Guest Comment By Christopher Ram
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. December 9, 2024: Thanksgiving made its presence felt in Guyana with the Black Friday sale eagerly awaited by shoppers splurging on things they don’t need because they will save on Black Friday spending. The idea is an incident of Thanksgiving – a day set aside by Americans for gratitude, celebration and celebration of their blessings and abundance.
This column can report that the celebration took on a uniquely Guyanese flavor in the boardrooms of Exxon and Hess. On their table, the centerpiece was not just a golden turkey foamed in Guyana oil, but the entire country of Guyana, steaming from its golden-brown oil wealth, its aroma attracting corporate vultures and shareholders to surround the party. All this was made more luxurious by a phalanx of politicians, professionals, regulatory bodies and the national cricket franchise providing the stuffing – a mix of ingredients that ensured the carving went on smoothly, without any hiccups along the way.
A holiday of broken promises
Ahead of the 2020 elections, Guyana’s current president and vice president railed against the sale of national heritage ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC. They promised to renegotiate terms to ensure justice, national benefit and justice. But once in power, these lofty promises were quietly dissolved, replaced by chants of the “sanctity of the contract.”
Today, Guyana faces its own existential threats. While the weapons are not smallpox, blankets and muskets, environmental degradation from oil spills and gas flaring poses similar risks to national health. Economic exploitation through a crooked contract depletes the nation’s wealth as much as land theft impoverishes native nations. Adding cruel irony to injury, Guyanese citizens now face deportation from the United States under harsh immigration policies – forced to return to a homeland whose resources are being mined by American corporations.
Politicians as filler
As any Thanksgiving host knows, stuffing is essential to turkey. At Exxon’s table, a mix of political, legal and regulatory actors ensured that the party remained undisturbed, with each component playing its part in this corporate banquet of exploitation. Here are biographies of some of these players.
Politicians: Guyana’s political class forms the basis of bland and spineless filler particles, without substance, but quick to absorb corporate arguments. These include leaders who once promised renegotiation but now serve Guyana like a turkey on a plate, parroting Exxon’s line of scaring off investors and tarnishing Guyana’s reputation. Their evolution from protector to enabler was the toast of the occasion.
Prosecutor General: Like spicy sausage, it adds energy and legality to the filling. The AG’s role goes beyond passivity to active protection. In court actions challenging the environmental and contractual terms of oil operations, he often appears as a disguised lawyer for the oil companies, wrapping corporate interests in the language of national benefit.
EPA: it is like celery without crispiness, stringy and empty, having lost its voice, its brain and its direction. It fails to hold Exxon accountable for environmental risks, leaving citizens to face the risks of oil spills, fires, and ecological degradation. Its vulnerability to environmental threats speaks volumes for institutional capture.
Professionals and civil society: Most are like dried cranberries, adding a sheen of professionalism, patriotism and independence as they help draft contracts, massage numbers and engage in creative writing to perpetuate the status quo. Only a rare few – willing to risk a plate on the table – stand up for the humans, offering a faint but vital glimmer of resistance.
Amazon Warriors and their supporters: At the national sports stadium, cricket fans wave at foreign cricketers wearing Exxon shirts along with the Golden Arrowhead – nationalism is slowly drowning in a sea of corporate brands.
Guyana on the table
The turkey itself – Guyana’s oil wealth – is as large as it is vulnerable. With billions of barrels in recoverable reserves, the country must be poised for transformative development. However, the terms of the contract leave Guyana with only a share of the profits, while requiring the nation to reimburse the oil companies for their expenses, including taxes paid abroad.
No Thanksgiving celebration is complete without a drink, and Exxon and Hess have the perfect accompaniment: light sweet Guyana Brut. Former minister Raphael Trotman once said it is “so sweet you can almost drink it”. And drink it, Exxon and Hess do it straight from the source, savoring every drop as the Guyanese have no idea of their operations and how they managed to give up their sovereignty. To them, Guyana’s oil is not just crude oil to be refined, but the driver of profits and dividends for Americans and crumbs for Guyanese.
A new threat to sovereignty
Now American lawyers seek to practice their trade in Guyana, in violation of the Local Content Act and national and regional agreements governing the training and practice of lawyers. This reflects historical patterns of outside forces seeking to dominate Guyana’s resources and institutions. Such an incursion would cripple local legal services and undermine the very laws meant to protect the country. Like the Exxon contract, this request represents another attempt to erode Guyana’s sovereignty under the guise of progress and partnership.
A call to courage
Contracts are not holy texts. They are tools created by humans to be revised when they fail to serve the greater good. Guyana’s leaders should be excused from serving on the Thanksgiving holiday to fulfill their sacred duty as custodians of the nation’s sovereignty and resources. To end the epicurean analogy, Guyana needs more vegetarians who don’t want to partake in Exxon’s feast. As Exxon & Co carve up Guyana’s wealth and politicians line up as ingredients, vegetarians stand apart, untempted by this gluttonous banquet. Their conscience, like their diet, refuses to consume that which is polluted by exploitation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Christopher Ram is a Guyanese accountant and lawyer who has been an outspoken critic of the unfair Stabroek Oil contract that Guyana signed with Exxon and its partners. He teaches at the University of Guyana.
