The O&G conference at the Marriott finished yesterday – but today, the exhibition’s open to the public. Your Eyewitness must compliment the organisers. Guyana’s finally hit the big leagues, and we had to raise our game to deal with folks who’re used to world-class standards. A hint of the tone is offered by just the CLASSIFICATION of its sponsors: Platinum; Diamond; Gold Plus; Gold; Gold Exhibiter; Silver; Bronze; then Partners. They discreetly started with the Gold Sponsorship at $35,000.!! And if you gotta wonder whether it’s US or GY dollars, you really shouldn’t be reading this!! US Greenbacks, of course!! This is OIL business we’re discussing – the last big oil play of the century!! The mind boggles at how much the Platinum sponsors – three notches above gold – had to shell out!!
Folks who wanted to listen to the presentations had to fork over some US$500 a pop – which included three more-than-square meals and all sorts of extras! No black pudding vendors – from Mon Repos OR Buxton, thank you!! But was it fee that you’re the PNC leader fumed he didn’t get a free invite? How come there were so many other Opposition folks from the PNC and AFC? They understand how the modern business world operates and bought tickets!! Who could he want a freebie from when he can’t even be designated “Opposition Leader”? If they’d done so, wouldn’t they have to do the same for Jaipaul Sharma of the Equal Rights and Justice Party (ERJP); Sarabo-Halley of the Guyana Nation Builders Movement (GNBM), Keith Scott of the NFA, and Allicock of GAP? Right now, AFC’s Ramjattan stands higher, since he’s a coalition partner, not IN APNU, but WITH APNU!
Anyhow, like with the Budget – which we can expect will precede it every year – this Conference was “bigger and better”! And it’ll keep on expanding as our oil production balloons and new fields are opened up. Pretty soon, the Marriott mightn’t be able to contain the mega-event this’ll morph into. Luckily, the Pegasus, which was built for these contingencies, will be ready then!! But you, dear reader, might be wondering what this high octane (pun intended!) event’s doing for Guyana.
Well, we’d better understand that the development trajectory we’ve now finally embarked on is hinged on such gatherings. Here, business tycoons the world over are afforded the opportunity to show their wares; meet and network; seal new deals; get a hands-on feel for this still-frontier economic opportunity, and so on. It’s for this reason that every major US city – and some not so major – have one or more “Convention Centers”.
They make our National Stadium look like a hut in a jungle!!
…COVID-19
Well, while Shakespeare has made the most famous Dane of all, Hamlet, to pose the existentialist question of the ages – to be or not to be? – that was six hundred years ago. The modern Dane evidently isn’t given to too much navel-gazing – at least when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Feb 1st, they decided that COVID isn’t a “socially critical disease”! As such, they’ve dropped all restrictions and protocols that were imposed to confront the spread of the virus, that has already taken some 5.85 million lives worldwide!
Now this decision might seem counterintuitive, since Denmark has the highest rate of infection in the world!! But the hospitalisation and death rate have fallen; so, basically, they feel COVID-19 is now ENDEMIC. Meaning they’ve reached a point where they can accept the death and hospitalisation rate – like the world has done with, say, the flu!! The WHO figures the flu kills 290,000 to 650,000 people per year.
Are we accepting our present 3/daily rate?
…from PNC elders
The PNC “Elders” would know Brenton Wood’s greatest hit from the ‘60s – “Just gimmie a little sign (girl)”.
Cause the base is “feeling down (and) wearing a frown” for the leader to be there when they “look around”!!
