IT is arrogance, elitism and dictatorial mentality for the Guyana Human Rights Association to take offence to Mr. Robin Singh publishing a newspaper advertisement to inform Guyanese of the persons who either gave support or remained silent on election rigging in 2020. I read the advertisement and there is no personal attack. It is about the 2020 election.
What Mr. Singh did is what I have been doing daily for decades in the newspapers – contributing to Guyana’s historiography by recording the significance of the action of people.

Tomorrow, I may remind Guyanese once more about the wrong things the AFC leaders did when in power. 42 persons collectively wrote a letter in Stabroek News demanding that Guyana should immediately get out of oil production. They should be named over and over
When I read the letter that included the novelist, Pauline Melville, I thought that Freud may be relevant here in the context of her novel, “Eating Air.” What Ms. Melville had in mind when she and the other 41 signatures requested that Guyana leave oil exploration? Did she have in mind that we should eat air?

If we come out of oil production then, what are Guyanese going to eat? Ms. Melville of course is a Guyanese in name only. She left Guyana in the early 1950s and made the UK her home. All of her adult life has been lived outside of Guyana.

It is fair to say that Ms. Melville may be Guyanese in origin but not in sociology, psychology and culture. The same question that is asked of Melville should be asked of the others – what should Guyanese eat if it comes out of oil production. Should we eat air?
Here are the words of the 42 persons that if they get their way in Guyana, where are we going to get an income so what will be left for us to eat.

“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 production are an existential threat to Guyana. We cannot support government’s policy to produce oil and gas when every ton of greenhouse gas pollution cause (sic) loss of life in African countries. In light of the above, we call for a national moratorium on all petroleum operations in Guyana – offshore and onshore.”

Here is the list and important to note below where a majority of them live:
Vanda Radzik
Alissa Trotz
Vidyaratha Kissoon
Karen de Souza
Pauline Melville
Christine Samwaroo
Danuta Radzik
Maya Trotz
Susan Collymore
Joy Marcus
Halima Khan
Vanessa Ross
Wintress White
Gary Girdhari
Nicole Cole
Abbyssinian Carto
Nigel Westmaas
Joan McDonald
Duane de Freitas
Akola Thompson
Joan Cambridge
Immaculata Casimero
Terry Roopnaraine
Colin Klautky
Earl John
Janette Bulkan
Sandy de Freitas
Sherlina Nageer
Jocelyn Dow
Elizabeth Deane-Hughes

Mosa Telford
Suraiya Ismail
Leila Jagdeo
Gerald Perreira
Romario Hastings
Paulette Allicock
Daniel Allicock
Isabelle de Caires
Luke Daniels
Red Thread
Amerindian Peoples Association
South Rupununi District Council
The Breadfruit Collective
Makushi Research Unit

Of those names listed above, here is the foreign status of those who signed the letter:
1 – Dr. Janet Bulkan serves the University of British Columbia.
2- Dr. Alissa Trotz serves the University of Toronto
3- Dr. Nigel Westmass serves Hamilton College in New York
4- Dr. Maya Trots serves the University of South Florida
5 – Isabelle DeCaires lives in her homeland of the UK where her son plays cricket in the country championship for Middlesex.
6 – Abyssinian Carto is of Rastafari orientation that lives in New York.
7- Dr.Cary Gildarie lives in New York.
8 – Terry Roopnaraine lives in his homeland of the UK.
9 – Pauline Melville moved to the UK since the early 1950s.
10 – Christina Samaroo moved to New York in 2008
11 – Luke Daniels lives in the UK

I did not state the time these people left Guyana. In many cases the time is between 15 and 45 years. Imagine you have gone for 45 years and you want to decide for us who live here? Isn’t this unmitigated hubris and hauteur? I ask in all sincerity what is wrong in informing the Guyanese people of the public proclamation of these people that Guyana should stop oil production and also their foreign based residency.

That is legitimate commentary and I will not stop offering such commentaries accompanied by exposure. To say we must come out of oil production is a colossal act of reckless assault on Guyana’s future. Maybe if we come out of oil and our income is decimated, the Breadfruit Collective will feed us breadfruit. I will starve because since from growing up in Wortmanville, I never liked breadfruit.