ON December 13, 2022, the names listed below published a letter in the Stabroek News in which the following words were carried: “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 helps to destroy our original ancestral home and cause 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…we have sent this letter to the President because we are united in love for our country, our fellow Guyanese, our region and our planet.”

Please take note of three of the many expressions in that letter. 1), the oil and gas industry is a threat to Guyana’s existence. 2), gas pollution kills people in African countries. 3), the letter-writers say they love Guyana and its people. We will pay brief attention to expression number two then elaborate on numbers one and three.

Freudian analysis comes in here and it should be potent. If you are arguing that cricketers should wear elbow guard, why would you say that lack of elbow guard when batting can be dangerous to Australian cricketers? Why would Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans be exempt from injury when the elbow guard is not worn?

Why mention Africa alone? It shows Freudian motifs. Why weren’t the words; “causes loss of life in the world” used instead of African countries? It shows what lies deep in the Freudian recesses of the collective mind of the people who signed that November 13, 2022 letter. The mention of Africa only should cause you to think of how you should see these people.

Let’s move on to expression number two. If oil production is a threat to Guyana’s life, then Venezuela’s indication to take 70 per cent of Guyana’s territory is by far a greater threat. In fact, there can be no comparison. You can move away from the fossil fuel industry and maybe hope to survive on alternative energy, but when another country invades your homeland and integrates your country into their territory, then your homeland disappears.

To date, not one of the persons below have penned even one line or voice one word condemning Venezuela’s bellicose attitude to Guyana that eventually resulted in a referendum in President Maduro asking his people to support the annexation of Guyana.
If you check the archives of the Stabroek News, the persons below have been publishing letters in that newspaper at least once every six weeks since September 2020 when the first one appeared in that month rejecting the visit of Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo to Guyana (see my column yesterday).

Researching the letter columns, one will see that the persons below have touched on every conceivable subject in Guyana excluding any viewpoints or assessments of the Report of the Commission that enquired into the March 2020 election fiasco.
The list included Pompeo’s visit, arrested Haitians, imposition of CARICOM visas for Haitians coming into Guyana, the murder of two cousins in Cotton Tree which was interpreted in some circles as a racial attack and not a drug deal gone wrong; President Bolsonaro’s visit, the Mahdia inferno; the alleged Dharamlall molestation; the alleged Nirvan Singh racial remarks; the risk of an oil spill; the fossil fuel industry; and the Sovereign Wealth Fund. These are part of myriad things in Guyana that the names below have written on since September 2020.

Since September 2023, when the world heard about Maduro’s referendum, the names below have chosen not to comment on the dangerous threat to the sovereignty of the country they were all born in.
We come now to expression number three – their professed love for Guyana and Guyanese. Where is the love when Guyana’s very existence is threatened by the dictator in Venezuela? Surely, I speak for my fellow Guyanese when I say we don’t need the love of the names listed at the end of this column:
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