I RECEIVED an email from Stabroek News (SN) columnist, Dr. Bertrand Ramcharran. He wants me to correct what I said about him in my Saturday column.
I quote now the relevant section of my Saturday offering: “Ramcharan is Guyanese and no doubt may know the Guyanese international economist, Dr. Maurice Odle. I would advise Ramcharan to read the recent autobiography of Odle before he pens another column in the Stabroek News.”

The goodly gentleman sent me a column of his, published in SN on September 12, 2024 titled “Maurice Odle’s insight into the Guyanese predicament.” So Ramcharan did write about Odle’s autobiography.
So, should I to correct myself and apologise to Ramcharan? I will do no such thing. There is nothing to correct and nothing to apologise for.
When context is applied, then the readers of this article here should ask themselves if Ramcharran is not academically dishonest.
Let’s examine the context and let Guyanese decide what kind of person Ramcharan is.

1. My use of Odle’s autobiography was in response to Ramcharan’s praise for the 2012 book titled Why Nations Fail. This book is about the evolution of nation-states within the global economy. It is a book about international political economy.
2. The central thesis of Why Nations Fail is that political institutions that are not open and free will hinder economic development. And the authors use a myriad of examples of why some countries succeed while others are laid waste.
3. I argued that the book is flawed. It ignores decades of political theory dating back to the 1970s which postulate that there may not be a correlation between liberal political infrastructure and economic progress.
4. I gave examples of Singapore and China and referred to Why Nations Fail as a dated text because the French economist, Thomas Piketty, in his magnum opus, Capital in the 21st Century, shows where capitalism is far from liberal, far from creating a stable democratic system, but endangers democracy because capital is mercilessly extracted at the expense of the working classes of Europe and the US.
5. I informed Ramcharan that the authors of Why Nations Fail are failures themselves because they ignore the historical role of imperialism and the new imperialism in devastating the political economy of Third World countries.
6. I suggest Ramcharan read the autobiography of Odle and referred to Odle as an international economist.
7. Ramcharran wants me to correct myself by sending me a column he wrote on Odle. What Ramcharan hid, and I make no apologies in saying deliberately so, is that his piece on Odle is a chapter in Odle book in which he dealt with Guyana’s domestic politics.
Let me repeat that I described Odle as what he is – an international economist. He served at the United Nations (UN) and CARICOM. We now come to the deception of Ramcharan.
Odle’s book has one chapter on Guyana’s politics. Odle has four chapters on his experience in international economic matters. Ramcharan did not pen a word, not one word on Odle’s experience in international economics.
I now quote from the experience of Odle that explains why some nations fail and others succeed. “I spent seventeen years as an official in the United Nations system, dealing with economic aspects of international relations and the struggle for equitable trade, investment, financial and technology relations.”

I wonder if Ramcharan perused Odle’s memoir and his eyes lighted on the chapter on Guyana and that was all he read from Odle.
Let’s me quote Odle again: “The New Imperialism is underpinned and enforced by hard and soft power. When the West feels that it is not appropriate to exercise military power or trade measures are not effective, it uses denial of access to loans in the international banking system and the International Financial Institutions, and when this in turn does not work it resorts to weaponisation of the dollar….”
I am convinced that Ramcharan did not read this book. If he had, then he could not have eulogized Why Nations Fail.

Now interestingly, it was Christopher Ram who reviewed Odle’s book and chaired the launching at Moray House. Yet Ram is one of the advocates of forced renegotiation of the Exxon contract. So, did Ram really read the book?

If you read Odle on the nature of global power, then you will see that forced renegotiation will bring down Guyana and that is a foregone conclusion.
Those who want Guyana to drag EXXON to the table also have not read Odle. But that is the problem with so many Guyanese. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

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.