Exxon Guyana Country Head – Part 1

Aug 28, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I always knew, constantly said, that Exxon only hires the right people.  The company hires them, indoctrinates them in its culture, and then sets them loose.  Mr. Alistair Routledge, Exxon’s Guyana Country Head, glows as its equivalent of a corporate Goya masterpiece.  It is not theater, but what is sketched on the canvas of real life: Guyanese life.  Mr. Routledge broke his silence, and trilled to the rafters.  In a soprano crescendo, Mr. Routledge, the one unequivocal, unambiguous, and unflinching presence in this country soared in symphonic sparkle about how good Guyana is for foreign investors.  I wanted to say unrighteous presence also, but leave that to others who are more inclined to engage in those verbal fisticuffs.  But what the savvy, street smart, Exxon trained Mr. Routledge achieved was incredible: he blew away several birds with one breath.  One breath and there is no trace of even so much as a feather.

First, Guyana is great for foreign investors, the master manipulator said.  His first audience is the American State Department: take it easy, Big Boy Bharrat has things under control.  For sure, he is on the twilight side, but he is good for business.  Secretary of State, Antony Blinken may shake his head in dismay, but the business of America is business.  So, if the man from Exxon says that Guyana (and Jagdeo) is good for foreign investment business, then that’s all that matters.

Second, when Mr. Mastermind, Alistair Routledge, says about how good Guyana is for foreign investment and investors, what he does rather sweetly is to signal to his brethren in the overseas deep pocket community that Guyana is a free for all.  Just come ladies and gents and it is all up for grabs, thanks to a fine Guyanese gentleman by the name of Bharrat Jagdeo.  It is a predator’s ball, a banquet for any barbarian, whether they like the noun or not.  I prefer the glorious coinage of one of Mr. Jagdeo’s former heroes now hastily distanced from, who was none other than Comrade Zhou en Lai.  I give to my fellow Guyanese: the running dogs of capitalism.  Today, in these politically correct times, they have been rechristened as foreign direct investors.  Thanks, Mr. Routledge, for inviting them to run here, and then run all over the lumpen Guyanese proletariat, and the reengineered petty and sickly and stupidee and dutty bourgeoisie.

For third, that is precisely what the wily Mr. Routledge did to Guyanese.  He ran right over them.  Poor, ordinary, working-class Guyanese.  Indirectly, what Mr. Routledge did was give an endorsement to the PPP as the kind of government that Guyanese must have, as it is so good to foreign money.  Where is the money for the citizens of this country, Mr. Routledge?  Hello, is there still any listening and reading going on over there in Exxon land (local and Texas), Mr. R?

It is astonishing, the audacity of this American.  He is in the right business: oily, greasy, sticky, and messy.  His words confirm all of that; how he comes here and brazenly tells the citizens from the side of his mouth about how good the PPP Government is for investment, which has the subtitle of good for Guyanese.  Could somebody put this great American in a minibus and see him off at the Cheddi Jagan Airport?  I am sure Cheddi would like that, wherever he is today. The other master of the Guyanese realm, Mistah John Hess, likes to croon and drool to his audiences about how democratic Guyana is.  Democratic yes, but for whom? Certainly not the Guyanese people!  Not when there is a small company of traitorous Guyanese brothers and sisters in the office of this and office of that, checking these words and phrases to determine how to shut them down.  Not when Exxon and Hess Corp can brag before the world about how great Guyana is, while a great many citizens of this country are hanging by a thread.  Certainly not when my President, my Minister of Petroleum, and my Opposition Leader have all joined the orchestra of Exxon, singing its notes in high octaves.

Mr. Routledge sings about Guyana’s hospitality to foreign investment.  Where is the local leader that is standing up and singing out aloud about a little bit of benefit for the Guyanese people?  I, Mr. Routledge, welcome all foreign investors to Guyana, but it must be on different terms.  The PNC terms were bad.  The PPP terms are worse.  And the terms of brother and mother and father to foreign investors, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, are indescribably harrowing for Guyanese.  The contract that he defecated upon, he now eats and adds some dressing to make it more palatable to Exxon.

It is why Mr. Routledge could crow about the PPP Government.  In some respects, he is a bigger propagandist for the PPP than the entire party and government machinery.  Mr. Alistair Routledge gives his stamp of approval to the PPP and then he gets going in stamping down on the people of Guyana.  He stamps on them first, continuously, and then deliriously, joyfully.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Kaieteur News.

 

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• Alistair Routledge, capitalism, Exxon, Mr. Jagdeo’s, Mr. Mastermind, the American State Department

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