H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Kaieteur News 29 and growing stronger

Apr 05, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – In human terms, Kaieteur News is a grown man, a strong woman, a robust product of Guyana’s rich soil.  Now that I have limited association with the newspaper, and its extended network, how do I measure it?  How, as seen from the outside, and now, as viewed from the inside?

In the early years, and from a distance, there were doubts, aspects that I didn’t like; there is remembering where I stood in the first two decades of the publication’s 29 years.  There was the belief that it was too much in-the-face, a no-holds barred vigor evident, no squeamishness present.  We existed in separate spheres, and it is a hard truth openly shared.

From the inside, on a roving, visiting basis, many things registered deeply in a few short years, some small hours.  There is a passion for many things, with one taking centerstage and firmly nailed to the floor.  It is oil.  At Kaieteur, oil is overhead, in the head, from bedhead to bulkhead.  Oil is the beachhead that must be waded ashore to, taken (by storm, if necessary), and occupied through courage and conviction, by force of grit and gristle and grind.  This is so that every Guyanese man, woman, and child can come to experience what the GDP that they have been hearing about; so that the kind of economy of which they are reading about and supposedly living in, really touches them.  In its many substances.  In the strengths and joys that they bring.  In the possibilities that they make tangible.

At Kaieteur, my fleeting visits have confirmed a few things to the point that they are now inerasable.  Crime and clean policing is a must, and one that is pursued diligently.  Corruption (God help us! Corruption) is the cancer that is checked into and chased after with all the relentless and uncoiled fury of chemotherapy and with laser like radiation intensity.  As is known throughout Guyana, corruption in all of its elements-political, institutional, infrastructural, electoral, financial, and on and on-is of the widest, thickest national expanse. The people at Kaieteur, starting from the headman, see themselves as grasscutters and chainsaws and dredgers.  They are probing and digging and dragging though the drift and haze, like fishermen with their nets.  The catch of men and women with their clothes off tell the stories read in KN over the years.  But the biggest thing of all, and by the longest country mile, is oil.

Oil is on the mind, oil is in the brain, and oil is what comes out of the pores; oftentimes, I believe in every waking breath.  Certainly, it is an inseparable aspect of Publisher Glenn Lall’s (no relation) every conversation.  He has the capacity, definitely the driving passion, to make an unbeliever into a believer about this oil and its matchless significance to this country and to all Guyanese.  I applaud the man for the untiring and unequalled presence that he brings to this country’s oil and wrestling the best out of it.  As he goes, so does the paper, so also do his people.

A hard truth is that we have differences in styles.  Another is that we look at the world through different lenses.  Still another is that there are distinctions in methods and approaches.  Notwithstanding those, I recognize a man utterly consumed, totally devoted, to pushing any hot button, crossing any Rubicon and redline, and fighting the good fight for the Guyanese people.  Thus, there is Kaieteur News, and its essences.  Come to think of it, in the first and final analyses, there is only one essence, primarily one element, in the newspaper’s (and radio’s) existence, and it is oil.  In some respects, I would bite the bullet and assert that oil is now the reason for its existence; the newspaper lives and grows stronger at 29 because of oil.

The more that foreign powers are exploitative and self-enriching, the more KN’s footprint expands.  The more that local politicians, be they in the government or the opposition, conspire and carry on, the more impassioned and muscular the reaction from KN.  And the more shaky and slippery Guyanese politicians prove to be, the more they compromise themselves and paint themselves into a corner, the more KN dons, gloves and polishes its tools.  Two birds are simultaneously dealt with: possible corruption and oil deceptions.

Intimidation does not faze; rather, it inspires to greater effort.  Those in charge should take that message to heart.  The more the resistance to shedding light and facing truth, the deeper the digging in of the heels at KN. Resistance and retaliation from the powerful, whatever the form, confirms that there are things to conceal and keep under lock and key.  Most of all, this means oil.  And because this oil wealth means so much for Guyana, then it is a calling, a battle that must be fought, and whatever blows come, those must be absorbed, so as to get to the truth for Guyanese.  Many healthy and hearty returns to Kaieteur News, its Publisher, and its people.

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

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• basis, GHK Lall, rich, soil, woman

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