NO one person in the Guyanese anti-oil lobby can come within a million miles in the experience of Guyanese scholar, Dr. Maurice Odle. This expert on global political economy has just published his autobiography. I have done three reviews of the book in the past three weeks.
Dr. Odle’s book is compulsory reading for those in the Global South who need to understand how the world of rich countries and poor nations stand in relation to each other. From pages 251 to 173, Dr. Odle with his vast experience working in the nerve centre of the United Nations and CARICOM has concluded that the Global South should not expect any generosity from the West because nothing will be forthcoming that will generate economic transformation in the Third World.

Dr. Odle was unambiguous when he said that the relationship between the Third World and the developing nations is based on a different shape of colonialism he names the New Imperialism.
Before I examine the sycophants in Guyana that shamelessly accept the narrative of the New Imperialism, I quote Dr. Odle: “The New Imperialism is underpinned and enforced by both hard and soft power. The New Imperialism is a Western collective (that) practices unilateralism rather than multilateralism. The New Imperialism has engendered a lack of empathy for the developmental efforts of developing countries.”

Dr. Odle’s memoir came out three weeks ago, but the anti-oil lobby will not read and don’t care to know about its contents although on pages 272-273, Dr. Odle poignantly describes the colonial treatment of CARICOM countries by the New Imperialism. Not interested in what Dr. Odle has to say, the anti-oil lobby composed the Monday editorial (yesterday) in the Stabroek News.

When you read this editorial, the tragic farce of Guyana stares you in the face. It is the irony that the sycophants of the New Imperialism are more wedded to the propaganda of the West than even the Mullato/Creole Class (MCC) in British Guiana that did not want Independence.
The difference between the sycophants of the New Imperialism in Guyana today and the pro-colonial mentality of the MCC in British Guiana is that the MCC did not want Independence under a socialist, working class PPP and PNC because they think they were entitled to rule and wanted Independence under their ownership of the post-colonial state.

The sycophants of the New Imperialism in Georgetown are servants of Western narratives without anything to get in return. These people are pro-Western ideologues because they accept that the West is the leader of the international system and Western values are to be emulated.
One of the narratives of the New Imperialism is that the Third World is overflowing with carbon credits that they must preserve and fossil fuel is dangerous for the environment, an environment that they spent 200 years damaging without any participation by the newly emerging countries. These new economies have a moral duty to save the Planet.

The New Imperialism has resurrected colonial exploitation in that the developing countries must forgo the financial benefits of fossil fuel industry without a corresponding source of financing for the Third World nations.
Let’s quote the editorial from the Stabroek News: “The President also cannot be oblivious or insensitive to the fact that roughly 645,000 barrels of Guyana oil per day are being burnt somewhere in the world and contributing to climate jeopardy. This administration refuses to develop an oil depletion policy and is aiming above one million barrels a day.”

Do you want more proof of the existence of the sycophants of the New Imperialism in Guyana? Who contributed to climate jeopardy a hundred years ago and still damaging the environment? The answer is countries that have so much wealth that they can build airports, cruise ships, airplanes, that cost trillions of dollars while the nation of Guyana must ask these very super-wealthy nations to build a bridge linking Suriname and Guyana. And Guyana did ask and no answer was forthcoming so we have now turned to China.
And why Guyana must not aim for a million barrels of oil a day? What happens when we produce a million barrels a day? We can take the money and build the bridge that the New Imperialism will not finance. Let’s quote the President of Guyana to show Guyanese the corrugated minds that support the New Imperialism and who refuse to read Dr. Odle’s book.

I quote the President: “I am saying that the developing world is facing an immense challenge to raise capital for all of these things.” What are all these things? They are alternative sources of clean energy that the New Imperialism will never finance. The sycophants of New Imperialism are a Guyanese tragedy.
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.