Exxon, Routledge, and me

Oct 20, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

Kaieteur News – The conversation is going to be different today.  A little bit of what is deep inside will be shared, only a little.  It should be enough to give Guyanese a glimpse of what gives a boost to breathing, writing, speaking about things Guyana.

I should hate Exxon for all the wreckage that it has heaped on my Guyanese brothers and sisters.  I can’t.  I should despise Mr. Alistair Routledge for all the ugliness that he has piled on this country, but I can’t.  Just can’t, as hard as that may be for some to believe.  If I cannot bring myself to detest either President Ali or former president Jagdeo, or the man who so desperately wants to be president, Mr. Nandlall, then how could I hate Mr. Routledge.  Let this be said, though, so that there is no mistake: I do not hate any of them, but I do find what they stand for, what they project and burn at hot white levels across my entire being, to be totally unacceptable to me.  Yes, the confession must be made.  I despise none of them, only what they do.  It is how much this land is loved, including those who took it upon themselves to be rid of the pestilence that I represent, the torments that are caused by what is written, what is put before the whole world.

If I hate Exxon, then there would be hate for America, to which surrogate father and mother so much was given.  It follows, therefore, that Wall Street would be hated, where so much was invested.  It is what is done here that kindles so much intense ardor to make things right.  What is made more arduous because there are so few around.  A band of likeminded brothers would be the best thing for Guyana.  When country is loved like this, then there is always a big smile, and arms are opened to their biggest expanse to welcome those who make up the tribe of citizens called Guyanese.  They are mine: brown and black and bronze.  They are mine, and as much as I despair at their passivity and apathy in this their era of plenty, they would not be exchanged for the world.

The best is extended to them.  That oil out there that is under the sea, the best that could be had out of it should be gotten for them.  It is the stuff, that calling, that distant vision, for which some are willing to die, so that it can happen.  I am so willing.  It is disheartening to see my leaders reduced to grovelers, seekers for the favor of a pat on the head.  Down boy!  Good boy!  That’s my boy!  Guyanese need men not boys in this the most extraordinary time of this nation’s existence.  Mr. Routledge has his duty and it his right to fight with all his might to get the most from what is the birthright of the Guyanese people.  In his current stubborn state, Mr. Routledge is a squatter, a glorified tenant, and of that let there be no quibbling, no quarreling among Guyanese.  But there is.

Just as Exxon and Alistair Routledge have an obligation to fight fang and claw to wrest the best out of Guyana’s oil wealth for their own people, so also do the leaders in Guyana’s political pantheon.  They must make that sacrifice, bypass that personal ambition (collection), to drag the company and its captains closer and closer to what is better, what is fair, for Guyanese.  Why are Guyana’s political leaders who solemnly swore to be faithful to the citizens of this country now abrogating their responsibilities, found sadly wanting?  Why is it that that hard but welcomed duty falls to the few-the ferocious and fearless few here-to stand as the only voices in the local wilderness, the only spearhead, in the struggle for more, what is just, for Guyanese?  Leaders in the PPP, PNC, and AFC should love this country more than any other, more than people like me.  When they are looked for at the head of the column charging forward for Guyanese, they are not even in the rear, so complete has been their abandonment of their own.

Though I discern them to be graceless, dismal, shadows denuded of substance, and utterly dismissible, they are still mine.  To where and to whom do I condemn them?  This is what Exxon and Routledge have done to them.  Their hollowness is my shame.  Their games present an exhibition of the price that must be paid for ambition, and passage through this crucible called progress.  Guyanese cannot afford to get angry, despite the poignancy of the season.  This is when the detestable ways of Exxon and people cast from the mold of Alistair Routledge must be superseded by a demeanor that matches their own.  Cool, but all the while studying the terrain and their reactions.  Let go of leaders but keeping them in sight.  The white people must be beaten at their game, and Guyanese must find a way to do so.  Hate is counterproductive because it is self-destructive.  There are many ways to skin a cat, and Guyanese must learn to get good at them, then better.

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• America, glorified tenant, Guyanese, Mr. Alistair Routledge, struggle, stubborn state

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