GRIPES and grouses always drive those harbouring them to only see the dark side of everything and never the silver lining, ever-willing to present crystal-ball predictions of only doom and gloom, even when the sun is shining brightly.

Never looking beyond their eyebrows, pseudo-economists and misnamed “experts” in that bracket will likewise only see the dark clouds they wish and imagine.

Fitting that bracket are those who predict Guyana “will go nowhere” and its new wealth will be wasted, squandered and stolen by politicians and technocrats who know nothing about handling money.

To hear some insult the intelligence of those successfully managing Guyana’s economy today, you’d believe it’s a basket-case of a failed state in the hands of people born to be unable to see and learn from the lessons of history and avoid others’ past mistakes.

The confounded critics seek and find only bad in every major new government project announced and many point to a supposedly-inevitable ‘Dutch Disease’ or ‘Resource Curse’ that somehow, thankfully only in their eyes, only affects developing countries led by Black and Brown people.

But no such criticism is made of industrialised nations with oil and gas, from where some of the loudest mouths blast.

Like the recently exposed local entities parading sanctimoniously while pinching public pennies and denying the state its due taxes, the half-blind speculators can only see Guyana failing and falling under any PPP/C government.

However, under this Dr Irfaan Ali administration, Guyanese are quickly outgrowing the strictures inherited from six decades of partisan political and racial divisions, as more of the older and younger generations refuse to be misguided by those hanging on to a distant past that hardly ever delivered anything but hard times and national heartbreaks.

The masked critics cannot hide that this PPP/C administration is led by a President bubbling with enthusiasm and ever eager to march forward, assisted by a Vice-President who served twice in the presidency and aided in full by a government led by a disciplined retired brigadier, with a Cabinet of ministers reflective of the wider society.

This government has taken steps to avoid over-dependence on oil and gas; and it’s also widening the base of international investments in energy, while using new resources to better and bolster other sectors, which is why Guyana was able, in 2022, to join the short list of nations posting admirable growth in the non-oil sectors.

The mindless critics cannot deny either, that under this administration, more money is coming in and going into the national coffers every year; and more income is being earned from innovative actions such as selling carbon credits and dedicating allocated sums to Amerindian development.

Nor can they deny that at the end of last month (February 2023), Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF), which includes oil profits and royalties paid by the petroleum sector, had a closing balance of US$1,379,353,505.59; or that one year ago (May 2022), some US$607.6 million was transferred; or that on February 10, another 2023 US$200 million (G$41.6B) was deposited into the national vault.

So, while the ever-losing pundits near and far continue to bet only on negative possibilities and engage in speculation about imagined scary possibilities, Guyana’s new wealth continues to be spread across the nation – and in greater sums — like never before dreamed or imagined.

This PPP/C administration has, therefore, clearly shown it’s up to the task of learning from the mistakes of others and continues leading Guyana out of the 28 years of persistent poverty into which it was sunk by those who mismanaged earlier natural-resource incomes and are today complaining the loudest.