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Big powers do what is convenient for them, Guyana also should

Oct 29, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I wouldn’t give my age since I do actually feel quite good about routinely being thought of as 10 years younger than I really am. It is not uncommon for a twenty-something to guess 40 or some other number ridiculously close to that. I am also routinely addressed, with some respect I must admit, as either “Uncle” or “Bigga” by young strangers, and there is one guy who always calls me “Elder”.

The fact is, the median age of Guyana is just 27.5 so the overwhelming majority of Guyanese are young persons, hence anyone who looks over 40 is regarded with some amount of respect, I do not necessarily mean respectfully, as a “big man” or “big lady”. By comparison, the median age of the UK is 40.6, USA is 38.5, Cuba 41.5 and Trinidad & Tobago 37.8.  The social behaviour of young Guyanese still often reflects vestiges of an inherited foundation of values that promote tasteful dress, avoidance of loud profanity, pride in one’s surroundings and deference to age. There is however a clear trend towards embracing the popular culture of the modern developed world in respect of those values.

In such countries, mind you, persons cannot realistically enjoy walking about in a state of public undress for more than 2 months of the calendar year. In those countries, police do not hesitate to arrest persons for loud flowery language in public, local government authorities take good care of residential surroundings including penalties for abandoning vehicles traceable to owner, and of the more visible older people, those retired receive State pensions that allow them to live with dignity. Those built-in balances do not, however, apply to Guyana. As a country, we definitely ought not to follow the developed world’s latest trend of anti-fossil fuels advocacy. To be misled into doing otherwise would necessarily compromise our national development – whereas the loudest advocates are not themselves prepared to absorb any of the real pain involved in combating climate change anyway!

It is reported, OilPrice.com, Oct 26, 2022, that a wind farm in West Germany is being dismantled to make way for an open-pit lignite coal mine. Commenting on this, Guido Steffen, a spokesperson for German energy giant RWE, which operates a wind farm close to the Garzweiler coal mine, said: “We realise this comes across as paradoxical”. They don’t care about that anyway. Germany felt pressured to abort its agreement to be supplied with gas via a pipeline connected to Russia – so they need easily accessible fuel alternatives immediately. The fact is, the folks who have called the world’s shots since way before Guyana became a nation State, always do whatever is most convenient to them. It is the reason why they enabled the open trade in and financial exploitation of people as slaves. It is the reason why they prohibited marijuana and why today the USA is the world’s primary producer of the herb. It is why they polluted the environment and continue to do so, whilst exhorting others who have newly found oil not to exploit this resource as responsible custodians of the environment.

It was always their plan to be amongst the only ones with oil to sell during the conversion years – and additionally, the political fallout of the war in Ukraine has forced a convenient rethink. COP 27 will be an event worth watching! North Sea oil fields have been reopened in the UK and oil fracking stepped up in the US. The Vice President is absolutely correct in holding from the outset that we must exploit our oil resources quickly, right now, as the world will move inexorably towards sensibly ceasing its reliance on fossil fuels over the next decades.

By all indications, Guyana will have the opportunity to benefit from a high demand for oil that will be sustained for perhaps another 30 years. We can painlessly shift our domestic consumption of fossil fuels from present levels through to minimal over time, until we achieve zero direct reliance on fossil fuel power. With 85% of our territory covered by rainforests, Guyana is a net carbon sink anyway. Like the US, we also ought to produce hectares of hemp – and acres of legal marijuana too – for we won’t be pumping oil forever!

Yours truly

Ronald Bostwick

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