You found out that your backyard has gold. Someone comes along and tells you he can dig up your gold. So you sign a contract with him that stipulates you are only entitled to 10 percent of your own gold. The gold digger finds 10,000 bars of gold, therefore according to the provisions of the…
I recommend the article written by Ann Usher on ‘Indigenous groups in Guyana raise alarm over historic issuance of carbon credits by Norwegian-funded certifier’, Development Today, 23 December 2022. Available at: https://development-today.com/archive/dt-2022/dt-9-10—2022/indigenous-groups-in-guyana-raise-alarm-over-historic-issuance-of-carbon-credits-by-norwegian-funded-certifier. Development Today describes itself as ‘a free-standing journal covering Nordic aid, produced with no grants from donors or NGOs. Our journalism is funded by…
A prudent homeowner, who wanted to sell his house, would gauge what is a fair asking price by surveying the sale price for other houses in his neighbourhood. It would spin in his mind for years, if after the sale, he discovered that he had sold his house for a large discount to what a…
On December 8th, 2024, ExxonMobil Guyana claimed that they “adhere to the highest ethical standards and are committed to transparency and integrity in all our dealings”. They do not! On the contrary, ExxonMobil Guyana does not even consistently comply with the law. ExxonMobil rejected a valid penalty for a polluting spill, and did not pay. It waited instead until a…
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana Must Become Oil-Minded – Column 123 – March 9, 2024 A royal storm A letter by Professor Kenrick Hunte appearing in the press earlier this week generated a wave of conversation across the society. Essentially, the Professor claimed that Guyana has been receiving Royalty of about a quarter…
OGGN’s mission is to educate and bring pressure to bear on Guyana’s policy makers to make sure the oil curse doesn’t happen in Guyana. You can learn more about OGGN at www.oggn.org/about, and you can also learn about the many issues with respect to our oil in the recently launched OGGN Magazine at https://www.oggn.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/OGGN-2022-Winter-Magazine.pdf. This week the…
Melinda Janki asks some pertinent questions about the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for ExxonMobil’s Liza Phase 1 project. She identifies ‘data deficiencies’ in the profiling of marine species, compares the EIA to the requirements stipulated in Guyana’s Environmental Protection Act and analyses the oil spill scenarios in the EIA against the benchmark the actual spill…
The argument has been advanced that the reason PNC rigged all elections (1968 – 1985) goes like this: Why not? If PNC didn’t rig, then PPP with its Indian numerical majority base would win all elections – and they (PNC) would be kept out of power forever. Sounds like good logic in an environment where…
Introduction Last week’s column advanced the view that Guyana’s membership of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a crucial plank in the institutional governance architecture being designed for managing its impending oil and gas extraction industry. I summed up my evaluation of seeking EITI membership as a necessary, but not sufficient basis for securing…
On social media, one can find many speeches by members of parliament debating the 2020 budget for Guyana. The budget outlines the allocation of money to the major activities that keep the country running. Issues such as how much will be spent on health care to the amount of dollars pensioners will receive are determined…
