I applaud Counsel Sanjay Datadin (KN Dec 15) for his courageous warning of the fear that Guyana could become another Angola.
Those of us who studied economics (especially at the post-graduate or doctoral level) would know that Angola (in southern Africa) is a typical illustration of the oil curse (having enormous natural resources and wealth, but has experienced widespread poverty and underdevelopment, lagging growth, and authoritarianism).
As Datadin pointed out, Angola’s wealth from resources in the hundreds of billions of American dollars was looted by corrupt politicians and/or frittered away on white elephants.
Reports from reputable international magazines, journals, and newspapers and the Economist (perhaps the best weekly in the world) expose corruption in Angola and other African countries. The capital Luanda has magnificent towering glass buildings. But benefits hardly redound to the population at large.
One learns about corruption and failed economic policies in Angola and other developing countries from development courses at the post graduate level.
Corruption was confirmed from visits to Portugal as recent as last October when I presented a paper. I was informed about the large investments in real estate in Lisbon and other Portuguese cities, by politically connected families from Angola investing large amounts of wealth in Portugal. They also invested stolen money in London and Paris.
Datadin is so right that a few Angolans got richer while the overwhelming majority got poorer.
As Datadin correctly warned, in Guyana, people are fearful that the new wealth from oil will not filter down to the poor. We are already saddled by a US ten billion dollar bill that was not scrutinised.
In spite of the huge amounts of wealth obtained from our natural resources (bauxite, manganese, gold, diamond, and from our rice and sugar), there is widespread poverty. Some 35% of the population still live below the poverty line and another 40% barely eke out a living. The big guys at the top enjoy the cream of the wealth with virtually nothing for the small man.
Not much will change unless the lower and middle classes wake up and demand their fair share and monitor the oil wealth. The country should heed Datadin’s warning and do everything to avoid the oil curse (in particular new corruption from oil). The authorities should seek expert advice from those of us in the diaspora and in Guyana who have studied the natural resource curse, and how to avoid it.
Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram