Teachers are protesting for their rightful share of Guyana’s wealth; other Guyanese should join them

Feb 11, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Having been a teacher in the past, I am very proud of the teachers taking to the streets demanding their rightful share of Guyana’s wealth, Guyanese if you know what’s good for you all, you should join them. ExxonMobil declared record profits for 2023, and British Petroleum (BP) declared their 2023 earnings beat their own profit estimates, this is how the foreign companies operating in Guyana speak to their shareholders and stakeholders, using words like “record profits”,” unprecedented earnings”, “estimate beating gains” etc.

The spokespeople of these foreign companies also tell their shareholders and stakeholders that Guyana is where their financial dreams come through, after all, they can take all the wealth they want, declare whatever they like, pay no import or export duties, pay no taxes, provide no insurance liability or follow no environmental regulations. The Executive staff of these companies has also been rewarded with record bonuses and salary increases since coming to Guyana.

Teachers and other low-income Guyanese on the other hand get the experience the nightmare of Guyana’s exploitation along with a high cost of living since the wages they receive cannot fill their teeth holes. Someone in Guyana had to take to the streets eventually; it is now the teachers, good on them, those with basic economics knowledge should know that with the current way economics is being managed in Guyana, the price being paid for a slice of pumpkin soon won’t be able to buy the skin of the pumpkin.

The government is taking on record debt on future revenues, so the future revenue is already tied to debt servicing rather than spending on Guyanese issues, this will cause the GUY$ to devalue creating an even higher cost of living that is currently being experienced by Guyanese. This current borrowing against future revenue practice will lead to stagflation where inflation will increase while wages and the GUY$’s value will be outpaced by the inflation. This also gives the oil companies a stranglehold on Guyana, where they can threaten to cut production leaving Guyana powerless, Guyana’s remedies to this can begin with collecting back its 20% of the Stabroek Block. Someone should also explain why since independence every Guyanese are not millionaires by now based on the annual budgets that are prepared for government spending for this small population.

The President and VP seem to like Ghana very much, that’s why Guyana is being run like Ghana, the sellout Ghanian leaders allowed the oil companies to run havoc with Ghana’s oil, and the minute few Ghanian sellouts live in palaces with servants or living in foreign countries, Ghana leveraged it’s oil money on debt to build large infrastructure projects where those involved in contracts got rich overnight while the majority of the population continue to live in squalor, the debt devalued Ghana’s currency, now you need four bags of money to buy one bag of food in Ghana, see any similarities in Guyana with the Gas to Shore Plant and the recent budget? ExxonMobil is bringing more FPSOs to Guyana’s oil fields boasting how these FPSOs are more technological with more capacity, meaning they will pump and take away more oil in shorter periods while Guyanese children go to school with empty lunch kits, and the teachers don’t fare any better.

The PPP die-hards are now saying, how dare these teachers protest against the high cost of living? This tool should only be used against PNC governments. Some complain they took their children to school but there were no teachers to look after them, are these parents morons not to understand there is a teachers’ strike ongoing? Some are saying this strike will affect students as if the activities of the foreign companies operating in Guyana won’t affect the students.

The opposition has now spoken, now they and the government will go into tit-for-tat attacks of who are the better economists, yet nothing will be said about taxing foreign companies, no more royalties, no ring-fencing, no oil meters, no auditing of Exxon’s bills, no insurance protection, and no relinquishment of the Stabroek Oil Blocks, as ExxonMobil continues to be the forbidden name they can’t mention. This Jumbie economic monster Bharrat Jagdeo and Ashni Singh have unleashed on Guyanese will be coming for all of you one by one, teachers, public servants, pensioners, squatters, farmers, sugar workers, and all Guyanese. It’s time all Guyanese join the teachers to create a bigger wall to stop the economic monster you all will be facing.

The writing is clearly on the wall with the ongoing increase in the cost of living, this is evident that the oil companies will be pumping more oil, yet Bharrat Jagdeo says there will be no changes in the terms for the future oil projects. Instead, he will probably he run to Babujaan and Port Mourant to lambast Burnham and the PNC to keep his herd in line, I don’t know how long these people will continue to be played like this.

So, continue the strike teachers, and fight for your rightful share of Guyana’s wealth, if you don’t get a resolution from the government, maybe you should take the protest to Exxon’s headquarters, after all, Exxon is running the country, and who knows? you might even get your well-deserved money.

1. David. 

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• . The Executive staff of these companies, British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Ghanian, Stabroek Block

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