MANY people in and out of Guyana would know there is a Caucasian-born Guyanese who lives in the UK by the name of John Mair that uses the pen name, “Bill Cotton”. Mr. Mair sent me an email last week with the following question, “The keep it in the ground tendency. Who are they and what are their motives?”
In my ongoing work, I refer to the “keep it in the ground tendency” as the anti-oil lobby (AOL). I start with a heartfelt appeal – all Guyanese in and out of this country must be patriotic and welcome the oil industry, and to see it the way Professor Clive Thomas has described it – an opportunity at last (yes, he used those two words) for Guyana to make a big dent (my two words) in poverty.

AOL has a mentality that is inimical to the complete national interest of this country, and I would urge citizens to see these people as enemies of freedom and progress. The AOL is a grotesque manifestation of an ugly mind.
One thing is certain in discussing the fossil fuel industry in Guyana, there is no political party, no trade union, no farmers’ group, no cooperative society and no working-class organisation that has rejected the oil industry. They would not do that for one basic, commonsensical reason; their raison d’être depends on Guyana having an assured source of income.

The AOL has several dimensions. I will deal with only two here. The first section is a group of highly middle-class elitist people whose lives are not and will not be affected by a poor economy in this country. These people have financial resources, and have used it to employ high-priced lawyers in eight court cases against the oil industry. These are millions that could have been used to help charitable organisations.
One member of AOL, as I wrote in a recent column, celebrated his birthday with a free dinner and dance event at the Pegasus, followed up the next night with another celebration at Theatre Guild, and is building a $700 million business head office.

This group is a westernised cabal that apes bourgeois organisations in Western countries that crusade against the fossil fuel industry. Ignorance of how wealthy are the countries these bourgeois folks live in and the high income they enjoy makes the AOL in Guyana a repugnant set of people.
The AOL in Guyana is not really anti-oil when you do deep analysis of their motives; the AOL uses the oil industry to mask their political agenda. They want to weaken the PPP government, because they do not want the PPP in government, and this has to do with class and cultural contempt.

The best strategy they feel that can appeal to people is to go on the roof top and shout out that big foreign corporations are raping Guyana. This anti-imperialist cry is an ironic comicality, because every expatriate Guyanese in AOL has worked, or are working, in institutions in powerful countries that are large, wealthy and funded by the fossil fuel industry. These AOL personalities who live outside have benefitted from the fossil fuel industry.
Interesting to note is that the AOL in Guyana has no connection to working-class organisations, so one is left to wonder which low-income strata in Guyana they hope to save by their “anti-imperialist” instincts. Professor Clive Thomas describes the action of AOL as “crass inhumanity”.

An instructive occasion to reflect on, and which gives an expanding insight into the Freudian minds of these people is a letter they wrote in the newspapers calling for the discontinuation of oil production. Now no one is going to believe what I will now state. You have to read the letter to believe it.
They informed us that Guyana should not continue with the fossil fuel industry, because greenhouse emissions kill African people. Is it true that only African people are affected? If no, then why mention African people specifically? Here is laid bare the intention of the AOL. They have a nasty political agenda.

The second dimension is a group of diaspora Guyanese retirees who are looking for meaning in their lives in their adopted countries as advanced age approaches. They see the oil industry here as something that can provide mental stimulation. So, they arrogate to themselves the right to speak on behalf of us.
All Guyanese are waiting to hear what they have to say about their adopted countries supporting what borders on crime against humanity in Gaza at the moment. How can you bomb a piece of land where only civilians live in and have nowhere to run and they are dying by the hundreds the past three days? How can you live in a country that supports such bestiality?