Guyana an oil superpower: Just dont tell that to hurting Guyanese

Nov 21, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Visit the media on any given day, and the news overflows with the grandness of Guyana. With a solitary exception here and there, both local and foreign media entities, using every channel of modern technology, sing the praises and glories of Guyana, this new South American El Dorado of oil. What the British and Sir Walter Raleigh missed out on, the Americans and Darren Woods wrap their arms around, are never going to let go. It is about immense amounts of oil under the seabed, and all the great treasures to be made on land, from feeding the beast below the sea and, in turn, drinking of its blood, and prospering from it.

Almost all of the respected foreign media houses have told the world of the Guyana oil story. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Barrons, and others in America and Europe have all written and spoken glitteringly of the richness of Guyanas prospects, the bonanzas waiting to be tapped here. The latest to do so is prestigious Bloomberg, with a podcast that employed some superb descriptions to share Guyana with the world.

Fellow Guyanese and other readers, absorb these extravagant words, these almost perfect phrases, that seek toconvey what our Guyana is to every corner of the world, to anyone who would listen. Guyana is “one of the most exciting stories in the global oil industry” and Guyana is the “newest oil superpower.” Imagine that: Guyana is an “oil superpower”. Those words of evaluation are not from some run-of-the-mill, or partisan, or unknown, media entity or hack, but from a financial media entity with the global renown of Bloomberg. As the November 14, 2022, Bloomberg podcast said, this oil is what has triggered the “incredible rise of Guyana.” As Guyana rises, how is it that some Guyanese fade?

Guyana is an “oil superpower”, but a great many in the Guyanese population feels like super dupes, super duds. For sure, the oil is here by the billions of barrels, but rank-and-file Guyanese are not tasting its sweetness, and are nowhere near its riches. Guyanese feel far from being an oil superpower, for if they dont scramble to survive on a daily basis, like they have always been forced to do by their leaders, they would be nothing but super failures.

Guyana is the place to be, yet Guyanese continue to flock the American consulate in an effort to get away from “one of the fastest growing economies in the world”, if not the actual fastest. The reason is simple: they find it extremely difficult to feed their families, to save a dollar, to live with some degree of dignity in this land among the richest in the world. The great story of Guyana and its oil has to be the worst story for those many citizens at the bottom of the stairs in Guyana, those outside the PPP/C Governments cabal of scavengers, hustlers, gougers, and self-enrichers. When there is such an army of opportunists, the small Guyanese man and woman are on their own, forced to fend for themselves for any scraps that they can get. But this is among the most exciting oil stories and nothing less than an “oil superpower.”

Our Public Servants must be feeling like super losers, thanks to President Alis announcement of an 8% across the board pay raise for them. For Public Servants lower down, this means they will be receiving the equivalent of approximately one American dollar per day from the salary increase that President Ali so proudly announced. We agree that Guyana qualifies as the “newest oil superpower” but for ExxonMobil and its partners. Recall how John Hess, a partner in the ExxonMobil consortium, has repeatedly boasted to his shareholders.

What are our national Co-Chief Executives, Ali and Jagdeo, boasting about in “oil superpower” Guyana to Guyanese householders? Their stuttering, stumbling language is different to the Guyanese people: “we dont have enough.” “Dont expect much.” “Dont depend on this oil too much.” We have one question: does this oil superpower Guyana really have oil, or is it a cruel joke, given the wretched state of the Guyanese people? Somebody must be making fun of us, given harsh local realities.

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Guyana an oil superpower: Just dont tell that to hurting Guyanese

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