The meat we eat – municipal disgrace
Yes man. Of course! It is still “our” oil. Even though Raphael Trotman was influenced or instructed to sign off on a most lopsided, foreign-company, agreement in 2016. When the Brigadier-President’s administration was just beginning to feel real authority. And power.
So what makes those hydrocarbon resources – gas inclusive – “ours” if we ourselves do not harvest the resource? Well it’s the same principle of “ownership” that rendered past generations silent when our bauxite ore – earning multiple millions – was being mined, managed and being shipped out by the Canadians. Even now “others” continue that but still the bauxite is “ours”. Right?
During the first two/three years of this now near-30-year old column, late owner Editor-in–Chief David de Caires used to – teasingly – refer to `a Fenty waffle’. I hope not to be vague with these brief observations. Which actually might not be that original. For even as I’ve misplaced a quote from a Stabroek News (SN) editorial which I appreciated, a Ronald Bostwick letter in SN last Friday beat me to it with his very reasoned analysis and request related to our oil and gas status. And the dilemma initiated by the Brigadier-President’s administration’s mighty misstep in 2016.
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Our oil genesis – fears and hope
Simply recorded here, the late President Janet Jagan is said to have been overly generous in permitting ownership of numerous oil blocks when little interest seemed to be there.
By 2015 oil was definitely detected with the consequential give-away agreement in 2016. Knowing the legality and sanctity of such (international) agreements and contracts why did V-P Jagdeo’s PPP promise to re-negotiate the 2016 blunder when they were campaigning for possible election in 2019/2020? A few Africans states did boot out a few oil companies but how have they fared since? Mind you re-negotiation can happen if ever an oil giant knows it will still be reaping whirlwinds of profit on investments. I have some gut feeling that Exxon and its subsidiaries are not such.
Yet, the poorly-negotiated Exxon “deal” is still slated to earn us millions as the companies reap billions over the years. Now I must inform myself about the announcement (by the venerable V-P) that more (new) oil blocks are to be “auctioned” off to competing bidders. How? We should not now have new fears of being short-changed after the costly Exxon lesson. Agreed?
Correspondent Ronald Bostwick, to me, has been easy to read and is persuasive explaining all the advantages Exxon wrested from the Brigadier President’s men. Other critics still point to dormant legislation we can (?) still evoke.
Frankly speaking, even as Mr. Bostwick hopes that even Exxon should not welcome a local groundswell of “instability and an entire nation harbouring feelings of ill will against them”, I doubt if those dudes now care about “making some negotiated fair-play adjustments.” Poor us.
It’s human nature to wonder about or “what would have been.” If only (?) I recall the Brigadier- President Granger declaring 20th December National Petroleum Day and vowing that the petroleum revenues would be “managed prudently for present and future generations” all part of his “good life for all” vision. Poor Brigadier. Still many wonder: What’s in it for us?
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Slaves, but women-warriors
It’s sometimes the spirit that counts. Hope springs eternal in human “breasts” so that often that hope is made manifest in action against all odds.
I wind down my Emancipation Month contributions on this page by merely – but forcefully – summarising Professor Vereen Shepherd’s reminder of the aggressive role of many slave-women, alongside their men, in attacking slavery.
Shepherd recounts female day-to-day strategies to subtly undermine slave-owners’ economic undertakings; the powerful support to male rebels in Guyana’s Clonbrook uprising when imprisoned women waved handkerchiefs whilst declaring: “Negra mek bucka run teday!”
So, the Professor advises, we must explore the roles of Nanny of the Jamaican Maroons; about Susanna (1823 Demerara Uprising); about Annemary, Comba, Nellie (Fort Zeelandia) and Nanny Grigg (Barbados slave heroine). Do the research ladies. Educate today’s uninformed men.
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Oh my! That meat we eat…
This newspaper, earlier this month, revealed that even the old outdated Georgetown abattoir had ceased processing carcasses of cows since a company’s crane wrecked much of that facility many, many months ago? How many meat-eaters were aware that cattle owners and butchers now travel to small slaughter houses way out of the city?
Vegetarians must be smiling. Why bother with red-meat and pork, they wonder. I try my best to ease off but it’s a challenge. Equally disturbing in that article was to discover the administrative chaos reigning at City Hall. Even the mayor had no update on any new abattoir. Poor us.
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Points still to ponder…
1) I must approach Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton to explain how come hundreds of miles of the Atlantic is still Guyana. Why? That comrade is qualified on “The Law of the Sea”.
2) Coming soon: How the PNC is transposing the elections rigging character onto the PPP.
3) In Mexico scores of students were abducted and killed (?). Boko Haram in Nigeria routinely kidnaps female students. Those men are still human?
4) The police sergeant–accuser’s own character will also be delineated during any inquiry.
5) Whatever became of Cheddi “Joey” Jagan?
6) Some good news: Congrats to our robotics and body building teams on their substantial overseas victories.
Til next week!
