Dear Editor,
A number of emerging countries’ economies have experienced a massive boom in wealth and investment over the past two decades. Yet, most ordinary people in those societies live in dire poverty, with stagnant life expectancy and high unemployment, and in societies with low levels of manufacturing and heavy industry. One only has to reflect on Guyana and one can observe that the GDP per capita expanded by almost 400% in the last two decades; yet, today, four out of every 10 Guyanese have serious challenges eating two proper meals and “surviving on an income of US$1.75 per day, or G$10,494 per month” (source: GBPI). For the roots of these conditions of “under-development,” the best historical account of why these things are happening can be found in Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” (1972). This book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand what is about to happen to Guyana because of this lopsided anti-Guyanese oil contract signed between the Granger cabal and the international developers.
The core of Rodney’s analysis rests on the assumption that Africa has been crucial to the growth of capitalism in Europe. What he terms “underdevelopment” was in fact the product of centuries of exploitation. Rodney conclusively shows that “Europe” – that is, the imperial powers – did not merely enrich their own empires, but actually reversed economic and social development in Africa. Thus Rodney, in his book, showed how Europe built immense industrial and colonial empires on the backs of African labour, but in the process devastated African natural resources and African societies. As he emphasises throughout the book, “it would be an act of the most brazen fraud to weigh the social amenities provided during the colonial epoch against the exploitation and arrive at the conclusion that the good outweighed the bad.” Thus when Mr Raphael Trotman rolls out the trinkets, such as “UG will get G$100 million for training and development”, he was clearly acting like a “slave agent”. As he imprisons a nation for the journey on this ship that will lead to full exploitation, in his mind he is sprinkling a few trinkets here and there to settle the natives. What Mr Trotman has not told the nation is that the annual sales from this operation, when it peaks around 2024, would be close to G$2.2 trillion (G$2,200,000 million). Multiplied over the life of the Stabroek Block of 20 years, UG will be getting 0.0002% of the total sales over the life of the investment. We can now understand why Mr Trotman can make such an infantile statement as “releasing the contract was not good for business”, as he was quoted by the Press in November 2017.
Then, a month after, he was quoted as saying, “We are satisfied with the oil contract bonus”. But when you review the details of the contract, Guyana is expected to walk away with 12.5% of the oil sales; but out of that 12.5%, Guyana has to pay the taxes, the transportation cost, and the marketing fee, which is projected to provide a net benefit to Guyana of under 8% of the oil sales until the initial investments are recovered.
This recovery process can last anywhere from 10 to 12 years. Guyana’s share of all those trillions until the investment is recovered will be less than a billion Guyana dollars a year in the first 10 years. Guyana has a G$250 billion budget in 2018, and that was thrown in for context.
But is the Government satisfied to sell the nation this lopsided deal? I wonder why. Is the reason that a newly wedded wife of a minister is on the payroll of one of the developers at a price tag of G$30 million per year? Are we experiencing a situation where certain cabal has sold out the people of Guyana for personal enrichment, with the direct consequences being the underdevelopment of a nation?
Sincerely,
Sasenarine Singh