I HAVE been in academic studies all my life. Even when I was a sixteen-year-old youth employed in the Michael Forde Bookstore of the PPP, I would devour all the philosophy texts. From those days until now, I don’t think I have seen more ignorance and asininity in intellectual debate than what is contained in the Stabroek News (SN) editorials.

I don’t think more ignorance comes from the voices and pens of opposition parties and anti-government outfits in this country than what I see in the SN editorials. I examined the contents of the Saturday editorials and I have asserted in these Chronicle columns of mine that whoever is assigned to write the Saturday editorials is someone insanely hostile to the PPP. Do you know I have 47 columns critical of the SN editorials’ anti-government ranting that are vulgar, ugly, and degenerate condemnations of an elected government? This is number 48.

To date, there has been not one so-called independent mind that has called into question the descent into politicised journalism that characterises journalism at the SN. The Saturday man is at it again. In his piece of July 6, he wrote: “Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are being sucked each day from beneath Guyana’s seabed, and the people of this country have no organic connection with this process, either by palpable material gain, awareness of the global impact of this extraction or engagement in decision-making on the industry.”

I ask you in all honesty: a newspaper allows someone to write such asininity? First, what is meant by there is no palpable material gain, Guyanese get from oil production? Even you argue that more should be spent in this or that area, you may have a point but to say that billions come into this country each year from oil and Guyanese have not benefitted and there is the use of the word, “palpable.” Is the Saturday man and his bosses at SN telling us that Guyanese have not benefitted from oil production at all? When you read a newspaper writing such nonsense, you know where that newspaper has gone.

Secondly, the Saturday man told us that Guyanese are not aware of the global impact of the fossil fuel industry. Every Guyanese in this country, whether educated or not knows that the wealthy countries have become extraordinarily rich through fossil fuel and when they discovered that they damaged the climate over hundreds of years of profits, they turned to the Global South and said, “You must save the planet.”

These wealthy countries have committed two unprecedented immoralities. They are refusing to pay the Global South for pursuing alternative energy supplies and secondly, they themselves are continuing with their fossil fuel industry. What every Guyanese knows and if you talk to them, they will tell you that the rich countries damaged the global environment and now they want us to save the Planet. Every Guyanese knows we need the money from oil production and Guyana will stay in oil production.
Maybe the SN could publish a booklet, and distribute it freely on how the fossil fuel industry harms the environment. But the booklet must also include the damage the super-rich countries have done to the world’s climate.
As I write, rich countries are spending ten times the amount on infrastructural projects than it would cost to bridge the Corentyne River, but we have to beg the Chinese to build the bridge.
Thirdly, the Saturday man noted that Guyanese have no say in the decision-making of the industry. The question is: which Guyanese is the Saturday man referring to? Is it the SN, Kaieteur News, the anti-oil lobby, the Guyana Human Rights Association, Red Thread, Transparency Guyana Chapter, etc.?

What about other Guyanese like myself, Joel Bhagwandin, GAWU, FITUF, the Private Sector Commission, etc.? Are we included in the Saturday man’s classification of Guyanese? But there is a stronger point that points to the asininity of the Saturday man’s rambling.
I examine politics all over the world (I guess it is my job) and I don’t see the citizens of the different counties sharing authority with their elected governments. If Saturday Man can identify such a country, I will begin to study it right away.
I didn’t see the citizens consulted on European and American involvement with Israel. On the contrary, hundreds of thousands of people have been arrested and harassed for denouncing genocide in Israel. Hundreds of academics and journalists have been dismissed from their jobs for denouncing Israeli genocidal action in Gaza.

I would like to think that political theory informs us that we vote for people to manage our country. After the vote, the elected administrators run the country.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.