Norway’s interest and Guyana’s interest are not symmetrical. How else can one explain Norway ‘rewarding’ Guyana a week after it was graphically revealed to the world that the state (GPF) tortured an unarmed juvenile in their custody? Former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary entitled An Inconvenient Truth talks about climate change and the consequences of global warming. Norway like many industrialized nations, is trying to aggressively do what it considers to be the right thing by keeping intact as much of the earth’s rain forest as possible to offset the effects of decades of destruction by the industrialized nations. Guyana is grossly underdeveloped and is known as the land of many waters, but should now be known as the land of many inconvenient truths.
Can Guyanese nationals honestly say that President Jagdeo has saving the world as his top priority when Guyana needs to be saved from itself? In the absence of a viable economic strategy that doesn’t rely on handouts, debt forgiveness or an illegal parallel economy, the next best thing is to accept money to keep the nation underdeveloped. Which developed nation will accept being told by an underdeveloped nation to curtail their national development in order to save the planet? Development continues apace while they find ways to alleviate the results of harmful pollutants. The prime examples are Brazil, India and China (BRIC) – emerging economic powers. Incidentally, China has one of the strongest economies where virtually everything is made for export and is one of the world’s biggest polluters.
Take a ride around Georgetown and the surrounding areas or visit the seawall and witness the destruction of the environment with canals that overflow with Styrofoam containers and all types of debris dottinh the water and shoreline. The catalogue of what ails Guyana is long, and the situation is made more difficult by deep ethnic distrust, strife and an inept and overbearing government which instead of providing the conditions for all Guyanese to succeed, is itself an impediment to justice, equality and the pursuit of happiness.
More inconvenient truths – the ‘Burnham constitution’ that was so onerous when the PPP was in the opposition has been tinkered with, but is alive and embraced by the same folks who decried it. Corruption is endemic, and so is police brutality and torture. Narco-trafficking and money laundering accounts for at least (conservatively) twenty per cent of Guyana’s economy. Guyana is either unwilling or incapable of stemming the flow of drugs across its borders or monitoring the illegal airstrips in the vast undeveloped hinterland that are used with impunity by narco-traffickers, although we are now asked to believe that the forests will be vigilantly monitored.
In the face of the moral decay of the nation under the PPP/Jagdeo administration, Guyanese must ask themselves how many more inconvenient truths they must endure. Is there a leader (I don’t mean anyone from the evil twins, the PPP and PNC) among the Guyanese population with a strong nationalist fervour and fire in his or her belly who can save this country from becoming a failed state and tell his fellow countrymen that better days are ahead? Is there?
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Jason
