by Randy Gopaul
Guyana is a country with lots of natural treasures like oil, gold, bauxite, lush lands, but even with all this wealth, many people are having a hard time making ends meet. While Exxon, a huge oil company, made a whopping $36 billion just last year, many of Guyana’s workers, like teachers and nurses, are out on the streets asking for a bit more money to buy the basics.
It’s tough to understand how a country so rich in oil can’t pay its workers well. This big gap is a big problem. Exxon’s massive earnings from Guyana’s oil compared to the small paychecks for Guyanese workers just doesn’t seem fair.
The heart of the issue is how Guyana’s oil wealth is managed. There’s a lot of talk about the need for better rules to make sure Guyana gets a fair share of the profits from its oil. Right now, it looks like Exxon is getting a lot more out of Guyana’s oil than are the people of Guyana.
When teachers have to protest for a fair wage in a country that’s growing so fast because of oil, something’s not right. It points to big problems like poor management by those who govern the nation, or even worse, that our leaders might not care about the average person’s struggles.
Exxon’s stranglehold on Guyana is not just about numbers and contracts; it’s about making sure everyone in Guyana can live a decent life, especially when there’s so much wealth coming from their own land. The protests by teachers and others are a wake-up call. They’re fighting not just for better pay but for a fair share of their country’s riches for everyone. It’s time for things to change, so that the wealth from oil benefits all Guyanese, not just big companies like Exxon.
