IN his speech to the UN, President Irfaan Ali has announced three positions of Guyana. One is the need to reform the United Nations. That advocacy should not detain us here since it does not impact Guyana directly; the other two do. First, the President beseeched the developed world to commit to climate financing.

Something happened in July 2008. It was a high moment in the presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo that the people around the world should have learnt from and no doubt they did. But Guyanese in particular should have internalised the position their country took in 2008.

Mr Jagdeo refused to sign off on the Economic Partnership Arrangement with the European Union which was originally known as the Lomé Convention after the colonies became independent. Mr Jagdeo, speaking at the meeting of Heads of Government of CARICOM in 2008 in unambiguous language, showed that the EPA was an unfair covenant birthed to sustain Western advantage over the Third World. One of the most egregious dimensions in the agreement was protection of the sugar industry in Martinique and Guadeloupe, while protection was removed from CARICOM’s sugar industry.

Since 2008, successive EPAs with the former colonies have continued to favour the EU. One of the men responsible for CARICOM’s negotiations in the EPA dialogue with the EU was Dr Maurice Odle of Guyana, who worked as economic adviser to CARICOM. CARICOM’s unit was known as the Regional Negotiation Machinery (RNM). Two weeks ago, Dr Odle released his autobiography and he ended his book on a pessimistic note. He calls the theme he ended his memoir on – the New Imperialism.

Those who believe that since independence the West has been a benefactor of the Third World are either naïve or shamelessly wear their colonial mentality on their shirt sleeves. Guyanese should have seen the New Imperialism coming since Guyana refused to sign the EPA in 2008. What is this new imperial hegemony all about? Briefly, it is colonial domination but with a new face and a new form.

This New Imperialism has been very harsh on island nations. Third World countries have contributed almost nothing to the destruction of the global environment, yet they bear the burden of sadistically erratic weather patterns. But the New Imperialism is not prepared to finance island nations and is not prepared to finance alternative sources of energy.

This is where President Ali comes in. He said the time has come for the West to stop talking about commitment to climate finance, but the money must be delivered. For years and years there have been pledges to finance the Third World’s effort to stop greenhouse emissions, but it has not happened.

Despite Guyana’s brave refusal to sign the EPA in 2008, despite years of refusal by the West to finance climate change, we have citizens in this country and Guyanese living outside who want Guyana to cease oil production. This is how the new colonial mentality is fed by the New Imperialism.

The New Imperialism is harsh and heartless. The New Imperialism would not mind if Guyana comes out of oil production because it would mean less global greenhouse emissions. But it is alright for developed countries to continue with their fossil fuel industry. We now come to the second statement of President Ali.

He said Guyana will remain with oil production even up to 2050. And he gave his reasons. Guyana needs the revenue that comes with oil production because that revenue will sustain development. The new colonial mentality that copies what they read from Green parties around the world are either naïve or silly or ignorant to know that the Green parties in the West are either silent on two violent world actions – bombing in Gaza and Ukraine or supportive of sustaining the war so Russia can lose. Any schoolboy will tell you the Israeli, Ukraine and Russian use of bombs for more than a year now is contributing to the destruction of the global environment.

Whenever I write on the relationship between the West and the Global South, I think of the development aid CARICOM nations got as so vividly captured in a column of Sir Ron Sanders of Guyana. Once more on this page, I quote Sanders.

“The 14-nation independent states of the Caribbean Community have been at the bottom of US official development assistance for decades. In 2019, for instance, total US foreign assistance globally was US$47 billion, of which collectively, CARICOM countries received US$338 million or 0.7 percent. For emphasis, that is less than one percent of the global total. Haiti alone received US$268 million of that US$338 million intended for all 14 CARICOM states, leaving the other 13 to share US$70 million only. For nine of the 13 countries, the sum provided did not amount to US$1 million.”

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.