Dear Editor,
I read about Minister Harmon petitioning ExxonMobil for help in restoration efforts for Georgetown.
As someone who has lived many years in the United States of America and is knowledgeable of the culture, I believe the minister showed poor judgement by asking the company for help. ExxonMobil is an American company and Americans don’t like to be asked for money (handouts). By asking ExxonMobil for help, the minister put the company in a compromising position.
I don’t believe the minister and Guyanese see it as a handout. In Guyana, asking for money is a normal part of life but not so in America. Americans despise it and look down on beggars. I don’t think the minister understood this difference between the two countries. If he did, he would not have asked for the help. However, the minister can learn from the mistake by hiring more Guyanese-Americans advisers to advise him on Americans’ protocols and cultures.
By asking ExxonMobil for help, the minister has placed the company in a unique, uncomfortable and interesting position. In essence, the company’s back is against the wall. On one hand, if the company makes a donation to the city’s restoration, this can be perceived by the opposition parties and others as lobbying and supporting the government, being in bed with the government and even as unethical.On the other hand, if the company doesn’t provide donations to the city’s restoration, the government may punish the company. In short, ExxonMobil will lose in the end regardless of whether the company chooses to help or not with the city’s restoration.
Editor, I don’t think the minister thought much about the consequences of asking the company for help with the city’s restoration.
Personally, I don’t think the company should donate to the city’s restoration. Let me explain why. It’s unethical, and the company is not responsible for restoring the city. Further, it’ll set a bad precedent for other companies and create a dependency on the company. If ExxonMobil makes a donation to the project, every time there is a project, the government will expect a donation. It is the way it is in our country. To put a stop to the begging for handouts, the company must not make a donation to the project.
While I was sympathetic to the minister because he didn’t know better, others were not so sympathetic. Several bloggers commenting on the article online were not sympathetic but angry with the minister for asking for help. They believe that he should have known better.
Editor, how long are we going to continue asking other nations for financial help. How long are we going to be beggars/takers and not givers, servants not masters, maids not mistresses, borrowers not lenders, buyers not sellers?
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz
