Latest update April 28th, 2026 12:30 AM
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Editorial…
Kaieteur News- Since the first announcement of the discovery of oil in Guyana hit the news, this country occupies a new place on the global map, took on a new appearance in the eyes of the world. The more oil finds made the news, the more superlatives became the norm when Guyana featured in the conversations, reviews and projections. The superlatives are so many and so frequent as to be boring for Guyanese. The fastest growing oil economy, the lowest cost oil producer, or the biggest Gross Domestic Product per capita, are all now commonplace. In addition, Guyana is the most exciting oil prospect in years, promises to be the most profitable in the future. If Guyana is not on top, it is in the top ten, in the center of any top ratings. All of this should amount to many special things for Guyanese, would be the conclusion of those not living here, those not close to what it is like to live here. Those unaware of how Guyanese live, the ones stuck on the lower levels of the national economic pyramid. Like all pyramids, the peak is thin, and the base broad, which is the same in Guyana. This is where all the superlatives of Guyana and the name that its oil has made for it, come to ground, grind to a screeching halt.
The fastest growing oil country should signify that Guyanese are rising the quickest, not only a few of them, but all of them. Without a doubt, there are those Guyanese who have risen, and continue to rise, like a rocket untethered from its moorings. By most estimates, and as a matter of hard local reality, those rising and roaring in the fashion of economic juggernauts amount to a mere 0.1 percent of Guyana’s population. If we were to employ a population of one million Guyanese, 0.1 percent is 10,000 citizens who have made it big, are set to rise even higher. Practically speaking, a Guyana population of a million is a serious stretch of numbers and truth, with even 900,000 dismissed out of hand by most as being out of the question. What is left, therefore, is a country that makes all the glittering headlines, that is the toast of foreign investors, being able to boast of only under 10,000 in its population knowing what it is to be really enriched and prospering.
This is the beauty and the obscenity of all the head spinning statistics and narratives relating to Guyana, since oil become intermingled with its name, existence, and destiny. The beauty of Oil Guyana is so stunning as to inspire global awe. The dark side hiding behind its superlatives is largely local, except for a few leakages every now and again, when the World Bank and other institutions of like kind pull back the curtain to reveal the real Guyana. It is the Guyana of sores, one that is scarred by poverty, hunger, and discontent. Neither the oil wealth, nor the statistics related to it, have touched these hundreds of thousands of Guyanese who sometimes are forced to question the meaning of their oil patrimony, since it has meant so little to them. The raw truth, as those Guyanese can share, rests in the negligible nature of the difference that oil has contributed to a better life for them.
The superlatives and grand narratives attached to Guyana due to its oil wealth are accurate, and that is neither questioned nor minimized. What is also accurate, and harrowingly so, is how it hasn’t impacted at any meaningful level, those who were struggling, and now find it even more difficult in their daily battle for survival. This is the scorching irony that travels side-by-side with all the superlatives that are part and parcel of this nation’s massive oil patrimony. It is such a vulgar irony that it might be better to see it as a criminal one. Guyana is on top of the world, on the one hand, and there is its dark and dismal world, on the other. Many of its people are hungry and weak and tired. The optimism, the visions, that should inspire all Guyanese are largely the property of only a few.
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