Guyana – the golden ticket

Aug 06, 2023 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – In Greek mythology, there is the quest for the Golden Fleece. From Spanish legend, the world has been captivated by the tale of El Dorado, a golden city. In both tales, there are deep strains of man’s ongoing quest for riches, standing at the pinnacle, and possessing vast power. Whether city of gold or majestic authority, all roads now lead to Guyana. Guyana is not of possibility anymore, that of hopes to be fulfilled. Guyana is the reality of the golden ticket that sweeps away every prize in sight. America’s ExxonMobil and Hess Corporation, plus China’s Nexen Corporation can all confirm in the most glowing terms.

Today, Guyana is no longer about promise; Guyana is the real thing through and through, and all because of oil, crude oil, fossil fuel gold. Oil that can be touched, its riches tasted, and there is a multibillion-barrel ocean of it. We, the Guyanese people, do not even have the faintest idea of how much more oil we have, though others may be already privy to that information that also belongs to us. The search for the Golden Fleece and El Dorado can be finally stopped, for both are right here in Guyana. Guyana is the golden ticket, the most golden of tickets for Americans and Chinese, but not for the Guyanese people, to whom this great treasure chest of wealth belongs.

The shareholders of ExxonMobil and Hess Corporation are enriched by the delightful news of how sweet and cheap the oil from Guyana is, and how rich the dividends now in store for them. But of the people whose golden ticket has been snatched in the trickiest manner, there are no rich dividends, only the usual disappointments that leave them licking their sores. Their impoverishing plight is so overpowering that even their saliva dries up. The people in America who own pieces of paper prosper, while the Guyanese people who own the rich product punish. The top people at ExxonMobil have helped themselves to massive pay increases, and unbelievable multimillion American dollar bonuses, from Guyana’s golden oil ticket. Meanwhile almost half in Guyana’s population struggle to get by with US$5.50 a day. ExxonMobil, Hess, and Nexen get the golden ticket from Guyana’s oil, Guyanese get a coffin made of sand and straw in which they bury their dreams, the prosperity that is due all of them.

This imbalance, this most heinous of unspeakable crime, is the stuff of agitation and upheaval, given the litany of injustices inflicted on Guyanese. Those who have been tricked and cheated usually see red, and are driven to uncontrollable rages. The boasts of Guyana being the golden ticket for foreigners would be enough in other places for the dam to break and the force of the people’s discontent to sweep all that is in front of them. Given the circumstances which many Guyanese face in this golden ticket of an oil country, when their survival depends on getting the next meal, it should be more than enough for their suppressed wrath to find expression.

There has to be some limit beyond which those oppressed for their own patrimony refuse to go along with like before, past which they reject taking things as they are anymore. It is time to find a way to put a stop to the smug complacency that is now so much part and parcel of the foreign plunders and the locals who partner with them. The foreigners shout their prospects to the world, in hopes of attracting more piranhas (investors) for a slice of Guyana’s golden ticket. The local political aiders and abettors are more concerned about keeping foreign exploiters happy, while their own Guyanese people have their noses rubbed into the dirt.

The Americans brag about their golden ticket, and there is the great monstrousness of Guyanese who cannot afford to buy a few cheap biscuits. Golden ticket, golden prize, golden return are what Guyanese hear about how much their oil bonanza means to others, and this while they are left to deal with shavings and slivers and specks. This can never be right, never be accepted. This injustice must be corrected, this unprecedented and incomparable wrong made right, this barbarity brought to civility.

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