AS if once is never enough, another international news correspondent has come to Guyana with clear prior intent to give capital and credence to a predetermined headline.

First it was the salacious Vice Squad that virtuously but unsuccessfully tried to imply that Vice- President Bharrat Jagdeo was either on the take or up for the taking.

Now, a Reuters correspondent, flashing credentials claiming to be a specialist in sniffing out corruption in South America, is suggesting that Guyana might not have what it takes to manage the oil money that’s already flowing into the coffers of the world’s fastest-growing oil-producing nation.

Reuters published an article online on August 25, 2022, headed: Oil Money Is Flooding Into Guyana – Who Will Benefit? written by Glam Slattery, a Massachusetts-born, Harvard graduate based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and described as “a correspondent specialising in the oil and gas industry, as well as white-collar crime and corruption.”

As if on a trip to find the bricks and mortar to build the article already in and on his mind, the writer’s report drew expected quotes from selected sources to give new credence to the old and worn-out claim that the politics of race will prevent any Guyana Government from handling the nation’s new wealth in ways that will benefit all Guyanese.

Employing a condescending claim that resource-rich Guyana does not have the capacity to manage its resources for lack of expertise, the writer paints a sorry picture of a nation where government takes care of only its supporters through highly selective application of the principle of equitable distribution of resources.

Clearly intent on writing an article to suit a predetermined headline, the writer sidestepped everything this PPP/C administration, led by President, Dr Irfaan Ali has done, in just two years, to reverse the corrupt trends that have, over time and under successive PNC-led administrations, given rise to the continuing ridiculous claim that Guyana will always be the same, no matter which party is in office.

The PNC/R is unable to disprove the loud claim that this PPP/C administration has done more for Afro-Guyanese in two years than the PNC-R did between 2015 and 2020, when Guyana’s oil and gas industry was developing and resources started flowing in. Instead, it is this government that’s made it a duty to put in place the mechanisms and structures, laws and regulations, rules and guidelines that have led to Guyanese of all races and walks of life having renewed confidence in the near future.

It’s indeed an interesting case of the negative highlighting and underlining the positive, when the whole concern of the article was not about oil-and-gas money being stolen and ferreted out of the national treasury and the sovereign wealth fund, but about whether Guyana has minds and brains (of any race) big and bright enough to guide government’s hands safely in the handling of the volumes of money that will flow Guyana’s way between now and 2027.

Obviously, the specialist writer on matters of white-collar crime in oil-and-gas industries was unable to scoop up even a spoon of related liquid or natural evidence to fuel his wide-awake effort to dream up a story to suit his tailored specialty.

The Slattery report is more of a slaughtered mish-mash of mixed-up partisan local political views and morally atrocious external attitudes aimed at sowing doubt about the ability (or planting seeds of disbelief about the eligibility) of developing countries and people of colour, to take and make decisions about their own resources that will redound to the benefit of their peoples.

The hapless writer, on his quick hunting trip to the latest Oil Dorado, found himself snaking through plain waters searching for fish to fry that just wasn’t (and still isn’t) there, ending up like writing without ink.

Fortunately, Guyanese know better that the report suggests, because, what none of the writer’s quoted sources told him was that citizens of Guyana today, — home and abroad — have been able to see and feel what it’s like to finally have a government that prefers to put people before party and politics and is determined to ensure the nation’s new oil wealth continues to benefit all in One Guyana – bar none.