Very early in the day of their term, which finally started in Aug 2020, VP Jagdeo articulated the PPP’s policy on the rate of production of oil that’s most feasible for our country’s development. The “depletion policy”, as it’s called, was simple: get it out from under the Atlantic as fast as we can, and pocket our 14.5%! But we all know the woke brigade woke up and – safely ensconced in the developed countries that became so by burning fossil fuels for two hundred years!! – came out of the woodwork to not just denounce the policy, but to demand we leave the oil under the Ocean!!
One of the latter just penned another (poetic!) letter to explain why we should do that: “But fossil (and all fossil extractives) are not mere commodities. Economic development (if there is any) must be weighed while acknowledging the symbiotic relationship with the ecosphere. One must quantify any disastrous fallout. Everything is connected…(as per) the wisdom of Chief Seattle: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected, like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
So, this interconnectedness is our responsibility when the country the fella migrated to and dumped Guyana for wiped out Chief Seattle and his people to pump oil from under their reservations?? And continue to do so whichever FRACKING way they can!! And haven’t kept their “commitment” to help wean poor countries like ours off fossil fuels??
Now, the only rational reason you’d want to pump oil out slower is if we can sell it at a higher price in the future – we’d be stretching out, and even increasing, your income stream. More bang for the fuel!! But since the woke brigade have ramped up their activism to ensure that prices aren’t going to rise, isn’t it best to take the money now and put it in the bank??
And from everything the developed countries are doing – from G7 and G20’s refusal to give their word to stop producing fossil fuel – to them even drilling more wells, like Britain in the North Sea – we gotta be a bunch of morons to take the world’s burden on our shoulders like a modern Atlas!! The law of this world is “Look out for #1, baby!!’ And that’s why the West’s guiding philosopher of economic development wrote “Atlas Shrugged” more than half a century ago.
The developed world followed her advice, dropped the world’s burden off their shoulders, and lived happily ever after!!
Why shouldn’t we?? Drill baby, drill!!
…with democracy
We invented this thing called “elections”, where – after much struggle – all adults vote for “Representatives” who’d make decisions on their behalf on matters confronting the nation. And as we know, this can get messy sometimes – especially when you got a party like the PNC!! They invented “party paramountcy” and a 28-year-old dictatorship as an alternative!!
But as Churchill – the veteran British politician – once pointed out in a debate in Parliament after WWII! “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government, except all other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Now, whatever we may think of that old arch colonialist, we gotta admit his advice is solid. He was talking to “his own”.
Even those fanatic, PNC myrmidons gotta admit Burnham’s excesses plunged us below Haiti with his experiments and excesses!!
…reducing road fatalities
Yesterday’s papers alone reported five road fatalities. And your Eyewitness asks, “How many more, Jah…how, how many more??” – as he raises his hands to the skies and hopes someone up there is listening. Clearly, Guyanese motorists aren’t.
