From Guyana to Arabia with love

Nov 03, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – Note is taken of how Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali held took his Olympic-sized torch from the metropolis-in-the-making that is Georgetown all the way across the mountains and oceans to the megapolis of Riyadh.  It was from the rivers of Guyana to the sands of Saudi Arabia with a special kind of love.  ‘Small nation, giant impact’ said Guyana’s president in booming shades of Apollo 13 astronaut, Neil Armstrong.  Recall him, and his ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ which still resonates to this day, ripples across the globe.  There was MIA.

Excellency Ali is on top of the world, and he should be, since he is the foremost beneficiary that is floating on a sea of oil.  Just lean to the side, Dr. President, and ask the Arabs gathered at that summit.  They should know, since they have been walking on oceans of the stuff and occasionally boxing the ears of the Western world to prove who is cock of the walk.  Now there was Guyana’s Ali milling with the mighty, and one who may be dressed for the harsh environment, but is developing a reputation for being an all-weather dresser, a resplendent costume to grace every occasion.  More power to him and, to push the nuclear button, maybe even a bigger piece to Guyana for its precious patrimony.

Because, in a manner similar to that cohort of Arabs, well-represented with oil sheiks and other swashbuckling oil buccaneers, there is Guyana, and the paradox of the contradictions of great wealth and still greater poverty.  For amid that fabulous wealth for a chosen few, there are those pictures that must be hidden from the public with its prying eyes and chattering classes.  The pictures are of a land blessed with plenty, which makes a giant impact on the prosperity of the few; while, on the other hand, there are those droves of hungry, and those living in grimacing, wounding poverty.  A nation this small, with this small number of citizens for a population should not have one pauper, one scrapper running around, and digging about, to make a daily living.  Where is the big impact on their lives after six years of oil production at an increasing daily rate?  When anyone sees that giant impact, I would appreciate an electronic note, which should provide the basis for another warm round of applause for Pres. Ali.

“We are shaped by the way we think, and the boldness of our thinking” was part of the flashing rhetorical fireworks that Excellency Ali shared with his rapt gathering.  Well said, skipper; I’m awed.  People pay attention to those who travel great distances with 11 billion barrels of oil in their hip pocket.  But on that, ah, item of “boldness of our thinking” I have some difficulty interpreting how the docility of “sanctity of contract” reconciles with the “boldness of our thinking.”  Something is missing.  Boldness, or a patented baldness of intellect, a shallow grave where courage has been buried?  Boldness in thinking, or more in the mold of a prostrating passivity that breathes the dust on which others walk, maybe spit and even splashwith bodily liquids?

“Here is a country that is providing the solution to the global problems of deforestation and climate change, yet many do not know of it.”

I just don’t have the heart to disagree with Pres. Ali.  Not when he is in such full flow.  Not when he is like a man possessed.  A leader who is armed with the ink of scribblers who know just the right words to write for different audiences.  And along with that, there is the confidence that in Pres. Ali, Guyana has one who thrills to the ecstasy of delivering.  As if those words were straight out of the stone tablets presented by Moses thousands of years ago in that same desert setting.  What I will be bold enough to share with Pres. Ali and all Guyanese is that while he is busy “providing…solution to…global problems” there are Guyanese sick to their stomach for want of vittles and the vitality that goes with those.  For what is it for a man to gain the world, and lose his soul?  There’s the effervescence of words well-written and well-said.  Then there’s that other essence: of almost half of Guyana wobbling on weak knees and feet on fire.

I confess to having a weakness for love letters, whether written in sand; or coated in Styrofoam.  It is wonderful to absorb President Mohamed Irfaan Ali stand in immaculate attire and expound to his listeners about ‘small nation, giant impact’ with Guyana being the driver.  Pity he gets so excitedly preoccupied with words that the substance of Guyanese suffering has proven most elusive to him.

(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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• Arabia, GHK Lall, Guyana, love

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