Dear Editor,
In Sydney Pollack’s 1993 film adaption of best-selling author John Grisham’s book “The Firm”, when Gene Hackman tells Tom Cruise to grab a Red Stripe Beer from the fridge, millions of viewers would have been introduced to this alcoholic beverage from Jamaica, already famous across the globe as a result of Reggae and Bob Marley (Usain Bolt came much later). I seem to recall also a line given to Sean Connery by the author of the James Bond series Ian Fleming, asking a barman to, “Give me the good stuff, the Demerara rum’. Knowing that Fleming wrote all his novels from his villa in Jamaica, it is significant that the author chose to refer to our spirits rather than that of his host country Jamaica, which over time, has managed to produce some fine rums also.
I was therefore a bit ecstatic when I learnt last week that the story line in the latest in the series of Tom Clancy books, with the central character Jack Ryan Jr, is based on the discovery of an oil field off the coast of Guyana and the international intrigue and drama that ensues. The book is called “Line of Demarcation”, which seems to be an allusion to a core issue surrounding the oil exploration and exploitation activities in Guyana’s offshore maritime space.
To put this into perspective, this is way more than a line in a movie: millions of readers will be continually exposed to Guyana for the duration of the story, as the plot of the book is set here. So Guyana is currently enjoying a high profile in international politics and business – and now, it would seem, the literary world. This is in lockstep with the favourable exposure that Guyana and President Ali have been getting in the international media and the profile within the international community that our country currently enjoys, of an oil-rich developing country whose economy is the fastest growing in the Western Hemisphere.
With the plot of the book involving big business interests and narco-terrorists, it is possible that the chicanery and corruption would spill over to the host country as the story unfolds. But movies like “Clear and Present Danger” and Luc Besson’s “Colombiana” make direct reference to drug trafficking in Colombia, without the sky falling in, or the country collapsing for that matter – in other words, in these instances the positive publicity outweighs the negativity of international narco-trafficking.
The UK Telegraph newspaper, in the headline of a December 26 story by its Economics editor, on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies, predicts that “Britain’s economy to be ‘closer to Guyana…’. The story, while not complimentary of the British Prime Minister, is nevertheless an indication that we are “running in the big league”. Given this kind of positive international profile and exposure that we are enjoying at present, why would a government, at this current soaring trajectory in its development agenda, want to willingly throw its financial and other support behind a private sector-led high-risk venture, in the uncertain area of dark tourism?
Is it not the case that the same amount of resources and collaboration could be channeled into already emerging low-hanging fruit in the areas of adventure and sports tourism, such as the Rupununi Rodeo – unique in the Caribbean – or the Bartica Regatta? Why not spend those same resources and offer support in the form of tax and other incentives to these on-going activities, to effectuate improvements in the areas of infrastructure, accommodation and transportation options? I notice that legislation was recently tabled to establish a Guyana Horse Racing Authority, a sport that could certainly benefit from Government’s support, in so far as this legislation would address the challenges that currently exist within the administration of the sport.
I had elsewhere proposed, somewhat with my tongue in my cheek, that the nascent illegal horse cart racing and bird racing could both benefit from government intervention. Culturally, Georgetown could by now have become the “duck curry capital”, with the annual competition attracting much interest and participation from the Region. The Rockstone Fish Extravaganza and the Pork Knocker Day Celebrations, of importance to our indigenous and rural populations, could also benefit from an injection of capital and other forms of support from both the public and private sectors.
I wonder if M.P. Woodward, the current author of the Jack Ryan series, spared a line or two on Jonestown in his latest book, which is due out next May. If he did, I would be surprised…
Sincerely,
Neville Bissember
