Exxon Guyana PROs

Aug 20, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Exxon’s Lord Alistair Routledge of Permian-by-the-Demerara has been conspicuously silent in recent days. He has good reason; in fact, the best I would contend. Lord Routledge now has an army of willing Guyanese at his beck and call to do Exxon’s menial jobs (dirty ones), so he doesn’t have to get his lily-white hands sullied. Considering that the company has a right to pay its money and put up its offensive billboards (Jagdeo said so, not I), I take the same position. That is, Exxon has a right to hire any Guyanese mercenary to do ugly duty for it for a fee.  Obviously, the bigger the better, and there has been no shortage of Guyanese takers for Exxon’s cheap and nasty dollars. Absorb the following.

First, I commend Exxon for recruiting those skilled Guyanese who perform honest duties at the offshore rigs, others doing legitimate work elsewhere.  After that, the road runs out of space, not one millimeter left.  I have only total scorn, utter contempt (for emphasis), for those Guyanese who collect Exxon’s dime for the wrong reasons, under one pretense or another.  It could be a PPP political luminary, and I don’t care: traitor.  It could be a PNC/AFC superstar, and I’m immovably locked in the same harsh place: betrayer.  When poor Guyanese can manage, however they are able to do so, with Bank of Guyana currency, so must they.  One more thing is worthy enough to be placed in the public record: any Guyanese-be he or she [or it or them or they] Indian, African, Indigenous, or mixed heritages one-there are no objections, no qualms, no condemnations for any Guyanese who do propaganda work for the PPP or PNC.  Such is more than their right; it is now an inseparable part of their sacred birthright.  Just like that oil out there.  But I see red, is overcome by dread, when Guyanese strip themselves naked for ready prostitution for Exxon’s dollar to sell this voraciously American corporate John to Guyanese.  When they tell Guyanese about how good Exxon has been to locals and will be for them that is beyond the pale of consideration.  Though propagandize has a certain taint to it, to say that Guyanese who sell themselves to Lord Routledge’s bid falls short of the ghastly reality.  Without nary a doubt, when Guyanese stoop so low as to guzzle Exxon’s dollar off the ground, with the Yankee jackboot on his neck, he or she is engaging in more than propagandizing and marketing.  That Guyanese is pimping for Exxon.  Pimping Guyana, pimping Guyana’s promise, pimping Guyanese aspirations, for an ugly dollar from the company.  No self-respecting Guyanese should be so engaged.  I recognize the value of having Exxon here, but I abhor it when it is on the company’s terms exclusively.  Damnit to hell, I didn’t leave one white master in America to return to Guyana to pick up another.  Let that be a lesson for those with PhDs and JDs and now an integral part of the machinery oiled by DDTs.  My fore parents (and those who are of Africans, Chinese, and Portuguese strains) did not embark on their grueling journeys, endured the harrowing misery of the estates and their other circumstances inflicted by the white man for me to subject myself to the wiles and guiles of their descendants.  No matter how smooth or benevolent or innocent they may appear to be, there can be no dealing, intermingling, with them on their terms.  Thus: my revulsion at those Guyanese brethren (they still are) who creep on their knees and crawl on their elbows to ketch a dollah or two thrown their way for their labors.

When the arms of Guyana’s State media network are directly or indirectly maneuvered by Exxon (or Lord Routledge’s Guyanese born minions) to trap locals in a treacherous corporate net, I have a problem.  When Guyanese of learning, and some of profound ignorance masquerading as wise men and women, grab Exxon’s greenbacks to propagandize (pimp) for the company to gullible Guyanese in the diaspora concentrations, I have a bigger problem.  My biggest objection of all is when sneaky Guyanese of a particular political lineage, as well as the proper racial strain, visit local communities and deceive the naïve villagers about the beauty of Exxon and what that means for their destiny.  Can there ever be a latrine pit deep enough for Guyanese like these?  Sell loyalty to Burnham, sell love for Jagan, and I am good.  Hail Ali and Jagdeo and Aubrey and Hughes, and that’s appreciated, even applauded, notwithstanding my differences with all four of them.  But sell Exxon and collect its cash under the table is where I draw the line.

Exxon has abused Guyanese.  Then, Exxon has used some ready Guyanese to engage in harlotry for the company, both locally and across the United States.  It is a pitiful state for any Guyanese, one that can never be rationalized at near zero royalty, zero taxes, no comforting oil spill safety net, and all the rest.  I had firsthand experience of those using PPP feeds, coaching, and propaganda to sell the party and government.  As demeaning as that was to the lackeys, a pass is given, because it is the sum of the perverseness and rancidness of Guyanese politics.  It is managing of my expectations.  But I draw the line when Guyanese delight in using Exxon material, claiming such as one’s own, and collecting its 30 pieces of silver.  That’s beyond the point of no return, is unpardonable.  When the numbers are different for this nation, then I may reconsider, even withdraw this redline position of mine.  Go tell Exxon and all its Woods and Routledge (s) that I said so.

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

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• Exxon, GHK Lall, Guyanese, mercenary, PROs

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