I AM proud that President Bharrat Jagdeo is standing up and being objective in leading this country’s fight for adequate compensation for its services to help avert the severe impacts of global climate change. This is what he continued doing in Cancun, Mexico but people like Freddie Kissoon of Kaieteur News are trying to deliberately distort his views on the Guyana-Norway agreement and the role of the World Bank in channelling the funds to beneficiary projects and communities in Guyana.

For too long, some multilateral institutions have been taking advantage of third world countries and President Jagdeo is standing up and telling it like it is.

I heard the President at his press conference on Wednesday stressing again that the money from Norway is not a loan but payment for services that Guyana is providing and it is disgusting to see the levels to which Kissoon and others go to distort and spread lies on his position.

Kissoon claimed at the beginning that under Mr. Jagdeo’s presidency Guyana will not get a `single cent’ from Norway and he repeated this in a recent column in the Kaieteur News.

That is an outright lie as Norway has already paid US$30M into Guyana’s account and US$40M will be released by February next year.

Kissoon also claimed that the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) will get nowhere. Another blatant lie as the LCDS is the basis for the Norway-Guyana agreement and it is now an established model for other rainforest countries to adopt.

He also claimed that no one will finance the LCDS. What then is Norway doing?
You hear lie? That is lie.

But as President Jagdeo said, people should not be too harsh on Freddie.

The President is right – some things are just beyond Freddie’s comprehension and maybe he should go and spend some time with those Toshaos who have fully grasped what the LCDS means for them and the rest of the country.

Some kind-hearted person should take pity on Freddie, pay his passage and give him a small piece so that he can get into the indigenous communities and seek enlightenment.
It might not be too late for Freddie.

I was astonished to hear that Guyana has to pay the World Bank US$700,000 to act as trustee for the funds coming from the climate change agreement with Norway.

Isn’t this the same World Bank reported by the Kaieteur News as saying that they are merely spectators in the process? So, how come they are getting almost one million US dollars for spectating?
The World Bank has to be the most lucrative spectator sport in the whole world!