Free to speak, free to write

Feb 08, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Publisher and CEO of Kaieteur News, and thrice weekly host of a largely oil-focused programme on Kaieteur Radio, is putting his money where his mouth is. It is also accurate to say that he is putting out what and where his heart is. Publisher Glenn Lall has made America’s oil superpower ExxonMobil, and Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) an offer that both should accept with energy and urgency. In fact, it is accurate to state that that he has made them an offer that neither should refuse. For that would raise a whole array of questions, speculations, and conclusions about how serious and genuine both are about, how committed they are to, what is in the best interests of Guyana, ExxonMobil and others.

We repeat today what we have said many times before: we are pleased when the oil companies and their vendors make money from Guyana’s oil bonanza, but we are not pleased at all with what Guyana gets for its treasure. It would be most pleasing to us for ExxonMobil to make its fair share, and Guyanese get their rightful share; that would be justice in finely balanced scales. To this end, ExxonMobil and Guyana’s EPA have been presented with an opportunity to share their visions, their actions, and their conditions of operations, so that learned and unlearned Guyanese are better equipped, then fully educated about this magnificent trove of prosperity that lies underneath Guyana’s waters.

The invitation of Mr. Lall is as clear as a bell rang in the midst of deepest silence. “As the Publisher of Kaieteur News and also the Kaieteur Radio, I am here proposing to ExxonMobil and the EPA to have the newspaper and the radio station open to let us inform and educate the entire nation as to what’s happening in the oil sector.” What could be better than that, could be more welcomed? Nothing could be more straightforward, or simpler, or sincerer than that throwing open the pages of KN, and clearing airtime on Kaieteur Radio, with both free.

Both ExxonMobil and the local EPA should take immediate and the fullest advantage of such generosity. In this manner, through these channels, both the American company and the Guyanese State Agency get to present the respective sides of their stories relative to everything in motion with this nation’s oil. Instead of continued clashing through misinformation, misunderstanding, or misdirection, there just may be a blending of visions and programmes, even to some sensible meeting of minds. Honest and truthful minds and minds that speak frankly and freely. Because everyone involved, all who come here to explore local oil opportunities, and those responsible for overseeing such, are about what is best for expectant Guyanese.

The Publisher of KN and presenter on Kaieteur Radio has been doing more than his part on matters of oil and other natural resources. ExxonMobil’s voice and the EPA’s work both belong in the growing narrative of what this oil is all about, and what it could mean for every citizen of this country. From the sound of Mr. Lall’s words, there appears to be no strings attached, with free meaning exactly what it said, meaning, free. The fair interpretation that accompanies such an offer is that there are no conditions, no limitations, other than the free space and the free time be used to educate honestly, and not to misuse a good deed extended.

Kaieteur’s Publisher has manifested his bona fides in no uncertain fashion. He is sacrificing for country and citizen a slice of his business, from which money has been, and would be, made. There ought to be not a sliver of doubt about how much he desires to have an open and fair and balanced national conversation about this trillion-dollar oil sector. It would be most interesting to observe how both the EPA and ExxonMobil respond to what has been put on the table, and before everyone. As seen, this can only be rewarding for all parties concerned about their role in Guyana’s oil. ExxonMobil seizes this opportunity, and it wins (once done right). Guyana’s EPA responds cleanly, and it could be looked upon differently. Kaieteur’s Publisher demonstrates the truly patriotic. Guyanese are better informed.

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Editorial, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ExxonMobil, Glenn Lall, Guyana

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