Dutch fairytale amid Guyanese food shortage

Sep 27, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The Dutch are living in a wonderland and one of the key drivers is Guyana’s oil. While the Dutch shipbuilding firm SBM Offshore enjoys a fairytale existence, there is the grinding reality of Guyanese forced to grapple with not having enough food. SBM is a world leader in building Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.

Meanwhile, the regular Guyanese family lives with the irony of the richest people in the world existing in a half-starved condition. A fairytale story for SBM from Guyana’s oil business, and a significant portion of Guyana’s population frantically hustling to get enough food daily.

It is disturbing when foreigners are talking about billions in earnings from this country’s oil, but Guyanese are crying for any help they can obtain from any source to buy basic food items. This is not merely a disconnect, it is a disaster for ordinary citizens running on nothing in a country that is the darling of the local and foreign business world.

“Guyana so far has just been a fairytale, and it happened at about the same time as we launched our Fast4Ward programme, and that positioned us well for a series of Petrobras projects as well.” So said SBM’s CEO Olvind Tangen in a recent interview. He has good reason to celebrate, as he also said, “We are in a very good dialogue with Exxon and they know when it’s a good fit for SBM and themselves, where we unlock value together, that’s normally where we find the opportunities to move forward together.” SBM and ExxonMobil “unlock value together” and “move forward together,” which is good for Mr. Tangen and Mr. Woods of ExxonMobil, holds prosperous potential for both companies. Now, where are Guyana’s political CEOs and what do they have to say about moving this country and its citizens forward? They have said a few things, but nothing that inspires Guyanese that things will be better.

Undoubtedly, the present and future are bright for the private sector and the political players of Guyana. Guyanese are still waiting to share in the benefits of this oil wealth that the world is talking about, and all those involved in it are gushing over. The PPP/C Government has not delivered, has been mostly skimpy with what is best described as a trickling down of the profits from the national oil patrimony. The trickle-down of a small handout here, a little subsidy for gasoline and electricity (among other things), and a few thousand-dollar bills for pensioners and children. A study of the 2024 national budget set asides for Guyanese confirms that what the PPP/C Government, its leaders, and its penny pinchers, have delivered is a study in what is paltry. Guyanese stuck at the bottom of the local economic ladder know this and they are angry. When Guyanese read of foreigners involved in the local oil sector in some supplier relationship boasting of how they are benefiting by the American billions from Guyana’s oil, they get angrier. There is no grudging the foreign business owners when they make their billions, but Guyanese must also participate to the fullest in their wealth. It must be side by side and now, not later and struggling to catch up, which is usually a futile exercise.

Due to punishing local circumstances, there is another irony that has quietly happened in oil rich Guyana. While the country basks in bright statistics, Guyanese are leaving by the thousands to hustle some temporary work in the United States for four to five months a year. Even a menial, minimum wage job in America results in earnings that allow them to return to Guyana and live at a better standard. It is an embarrassment that Guyanese are pushed to hustle for a few months a year in New York and New Jersey for a better life, while foreign contractors involved in the local oil business are celebrating their “fairytale” results and existence. No Guyanese should be struggling with basic food shortage and endure a standard of living that drains the strength out of them. The PPP/C Government knows where the holes are, what it must do. It hasn’t lifted a finger to make a difference and eliminate this national disgrace.