OPINION: Guyanese impostors, Exxon’s assassins

Last Updated on Sunday, 21 July 2024, 19:30 by Writer

by GHK Lall

Whenever America plants its flag in underdeveloped countries, it usually succeeds in recruiting a special kind of local, starting with a leader, to push their program. Some of the locals are detectable immediately, others take time. When they are found out, realization comes about how low some Guyanese have sunk, how slick Exxon is, and what this does to Guyana.

Something was lacking, not quite on the up and up. I picked this up after the first inputs. This was more the work of a crass propagandist than an analyst. Still, I erred. It was more than a PPP propagandist doing media infiltration work for Freedom House, the Guyana Government, Office of the Vice President. Lo and behold, it was a paid propagandizer for Exxon. How low can one stoop to be an American stooge? How far could anyone calling himself or herself a Guyanese go to parrot the exploiter’s messages? It takes a special breed to covet such an undertaking, then deliver it. Moral subversion, I think. If not, then I believe wanton caprice is involved.

The pretense was of a finance presence. I hummed a song from long ago: May each day be a good day. For sure, it is not Andy Williams, but there is that haunting, yearning strain to it. A finance man or one financed by Exxon to tout how good it is to Guyanese. This is what Exxon seemingly engaged a Guyanese to peddle its profanities across Guyana. In the hands of the one from Exxon, and as fed the company’s curious facts and figures, its sly narratives and numbers, profanities were transformed into pregnant promise. The gospel of Exxon proclaimed a bright, sparkling future for all Guyanese. PPP strongholds were specially selected for this missionary of Exxon’s to preach American capitalist truths massaged into what is mouthwatering. Money plenty, more money coming. Only the naïve and gullible fell. Only the willfully blind, the believed dumb swooned. Exxon being the multinational that it is, an oil powerhouse of global stature, then sent its willing messenger over to join with other Guyanese to reach and indoctrinate and impress the Guyana diaspora scattered throughout the USA. It’s a cushy job for those willing to take it. There are always such double shufflers, dealers.

Further, the pretext under which the separation was trundled into the public view also smelled of fish. Who cut ties first? That is the puzzle. It is not a complex one. I have rubbed shoulders in the workplace, in restaurant and bars, and on planes, with these always-on-the-move, always-angling-for-an-advantage, Americans so I know a little about how they operate. Thus follows the short and sweet version: they don’t work well with the unpredictable. They quickly retreat from hired hands who are uncontrollable. The more junior and disposable, the quicker the boot is applied to the behind. It is my belief that the Yanks made the first move and delivered the first blow: off with the head. Down with the upstart. Trouble is outed. Yes, I know that it isn’t pretty, but it is called damage control, cutting losses before things really get out of hand. This is what happens when the help becomes radioactive, working relations poisoned.

All this has relevance, because my concern is how many Guyanese are busy tying bundle with Exxon behind our backs (as they may be inclined to believe) and helping the company to keep Guyanese down, while helping themselves to the company’s lavish generosity. Stretch limos, 5-star hotels, first class airfare, top shelf libations, and prime cut steaks from Gibsons’ or Smith & Wollensky’s or Peter Lugar’s are only the beginning. Meanwhile a once poor country and its still poorer masses of people are betrayed, sabotaged, and sold a pig in a poke about how good Exxon is to this nation. If somebody were to tell me that that has eerie ripples of the enslavers’ chants during the era of chattel slavery, I would be the first to agree. As one example, the slaves never had it so good. As a second one, the slaves are happy: they have food, clothing, and housing. And for the sweet topping on the cake: they got civilization and Christianity, table manners and how to mind manners, before their superiors. This puts the matter beyond the shadow of any concern about care and compassion.

Except that such a practice isn’t called slavery anymore. Nor do they call it the successor cultures of conquest and colonialism. They call it contract clauses and conditions. And man, are those binding and shackling and hobbling, or what! This is what enslaves our people, the Guyanese people. This is what has ensnared and will ensnare more of the willing army of cheap Guyanese subversives ready to join with Exxon and pull the wool over the eyes of their own brothers. They have a right to work for whomever. But I call them impostors. Fraudsters and 6-4-9 Guyanese. Last, I wonder how many 30-pieces-of-silver-men there are in this country working for Exxon. Nice move, Exxon! Guyanese had better come to their senses quickly about who is who here, or it will get still uglier.