ON December 13, 2022, a letter was published in the Stabroek News imploring the Guyana Government to put an immediate halt to oil production. It was a long correspondence that advocated Guyana’s exit from the oil industry because Guyana needs to be part of a global effort to save the planet.
Here are the words of the 42 persons which beg the question; where are we going to get an income so Guyana can continue to exist: “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 their foreign status:
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 Trotz 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 – Alma O’Connell lives in Canada
11 – Christina Samaroo moved to New York in 2008
12 – 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?  Also, it must be noted that many of the locally based among the 42 signatories are middle class and petty bourgeois persons who live a comfortable life and do not have to visit local hospitals because they travel outside.

These 42 signatories penned their letter under the psychological influence of a colonial, Western narrative that the West is a generous partner that will finance the Third World in the Global South’s participation of saving the planet. The West will fund alternative source of energy for developing countries. In fact, the West has promised to finance the energy alternative. But such funds have not arrived and will not come. This is the realism in international relations since the end of colonialism.

After 60 years of independence, we have people in the Third World that believe the West has a genuine interest in a partnership with the Global South and the West will finance development in the Third World when the record on this is abysmal.
Now one of the Caribbean’s leading experts (a Guyanese) on the global economy who spent almost two decades working in the UN has written his autobiography. These 42 signatories, none of whom can match even by any percentage point the experience of Dr. Maurice Odle on international economics, need to read what Dr. Odle has written on the relationship between the West and the Third World in the area of international economics.

He refers to the hegemony of the West as the New Imperialism and list a number of characteristics of the New Imperialism. I will quote one of these features that the 42 signatories should read because what Odle writes makes them look like agents of the New Imperialism: “Undue pressure with respect to reducing carbon emissions, despite the miniscule of such countries and lack of financial assistance for mitigation and adaptation and to erect renewable energy infrastructure.”

Odle has repeated what we all know – the developing world has not contributed even 0.9 percent of destruction to the environment.  This section of Odle’s memoir is fantastic and should be read by all Third World people.
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.