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Beggars and boasters

Dec 30, 2024 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News- In recent times, this newspaper has made its duty to publish the various comments by oil officials about how lucrative is the Stabroek Block basin and how important it is for their companies’ success.

The same sentiments can be heard and read in other media outlets overseas and even in country.  What the British and Sir Walter Raleigh missed out on, the Americans and Darren Woods wrap their arms around, are never going to let go. It is about immense amounts of oil under the seabed, and all the great treasures to be made on land, from feeding the beast below the sea and, in turn, drinking of its blood, and prospering from it.

Almost all of the respected foreign media houses have told the world of the Guyana oil story. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Barrons, and others in America and Europe have all written and spoken glitteringly of the richness of Guyana’s prospects, the bonanzas waiting to be tapped here.

Fellow Guyanese and other readers, absorb these extravagant words, these almost perfect phrases, that seek to convey what our Guyana is to every corner of the world, to anyone who would listen. Guyana is “one of the most exciting stories in the global oil industry” and Guyana is the “newest oil superpower.” Imagine that: Guyana is an “oil superpower”. Those words of evaluation are not from some run-of-the-mill, or partisan, or unknown, media entity or hack, but from a financial media entity with the global renown of Bloomberg.

But as Guyana rises, how is it that some Guyanese fade? Guyana is an “oil superpower”, but a great many in the Guyanese population feel like super dupes, super duds. For sure, the oil is here by the billions of barrels, but rank-and-file Guyanese are not tasting its sweetness, and are nowhere near its riches. Guyanese feel far from being an oil superpower, for if they don’t scramble to survive on a daily basis, like they have always been forced to do by their leaders, they would be nothing but super failures.

Guyana is the place to be, yet Guyanese continue to flock the American consulate in an effort to get away from “one of the fastest growing economies in the world”, if not the actual fastest. The reason is simple: they find it extremely difficult to feed their families, to save a dollar, to live with some degree of dignity in this land among the richest in the world. The great story of Guyana and its oil has to be the worst story for those many citizens at the bottom of the stairs in Guyana, those outside the PPP/C Governments cabal of scavengers, hustlers, gougers, and self-enrichers. When there is such an army of opportunists, the small Guyanese man and woman are on their own, forced to fend for themselves for any scraps that they can get. But this is among the most exciting oil stories and nothing less than an “oil superpower.”

Our Public Servants must be feeling like super losers, thanks to President Ali’s announcement of a 10% across the board pay raise for them. We agree that Guyana qualifies as the “newest oil superpower” but for ExxonMobil and its partners. Recall how John Hess, a partner in the ExxonMobil consortium, has repeatedly boasted to his shareholders.

What are our national Co-Chief Executives, Ali and Jagdeo, boasting about in “oil superpower” Guyana to Guyanese householders? Their stuttering, stumbling language is different to the Guyanese people: “we don’t have enough.” “Don’t expect much.” “Don’t depend on this oil too much.” We have one question: does this oil superpower Guyana really have oil, or is it a cruel joke, given the wretched state of the Guyanese people? Somebody must be making fun of us, given harsh local realities.

(Beggars and boasters)

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