Dear Editor,
I wrote the other day that somebody is taking Guyanese for jackasses. Upon reconsideration jackass is too mild, too delicate. There is that development from Exxon of US$500 million as the maximum for any one problematic incident ensuing from oil. These men and women chortle to themselves of being able to do whatever they please with Guyanese and get away with it. Local politicians think that Guyanese are jackasses or reduce them to that level; now Exxon behaves as though it is dealing with the braindead. Only in Guyana and to docile (don’t keh damn) Guyanese could US$500 million be bandied about as the maximum cap per oil accident, leak, rupture, or spill, that leads to the catastrophic. For Exxon to finalize US$500 million as its liability ceiling per incident, and Guyanese politicians to go along with that, and sell it to us, should be made a serious offence. No Guyanese should be taking this level of crap from Exxon and its rolling-on-its-belly partner, the PPP Government.
US$500 million is insulting, pulsates with the infuriating. The one blowout in the Gulf of Mexico led to a chain of tragedy-filled cataclysms. It compelled BP to shell out close to US$150 billion in liability obligations for loss of life and damage to the environment. But here is Exxon in Guyana proudly and provocatively announcing its half a billion per incident, as though it is the largest number in the world. Should there be a severe enough oil incident how many Guyanese does US$500 million cover for what could be loss of life or losses for a lifetime? Is it 500? What about if it is 5000 or 15,000 or 50,000 from any single such incident? How about the damage to the Guya-nese economy and the impacts on the Guyanese way of life? Guyana Country Head Alistair Routledge and Guyana head oilman Bharrat Jagdeo love to emphasize how much Exxon is contributing to the Guyanese treasury. These two men like to insist about what a change in the dastardly 2016 contract would do to Exxon if there was so much as a speck of difference to it. In both instances, the numbers are unimaginable.
Any Guyanese politician, any Guya-nese parliamentarian, any Guyanese citizen, who endorses this amount touched up by a million here and there, and now dumped on the people of Guyana is a betrayer. The lives, the existence, the continuity of Guyanese cannot be worth this number that is so paltry that it mocks them all. US$500 million spits upon them. Somebody did a calculation of minimum wage, standard of living, quality of life, and so forth, and concluded that US$500 million would be a bonanza should an incident blast its way into local consciousness. At an exchange rate of GY$200: US$1, Routledge and Woods are patting themselves on the back that they are the best thing that ever happened to dumb, passive Guyanese. Jagdeo is giving them reassurances that there is nothing to worry about; he will sew up his side of the bargain by getting his people to cheer.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
