Dear Editor,
Not so long ago, a high-ranking official of Exxon Mobil took time to simplify for Guyanese facts or alleged facts about the distribution of net oil revenues from their operations in Guyana. In effect, the message was that Guyana was earning far more money from the enterprise to date than Exxon Mobil and other investors, whereas, according to this high official, Guyana had invested nothing.
In brief, these investors, these people from abroad who came to extract the oil, were doing all the investing, putting their assets at risk, and committing to date, if not forever, Guyana to be the chief beneficiary. Point of order, I raise this point of order: when this investor felt that Guyana made no investment, can he answer the following question: Were it not for the deposits of oil, which have been exclusively Guyana’s patrimony and possession, placed at the disposal of these self-styled investors, why would they be here? It is, therefore, false to claim that Guyana made no investments when it is the primary investor.
Unfortunately, I have seen no denial of this neo-colonial claim from those empowered to manage Guyana’s assets in the interest of their ultimate owners, the Guyanese people. This attitude is no different from that of Otto Von Bismarck and the other colonial raiders at the Berlin conference in 1884 when they declared themselves free to exploit the resources of the African continent and, as they thought, bring modern benefits to the people of that continent.
Though I am a blind man of the ripe old age of ninety-eight and have so far expressed no views on the same patent and visible effect of fossil fuels, I call upon Guyana’s guardians who have taken their oath of office to defend Guyana from the insolence and unfounded, false theories calculated and designed to disarm our people psychologically and make us see ourselves as people being patronised by charitable investors.
Yours truly,
Eusi Kwayana
