It will doubtless be recalled that the disclosure by ExxonMobil that the long-held belief that large deposits of oil lay within Guyana’s maritime jurisdiction was indeed true, created an unbridled furore here in Guyana. Our earliest confirmed oil find and the confident declaration by ExxonMobil that there was much more to come, created an unforgettable transformed national outlook with regard to a prognosis for the country’s future. Oil banished the ‘Banana Republic’ sobriquet which, over time and on myriad occasions, had been casually thrown into foreign journalistic accounts of what Guyana was. These were authored mostly by men and women whose reference points on Guyana were weighed down by clichés that centred mostly around sugar, slaves, Jonestown and choke-and-rob and who believed that our 83,000-square-mile land mass in a little talked-about corner of South America, had been altogether inappropriately named among a clutch of idyllic spaces in the Caribbean Sea in a regional grouping termed the Caribbean Community or CARICOM.
There had been no doubt that Guyana had come to be seen as ‘the odd man out,’ the ‘spoiler,’ in the region, a place from which its nationals migrated in droves to some other ‘sister’ CARICOM territory or otherwise, ideally, to somewhere in Europe or in North America. Many of those who ‘shifted gears’ to elsewhere, over time, had had to endure the discomfort of being unwanted migrants, people that had turned their backs on a country that had been decidedly unkind to them.
Oil changed much of that. Perhaps most importantly it played a role in helping to lift the gloom and doom associated with the notion that our ‘banana republic’ circumstance was a permanent condition and that wherever we went we would almost certainly be challenged to rid ourselves of the weight of the stigma.
Our oil and gas discovery transformed much of that. Ironically, it was pretty much some of the same western writers who had foisted the ‘banana republic’ humiliation on us that, after 2015, threw themselves into a frenetic ‘back pedal.’ Oil had made us whole again!
The changed perspective was nothing short of dramatic. The fortune-hunters from the metropolis who found their way here to determine for themselves what ‘this oil business’ was all about were vigorously encouraged to leave the stigmas of ‘Jonestown’ behind and instead, begin to appreciate the attractions associated with Guyana’s tourism resources… experiences like the Kaieteur Falls and the country’s modest share of the Amazon Rainforest.
There have been, as well, the ‘home-made’ exalted expectations that gave rise to boisterous bargaining for overnight transformations that would set in motion the immediate change from rags to riches. In some quarters, suddenly, the ‘oil rich’ kingdoms of the Middle East didn’t seem that ‘far away,’ after all.
There had been as well, that brief but frenetic interregnum during which the deluge of demands for an immediate ‘nice-ing up’ of the country extended into widely supported, if fanciful demands for generous ‘advance’ payments on a much more generous subsequent largesse, amounts due as payment for a protracted wait for an unfulfilled El Dorado promise.
There had been a ‘feel good’ period that derived from simply sitting on our oil. It lasted until oil recovery kicked into gear and the domestic business community began to busy themselves with their Local Content pursuits. Here began the gradual unwrapping of the El Dorado ‘dream,’ characterized by the comings and goings of expatriates and the investment in a wave of physical infrastructure which, though far from complete, up to this time, has provided some indication of ‘forward movement.’ Here, roads, tall edifices and promises of ‘more to come’ dominated.
It is, however, the promise, the opportunity, that still looms large, even, still from a distance. These days there sometimes appears to be a clutter of only partially fulfilled promises and elaborate undertakings that often appear to be tumbling over each other.
As befitting our status as an oil-producing country, we have sought to ‘shift gears’ on the international front. Here, it is altogether fair to say that we have secured a much greater level of visibility within CARICOM, a circumstance that derives entirely from our new-found ability to materially contribute to key regional projects. The currently emerging Regional Food Security Facility now underway in Barbados is evidence of this.
The oil and gas sector has already also brought quite a few Heads of government and other state functionaries from the Middle East, Africa, and South America to Guyana.
The clearest example, up to this time, of the country ‘changing gears’ in terms of its foreign policy focus, has been manifested in the diplomatic foothold it has created in the Middle East over a relatively short period.
As we have been finding out, over time, there is a price to pay for our ‘oil wealth.’ Increasingly, fossil fuel recovery continues to be linked to a continually worsening global climate portfolio and Guyana’s still somewhat cluttered (if understandable) climate change posture is a challenge that it will have to confront, going forward. The point to be made at this juncture is that this is not a dilemma that is singular to us.
Still, what oil has done is to bring an end to the whistling-in-the-wind status quo that had underlined the country’s ‘vision’ for going forward. A candid analysis of where we are now, however, makes no secret of the fact that our development trajectory will not be without its testing challenges, going forward.
