…can run, but PNC can’t hide
Some folks in Guyana are really upset at the “deal” we got for our oil under our Atlantic. Your Eyewitness is also teed off. But isn’t it a bit much that the PNC has also joined the chorus?!! Are they so ashamed that it was under their watch we were taken to the cleaners by the oil majors – which include the Chinese CNOOC, which no one mentions! – that they’ve buried their betrayal in their subconscious? That it was Raphael Trotman who traipsed off to Houston with a plum, but, after his “negotiations”, just pulled out his thumb?? He certainly wasn’t a “good boy”!!
But it would appear that the PPP have being given no slack for the basket they were given to fetch greater revenues from the oil production. It’s not just the usual “sanctity of contracts” argument – which makes the Courts look askance at any attempt to change agreements after there’s been a “meeting of minds” – in play. Those who’re demanding “renegotiation” of the contract should take a look at the “stabilisation clause” Trotman agreed to be inserted. This pretty much freezes the status quo and prevents the Government from changing extant laws that would claw back all that was given away. The ABSENCE of such a clause allowed the PPP Government to recently deregulate the telecommunications sector.
If the PPP were to attempt to force renegotiation, the contract also spells out the procedure that has to be followed in the event of any “disagreement” – international arbitration. But here, the deck’s also stacked against contractual changes. Unless we can show that Trotman either took bribes – or was “lacking capacity”, for there to be a real meeting of minds!! One international NGO had recommended that there be an investigation into what went down in Texas when Trotman flew up with his entourage. And they weren’t just talking about the five-star hotel and dining he enjoyed courtesy of the oil company!! Some sleuthing anyone?
But all of this doesn’t stop citizens from working with other NGOs – even the new Exxon shareholder group “Engine No 1”, that just got several seats in the Board of Directors – to get some better terms for Guyana.
After all, the Exxon Mission Statement does exhort the corporation to deal with their clients “fairly”. With the shift in the global view on fossil fuels versus renewables, the oil majors might just flex.
After all they wouldn’t want to be seen bullying tiny, helpless Guyana, would they? Especially courtesy of the renegade PNC!
…want to drink mauby and belch beer
Guyanese not easy. Your Eyewitness recently looked at a video that crossed his feed with utter disbelief. Seems that GuySuCo was giving out 20lb bags of Caribe Rice (not just loose rice in some black plastic bag – but premium parboiled rice!) to some sugar workers somewhere on the East Coast Public Road as “flood relief”. But you had to hear them not only bitch and moan, but actually cussing out GuySuCo for not giving them hampers of “rations”!!
And they spelled out what this meant…flour, onions, potatoes, oil etc. etc!! Now, of course, your Eyewitness has heard of people across the country getting “hampers” of food. Your Eyewitness never inquired as to what were in these hampers…and certainly it wasn’t just rice. But jeez, even though things hard, shouldn’t these fellas have taken what they got with some grace, and explained their situation – rather than cussing their benefactors out??
But it was clear from some of their more pointed comments that the kvetchers were Opposition supporters. And this brings up the point your Eyewitness wants to make.
Isn’t the PNC EVER going to allow their constituency to see the (national) cup half full?
…can collect taxes
G7 – the exclusive club of the world’s top economic heavyweights – just decided it would collect a minimum of 15% taxes on the global corporations that get away with highway (tax) robbery.
Will this encourage our IOCs to flex?
