IT IS sad to note that there are elements in the local media and a few organizations that, like the parliamentary opposition parties, seem to get all upset when they learn about the aid and investments being attracted by the government to maintain Guyana on the path of social and economic progress.
If it is recognized that the job of the opposition parties is to make politics, including fanning the flame of social divisions, the question is: Why should certain sections of the media be so often misused to misrepresent, or worse, denigrate bold, enlightened initiatives by the government to secure foreign aid and investment for major development projects in Guyana?
Two very notable examples, which could hardly have escaped the attention of independent observers, among them representatives of foreign governments and international agencies and institutions, would be, first, the Guyana Government’s success in achieving a partnership deal with Norway to save this nation’s huge rainforests, consistent with a shared vision with Norway in embracing that fundamental issue of our time — climate change.
Secondly, the growing optimism for oil exploration in Guyana, which is expected to assume a more positive profile in the months ahead, even as efforts continue to make a reality of the much-discussed hydropower project to help in furthering the economic transformation of Guyana .
These are not development schemes that Guyana can pursue without serious partnership arrangements with foreign interests and investments, all of which require careful negotiations and due diligence. Regrettably, with few exceptions, there appears to be a commitment on the part of some media enterprises, print and electronic, to routinely reflect a critical, negative attitude to the government’s major economic development thrusts. They do not seem to appreciate that failure to achieve such development objectives would be to the detriment of the GUYANESE PEOPLE, irrespective of their political and social relations.
What a contrast, for instance, in the constant negative reportage and commentaries by sections of the local media on the government’s ongoing engagement with Norway to continue along the path to save Guyana’s forests in the context of a shared, visionary approach to climate change, to that of a most recent article in the Guardian (UK) newspaper as published in  yesterday’s edition.
The writer, Tony Jupiter, a well-known British campaigner for the protection of the environment, noted in his assessment of the Guyana/Norway project, last week’s announcement by the Norwegian government to transfer this year US$40 million of its US$250 million commitment for the preservation of this country’s forests.
“Without this kind of support,” said the environmentalist campaigner, who also made reference to the coming hydropower  project, “the pressures on the (Guyana) forests might become irresistible. Guyana is poor. The country needs jobs; foreign exchange and tax revenues. And there are plenty of takers for the natural resources that await plunder in delivering these benefits…”
For their part, opponents of the government (in and out of the local media) are hoping for failure, not progress in the interest of Guyana’s future. But they are doomed to disappointment, as economic progress is the name of the overall development thrust to improve the welfare of Guyanese, irrespective of differences in political persuasion.