WHEN the technicians from the Ministry of Public Works were replacing our street light where I live, one of the residents said: “Why yuh putting it so high.” The supervisor told her that the higher the bulb the wider the area of rays thus there will be wider brightness.
The technician was referring to a scientific principle. Imagine if the lady had argued with him how that man would have felt. Imagine the technician telling the housewife not to freeze the juice in a glass bottle because the glass will eventually crack.
That is a scientific principle. When you fill a container with gasoline, you cannot fill it right to the top. Gasoline expands, and in a heated condition, the escaping vapour will cause the container to explode. Imagine how the engineer will feel if the layperson insists that the container must be filled right to the top.

The ignorance on display in those examples above is the same ignorance with the misguided and ignorant chumps that advocate that Guyana demand renegotiation with EXXON on the original contract. In 2024, it continued unabated with not one of those persons having any training in the subject of International Relations, and I repeat not one of them.

Not one of them has any experience in a classroom of how the international system operates, what is the new imperialism, what is neo-colonialism, how does developed countries relate to the developing world, how global trade is shaped and who shapes it, how countries are strangulated in the politics and economics of global power.
One would have thought that in 2024 with the publication of the autobiography of Dr. Maurice Odle, (Guyanese) the nonsensical advocacy of forcing EXXON to renegotiate the contract would have stopped but it hasn’t. Guess why? None of them has read Odle’s memoir. And who is Odle? He has spent decades working in the UN and CARICOM dealing with global trading issues.

Dr. Odle is scathing in his condemnation of how the West treats poor, developing countries. He says it is a new form of imperialism. He describes where all the reset buttons are – in the hands of those who control the new imperialism. This man’s experience is valuable to read. But none of the ignoramuses that advocate that Guyana must force renegotiation on EXXON has read the man’s book.
So here we are at the beginning of 2025 repeating what has been said in 2024 about the international constraints facing Guyana that prevents Guyana from forcing an option on EXXON. Let us repeat what is contained in hundreds of books since World War 2. First, transnational corporations (TNCs) are protected by their mother countries that are going to retaliate against states in the Global South that confront these TNCs.

Secondly, the West will not allow a small, developing country to use state power to confront a TNC. The West will use its global muscles to weaken that country. Odle’s autobiography describes the avenues they will use to crush that state. Again, I urge the ignoramuses to read Odle. Please read Odle before you open your mouth and talk nonsense.

Thirdly, the West will see it as an assault on their great power status to have a poor, Third World country forcing a TNC to come to the table. In International Relations, there is hierarchical structure in which small, weak countries are constantly reminded of their place in the scheme of things.
Fourthly, the TNCs themselves are powerful non-state actors that have resources that the particular developing nation does not have and those companies will mercilessly crush any resistance to the success of their investments. It is stupid for any layperson or scholar to believe that there are ethical rules in the international system that countries must abide by.

One has to be a congenital idiot to lose sight of what is going on in the world with Israel, Gaza and the International Criminal Court (ICC). One set of countries say that they will observe the ICC arrest warrant for President Putin, and in the same breath say they do not agree with the ICC arrest warrant for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

One set of countries says Russia is a violator of international laws while the identical countries are friends of Israel which is more barefaced violator of international laws. Against this backdrop, there are people in this country who want Guyana to take on the TNC and the West at the same time. There is one description for this – unprecedented ignorance.

Fifthly, Guyana has a unique situation which is sad and dangerous. We have a neighbour that wants to invade us. We look to our traditional partners in the West to offer a helping hand. Shall I say more? Commonsense says I shouldn’t.

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.