I READ a very stupid article in the Kaieteur News (Monday, Nov 4h, 2013) under the caption ‘Minister to be blamed if Guyana loses US$20M from Norway’. 

It appears as though this asinine ‘Shadow Minister’ of Public Works, Joseph Harmon, has become the chief spokesman of the PNC/APNU.
But Harmon seems to have a very short memory and needs to be reminded that it was his PNC/APNU that brought bankruptcy to Guyana’s economy through gross mismanagement and corruption prior to 1992. So Harmon’s blaming the Hon Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Mr. Robert Persaud, if Guyana should lose money from Norway is basic partisan political trash, which lacks the basis of justification and credibility.
Furthermore, the increase of Guyana’s deforestation rate by 0.025 percent is not a result of illegal mining but infrastructural development in the mining sector which the 2013-2018 strategic framework will soon address.
But shadow Harmon needs to be cognisant of the fact that mining continues to contribute significantly to our gross domestic product (GDP). For the year 2012 Gold production was 438,645 ounces and export earnings totalled US $ 716.9M, 38.7 Percent higher than the 2011 level. Currently, gold production has surpassed the 2012 level.
So Harmon needs to stop contributing hogwash to the mining discourse in Guyana, as well as Guyana’s REDD+ performance.

PETER PERSAUD