I SPENT all my life in struggle for a better and freer Guyana, and I say from the deepest recesses of my heart, mind, soul and psyche, that in over 55 years of struggle, nothing has destroyed my tolerance level than a letter that appeared in the November 13, 2022 issue of the newspapers in this country that calls for the immediate and permanent rejection of the oil and gas industry in Guyana and signed by over two dozen Guyanese.

I will come to this incredible, monumental ignorance and inhumanity (to use the word of Professor Clive Thomas) below because it is the raison d’être for this column, but an important point that all readers of this analysis here need to digest is what the British Government has decided.

It will no longer stick to its pledge of giving 11.6 billion British pounds to climate protection. But your anger at those people who penned the infamous letter will become uncontrollable when you read of one of the reasons for the withdrawal of the money – money has to be found for Ukraine.

The 11 billion pounds was part of the yearly $100 billion global commitment to climate change. The withdrawal of this money will affect 25 island-states in the Commonwealth. Foreign Office Minister, Zac Goldsmith, who resigned last week, said the following: “Small Island states in particular, whose votes in the UN are no less valuable than ours and which are routinely needed by us, will be left feeling utterly betrayed.”

The Environment Minister of Gabon, in reaction to the removal of the 11 billion pounds had this to say: “Developed nations, have to do the heavy lifting – but all too often they make false promises and fail to provide true leadership or even honour their modest financial commitments.”

We need to remind Guyanese that our own Guyanese, Professor Clive Thomas last month, in rejecting the people who wrote that letter said that such an attitude was crass inhumanity (his words) because Guyana needs oil revenues because such an income holds out the promise of poverty eradication.

In an interview with David Hinds, Professor Thomas was livid when he asked if these people do not care about poverty eradication. He went on to make the point that the developed world has the resources to bring about climate change than a country like Guyana.

Against the backdrop of the 11 billion dollar removal and the words of Gabon’s Environment Minister and Professor Thomas, let’s quote the sentiments of these two dozen Guyanese, half of whom live in countries where the fossil fuel industry had made them post-modern societies.

I quote from the letter: “We are deeply concerned that the government’s policy to pursue economic development based on oil and gas is bad for Guyana…oil and gas are a threat to Guyana. We cannot support the policy to produce oil and gas when gas pollution causes loss of life in African countries. We call for a national moratorium on all petroleum operations to allow for us, Guyanese, to pause so as to take stock of the oil and gas situation.”

Let’s comment on this unbelievable journey into human folly. If oil and gas pollution results in loss of life, why did this letter single out Africa only? Why not say that it kills people around the world? Why only African countries. Is there a Freudian meaning to the selection of African people only? Of course there is and it demonstrates the habit of race baiting in these people.
What do the signatories mean by us, Guyanese? Who speak for the Guyanese people? In the Saturday, July 1 editorial of the Stabroek News, Exxon is attacked for raping our resources and these words are used: “Guyanese don’t appreciate the rape being rubbed in our face.”

Really! Who speak for Guyanese? After three years of unholy attacks by the two private newspapers about the government giving away our resources, the ruling party increased its votes substantially in last month’s LGE, and in urban areas where the opposition is electorally strong.

Do the Guyanese people want the immediate or even long-term abolition of the oil industry? I saw several videos of Mr. Glenn Lall on a country-wide walk to denounce the oil and gas industry.
At no time did I see more than three persons with Lall. So I ask for the third time; who speaks for the Guyanese people?

When Dr. Janet Bulkan went to the OAS and asked them to intervene to stop oil exploration in Guyana, who did she consult? I don’t think anyone in Guyana and the OAS knows who Janet Bulkan is? Will the usual suspects write to the British Prime Minister about the loss of the 11 billion British pounds?