anything positive, definitive, and conclusive comes out of such probing.

Also, a big red flag, two of them more accurately, are obvious from the strapline of KN’s caption. The first is that the identity of the consultant is withheld by ExxonMobil, meaning that it is yet another matter that is found necessary to keep as a secret from the citizens of this country. And the second flashing warning sign is that ExxonMobil is not prepared to disclose the scope of the study. That is another giveaway that this could be a sham study, another exercise in fakery put on Guyanese; if we don’t know the scope, then we are again being strung up on a rope. Right away, and this is from examining one or both of the mysteries in ExxonMobil’s attempt to pacify (possible pull one over) fisherfolk specifically, and Guyanese in general, it is clear that our fisheries sector is trapped in a net and with no real way out. Our citizens who work the fishing fields are being roasted on an open fire, with everybody having fun at their expense, including their own government and leaders, and under the promptings of cunning outsiders from Texas and other parts of the United States.

To pour some more salt into the painful wounds of Guyana’s fisherfolk, ExxonMobil’s local big chief, Country President (that says all, doesn’t it?), Alistair Routledge, came up with another beauty laced with the buzzwords favored by corporate headmen. Mr. Routledge said that the company is in the process of conducting “an updated targeted marine environmental baseline studies programme to develop a robust understanding of the marine environment within the Area of Influence (AOI) of the Yellowtail Project.” We congratulate ExxonMobil Guyana President, Mr. Alistair Routledge, for a masterpiece of the mishmash cherished by company captains like himself. We appreciate that he may have forgotten for a moment that he is not Alistair Cooke of the American TV spectacular, ‘Masterpiece Theatre’, since that is what is clearly at work with this fraud of a fishing study.

What gives the ghost (and there are plenty) are those cleverly chosen hedge words in Mr. Routledge’s sweet speech. Words such as “targeted” and “baseline studies” and “robust understanding” and “Area of Influence.” To the eye and ear, those are lovely; they make for good reading and listening respectively; but they mean nothing but what the company wants them to mean, limits them to the extent of what is acceptable and corporately tolerable, which would (may) be presented to the Guyanese public.

First, “targeted” narrows the range of coverage, then “baseline” is just that as in barebones or the negligible, and “robust” (understanding) is now so overused as to represent nothing, but what is in the head of those playing games with words. Last, and to top it all off, there was the dizzying “Area of Influence” which tells me that the fix is in via those innocent sounding words, because that will be defined by ExxonMobil’s carefully and craftily selected consultant, who would be very good at these charades, so that enrichment comes later.

All I say is that the fish of our fisherfolk is being deep fried. But I did enjoy the handiwork of ExxonMobil and its Guyana hand in charge of the local circus and talk show circuit.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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