Dear Editor,
Reference is made to the June 10th headline: “Civil society group tenders range of questions to EPA over Exxon’s proposed fourth well.” It is why I never give up hope, though there are times when it fades perilously. There are Guyanese that are genuinely concerned, even outraged at what has been meted out to this country by Exxon, and they evidence such with their names and signatures placed in that “list of detailed questions sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” on the “Yellowtail Project.” Answers wanted.
I always knew that there are Guyanese-young, mature, educated, working up the educational ladder, and others – who cared about what was/is happening here between Exxon and Guyana. Now I am upbeat that the concerned Guyanese that are there, have moved to assert their interests, and possible anxieties, in a most public manner; that civil society activists have lent their pen and voices add muscle to what could flare (no pun ended) into a mushroom of Guyanese participation. Guyanese participation that can be cooperative or hostile; Guyanese engagement that can be probing and sustained. And Guyanese stances that brooks no pro forma attitude or action on the part of the hamstrung and impotent local EPA. Like the man once did say: it is time to put up or shove off, meaning that the EPA had better get real and not try any dodgy stratagems. Or in Guyanese idiom, try to sell these interested Guyana, and the nation by extension, a pig in a bag.
In my mind, prolonged citizenship agitation was always the 10-ton gorilla in the room. It worked, through suspect political tactics for parking meters, so I am delighted that this same energy may be stirring for the all-important issue of oil and its safe and sensible (ethical also) management. This is the nuclear fear of America’s Exxon and Guyana’s questionable leaders, while they wreaked havoc with the sinister oil dealings going on here in project after project. The Yellowtail Project and public Guyanese reaction can be, and must be, the make-or-break development that paves the way forward for oil and Guyana. It no longer must be left to untrustworthy politicians, who conspire with domestic and foreign elements to hide oil truths from citizens, who depend on naïve supporters to back them come what may, who take advantage of opposition malaise, and who capitalize on hitherto national indifference relative to this seductive oil wealth. Let this be the groundswell that ripples and crests unceasingly with Guyanese standing up, Guyanese speaking out, and Guyanese letting the corridors of power in Houston and Robb Street (PPP) and Sophia (PNC) that this nonsense has to stop; and that they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
This small beginning of “a list of detailed questions” for the EPA could be the fateful first step of our long journey to bring some semblance of sincerity (and sanity) to Guyana’s oil that has been lacking from the first hour of the first day. The project’s selected name of ‘Yellowtail’ is fatefully chosen. Like that of a scorpion, it can come back to sting some powerful people into some form of sensible submission. By people I mean the captains of Exxon’s dangerous and rapacious commerce, and the chieftains of Guyana’s political webs of deceptions and scurrilousness. For whatever it is worth, I give unconditional permission for my name and signature to be attached to that list of questions. My position has always been this: on whatever is nationally worthwhile, I will join with any vision, any presence, any force with objectives for what is better for all.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall