Dear Editor,
In his speech at the sod turning ceremony for the construction of a new stadium at Palmyra, President Irfaan Ali said that ‘hypocrites’ is the ideal term to define Guyanese who have been critical of his government’s management of the oil and gas sector and its stewardship of the environment. The President spoke just after the Vice President Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who said persons with ulterior motives should stop hiding behind titles such as environmentalists and biologists.
Mr. President and Vice-President, we are not your enemies. We are grassroots women across race and from several communities. We vote for and support different political parties, including the PPP. We may not always see eye to eye on issues, but we don’t let party politics come between us and the work we do in communities. It has never prevented us from coming together to talk about issues that affect us as Guyanese and as grassroots women. Does asking questions about oil and gas make us hypocrites? ExxonMobil and its partners are drilling, finding and producing oil in Guyana at an alarming rate. As grassroots women who are mothers, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, nieces, we have to do our part in protecting our country and our resources.
Given the history of oil pollution and spillage around the world, who can blame anyone for believing that it is only a matter of time before accidents happen? We do not hold any degrees where the environment is concerned, and none of us went beyond secondary education, but we have learned from the experiences of other oil producing countries how much money it will take to clean up the environment after an oil spillage.
Does being concerned about our country and our environment make us hypocrites?
When we ask ExxonMobil to guarantee that they will pay all the remaining costs after the insurance company payout in the event of an accident, so that cleanup costs do not fall on the Guyanese taxpayers for generations to come, does that make us hypocrites?
When we try to learn about oil and gas and ask for this conversation about Guyanese resources, our resources, to be in language that everyone can understand and not the technical language that we feel is designed to keep most Guyanese out of the conversation does that make us hypocrites?
When we ask about what is happening to the fishermen and their families, does that make us hypocrites? When we speak out about the cost of living that is bleeding us dry, does that make us hypocrites? We are not hypocrites. We are Guyanese grassroots women who will keep insisting that our voices must be heard because we know that the oil and gas industry has a direct impact on our lives and the lives of our children and great grandchildren. Who feels it knows it and we’re feeling it already. Red Thread has decided to hold a monthly vigil outside of the Office of the President, every first Wednesday of each month from 12pm-1pm, to insist on the right to be heard. We are inviting everyone to come stand with us. The next vigil will be on Wednesday April 5th, 2023. This is not about party and race. This is about One Guyana, a place for all Guyanese.
Yours sincerely,
Wintress White, Susan
Collymore, Joy Marcus, Halima
Khan, Jonel Perreira, Norma
Adrian, Maeve Ramsay, Shirley
Ault, Michelle John
