By Rawle Lucas
All that glitters is not gold is an aphorism that appeared in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Gold, as well, has been a store of value from time immemorial so that even some imitations of the metal still have some kind of value attached to them. The term fools’ gold seeks to make the point about just how easily people are sometimes inclined to be deceived by outward appearances. In this the age of all forms of manipulation the caution about taking things at face value also applies to information that we may secure from one source or another.
Recently, Guyanese were presented with a report on the performance of the economy from January to June 2023, The Half-year Economic Report. The Report informed Guyanese that the economy had grown by 59.5 percent during the first half of 2023. and the President was happy to be the presenter of the news. The growth was led by the oil and gas industry. When this was excluded the Report informed that the non-oil economy had grown by 12.3 percent, nearly three times the accustomed before the advent of oil.