The best recommendation, a sure meal ticket

Sep 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I ask pardon for any occasional reference to myself in the third person.  Given the context and objectives of today’s contribution, it is unavoidable.

Somebody, anybody, scouting around for a way on how to get ahead in this country, and I am the best endorsement for them.  Attack scathingly, work to bring down by any means, and it is a good first step.  The right people in the right places take note: good job!  Keep going.  The old-timers are already well-steeped in what is required.  They know that they raise the bar on themselves, and they could be in even better standing with their masters.  I begin with the foreign contingent present.

It is worth going after me by drilling holes, trying to slow down.  He is anti-foreign, Guyana’s Mr. Jingoist.  The speakers/writers/hustlers remind us of Indians and Africans who stooped low to sell their own so that they could be favored by the exploiters of our forefathers.  History has a peculiar unchanging melody about it: even when it appears to change, it is the same old story.  Who knows, to label me as anti-Exxon could prove to be beneficial because there are those who take notice and mentally file for later use.  Keep up a drumbeat against Lall for his so-called anti-Exxon postures, and rewards could come; some lucrative opportunity could be found for someone who is a defender of Exxon’s cause.  What is there to lose?  There are two things (only two) said for the record.

First, if any Guyanese, or anybody living anywhere, feel that it enhances their interests by bashing me, or pulling me down, then I urge them to do so.  If some are so starved for bread from any source, then have it.  And if it means that I am the best recommendation by attacking me to look good, then so be it.  Nobody should be hungry or unfulfilled if I can help.  Whatever the services that could be utilized by Exxon, I urge the Exxon Guyana Country Head, Mr. Alistair Routledge to help the situation by awarding a contract, and establishing some sort of relationship.  Give some people something to keep them happy for all the pro bono legwork (dirty work?) that they do for Exxon.

The second point is an old one, a tiring one because it is a repetition of earlier position.  If there is one oil company that I would vote for every day to lead oil operations here, it is America’s ExxonMobil.  Not Total of France.  Not ENI of Italy.  Not any of the others from the old Seven Sisters of oil.  Not any of the new ones, whatever they are called.  It is Exxon, Exxon, Exxon notwithstanding all its mischiefs and its deplorable dreadfulness to my fellow Guyanese.  To cut to the chase, I recognize in Mr. Routledge, an Exxon warrior.  Frankly, that makes him my adversary.  He holds onto what prospers his company; I pursue what could benefit Guyanese.  Nothing anti-Exxon, anti-America. How can I?  Similarly, I am not too enamored of the Chinese around that oil but must deal with that, anyhow.  This is how capitalism and corporate affairs work.  Now if charges of Sinophobia flare, then I take them in stride: on the chin, shrug, and move on.  I thought I should record how much I detest commies and their fellow travelers, local or otherwise.  That’s all, folks.

Similarly, some market themselves as defenders of the PPP.  I encourage that right, defend it. Defenders market themselves by targeting me.  As a selling point, there are few better locally.  It could yield a job, a contract, or an old one extended, richened. Goods sold; services bought.  Leading PPP Government lights (not the president busily cavorting in his own world), may sit up, and recognize a new friend of robust proportions.  The PPP does right by Guyanese with this oil, and no force can stop me from heralding it.  Ditto the PNC or AFC.  But the PPP revels in sticking it to those upsetting its three-card conman cart.  Those harboring visions of getting in the PPP’s good books, know what the territory demands.  Decapitate Lall and suddenly one can claim to be a true PPP friend.  Translation: bash me and the cash could come in a flash.  Confession: it is surprising that I have now come to represent so much, and attract so much interest.  I am humbled.  What it confirms to me is the lengths to which some would go to give themselves an opening to enrich themselves.  At my expense.  By attaching what agenda or motive (never honorable, patriotic) that suits their purposes.  This is not so well-received, but accepted as how craven Guyanese are, and what they will do to boost themselves in the eyes of the powerbrokers and decision-makers.

Now I have a recommendation of my own to make.  Since I am such a drawing card, a surefire bet, I urge fellow citizens to denounce me publicly as anti-American because it may be worth a bar of gold.  A coveted US visa could be the reward.  My word! Look at what we (yes, we) have become, the things we will do to get ahead.

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

---

• ExxonMobil, GHK Lall, person, recommendation, ticket

---