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FARMSUP Flagship Road Race Cycling event returns on Sunday Aug 21, 2024 Sports Flashback! Paul DeNobrega (center) share podium with Paul Chooweenam and Kemuel Moses at the 2021 edition. Kaieteur Sports – The highly anticipated FARMSUP Cycle Road Race, sponsored by Farm Supplies Limited (FARMSUP), is set to pedal off this Sunday, August 25, promising an exciting and competitive event for both participants and spectators. The race will see cyclists from various categories including Junior’s, Senior’s Veteran’s, Over-50 and Category Four races, competing along a challenging route from McDoom to Timehri and back. The event will commence at 7:00 AM, with the cyclists rolling off from the FARMSUP building located in Rome, McDoom. Participants will start on the Rome Access Road before making a left onto the McDoom Public Road, signaling the official ‘roll start’ of the race. The route is designed to test the endurance and skill of the cyclists. The Junior category participants will turn back at the Soesdyke Junction, while the Senior and other categories will continue further to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (Roundabout) before making their way back to Georgetown. On the return leg, cyclists will navigate the connecting road at Plantation Diamond, near DSL Cash and Carry Store, making a right turn before proceeding onto the Hero’s Highway. As the race nears its conclusion, the cyclists will make a left turn at the penultimate roundabout near the Jaguar statue, with the finish line positioned along the final stretch of road. Lots of individual prizes will be up for grabs. Cash prizes will also be awarded to the top six riders; First place stands at $20,000 (Senior), $15,000 (Vets), $12,000 (Junior’s), and $15,000 (Cat4). Second place finishers will be rewarded as follows; $15,000 (Senior’s), 12,000 (Vets and Cat4), $10,000 (Over 50) and $8000 (Junior’s). Third place purse starts at $10,000 (Senior’s), $9,000 (Cat4 and Vets) and $9,000 (Over 50). Participants are advised to arrive at the FARMSUP building at least 30 minutes before the official start time. This precaution is in place to avoid any delays due to the “Jamzone” activity scheduled for the same day, which may cause increased traffic in the area. Related Similar Articles

‘Not in this lifetime’ – Warner says T&T lacks necessary ingredients to qualify for another FIFA World Cup Aug 21, 2024 Sports Austin “Jack” Warner Kaieteur Sports – If the words of former FIFA vice president Austin “Jack” Warner are anything to go by, then Trinidad and Tobago is basically grasping at straws where qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is concerned. In fact, Warner, known for his blunt personality, is of the view that the Twin Island Republic will not make another appearance at the global showpiece anytime soon, as it lacks a proper football structure and, by extension, competence from a coaching perspective. Even with the increased opportunity opened up by United States, Canada, and Mexico securing automatic berths as hosts, Warner believes this offers very little hope for the Soca Warriors chances. Three teams will qualify directly to join the hosts as Concacaf’s representatives at the World Cup, while another two will have a second chance at qualification through an inter-confederation playoff. Trinidad and Tobago’s lone FIFA World Cup appearance to date was in Germany in 2006. “Let me tell you this, and who is vex well, vex. We will not see a World Cup final in football in our collective lifetime, not even for the one coming up (2026), and remember, I have told you so,” Warner told Andre Errol Baptiste on the ISports radio program last Friday. “We have gotten more chances and more slots to qualify, but our chances will not be better but worse. First of all, we don’t have the talent at the top, and in terms of coaching, we don’t have that will to allow our football players to succeed. We don’t have the competition at the bottom. Ask the average Trinidad and Tobago footballer to name five footballers in the country. He can’t. The average Trini cannot, and something is wrong,” he added. The recent sacking of Angus Eve and the hiring of his assistant Derek King on an interim basis, Warner said, doesn’t help the situation. “I know Derek King very well; he used to coach my club called Joe Public. I know him very well, but Derek King is out of his league. Derek King does not understand the nuances of coaching at the World Cup level, and that is the difference I am talking about. Derek King is not in Leo Beenhakker’s class, so to speak, and England got rid of Gareth Southgate, so what are we doing in terms of this?” Warner questioned. Though it is argued that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) lacks the adequate finances to compensate a high-calibre coach, Warner, a former Minister of National Security, alluded to the possibility of the current government shifting funds around to provide more support for sports. “I recall where sportsmen and sportswomen had to spend their own money attending to injuries. It does not help until we get serious about sports. Nothing from nothing will leave nothing,” he noted. While taking a swipe at corporate companies in Trinidad and Tobago that refuse to render assistance until after the fact, Warner used the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) hiring of Englishman Steve McClaren to drive home his point about national pride. “They will not get corporate support. They (corporate TT) only come at the end. They come at the end, not at the beginning, where they are badly needed,” Warner stated. He continued: “There is no local coach that can take Trinidad and Tobago to the World Cup at this time, and I mean that sincerely, and that is not a criticism. That is a realistic statement; we don’t have it; we just don’t have it. “Jamaica is looking for a top-class coach; they have never considered Dwight Yorke. Look where Jamaica has gone. They don’t have the energy and oil we have, but they have the pride. We don’t have that, and that is the difference.” On another note, the former Concacaf boss expressed optimism that his legal battles regarding a 2015 indictment for corruption, will be behind him soon. “The matter will be thrown out, but it takes time in Trinidad and Tobago. All the colleagues that have been arrested and imprisoned in the United States have since appealed based on the Supreme Court statement and judgment (that prosecutors in the US overreached their boundaries when they applied laws of the United States to groups of people, many of whom are foreign nationals). “I am now waiting to see what will come out of these appeals, and I will take it from there, but I don’t want to say too much on that at this stage, except to say, I am very optimistic,” Warner ended. Related Similar Articles

High-Performance Table Tennis training camp for Guyana Aug 21, 2024 Sports Kaieteur Sports – The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has enlisted high-performance coach Alexandre Gomes to conduct an intensive training camp in Guyana from August 22 to September 4. Table Tennis Coach Alexandre Gomes The training camp is designed for elite-level players with advanced technical skills. While primarily targeting Guyanese players, the GTTA noted that athletes from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica have also expressed interest in participating. According to the GTTA, the primary goal of this camp is to expose national table tennis team members and coaches to advanced training techniques and methodologies. The aim is to enhance the technical, tactical, and strategic abilities of the players, ultimately boosting their performance in competitions. This initiative also focuses on mentoring and preparing the athletes for upcoming tournaments. Additionally, the GTTA hopes to explore a potential long-term partnership with Coach Gomes to support the development of both players and coaches in Guyana. They are considering the possibility of having him stay for an extended period to assist in the preparation of national teams for key tournaments. The training camp will specifically focus on preparing key players Shemar Britton, Natalie Cummings, and Chelsea Edghill, who have qualified for the Pan American Championships in El Salvador from October 13 to 30. Coach Alexandre Gomes is a respected figure in the global table tennis community. His coaching career includes working with top-tier athletes such as Quadri Aruna, a world top-10 player from Nigeria. He has also coached national teams from the USA, China, Europe, and Asia and served as the Head Coach of Peru’s national team for several years. Currently, he is one of the lead coaches at the 888 Table Tennis Club in Burlingame and San Diego, a prominent high-performance training center in the United States. Shemar Britton, one of Guyana’s leading table tennis players, credited Coach Gomes for helping him qualify for the 2023 Pan American Games. Britton was instrumental in bringing Coach Gomes to Guyana following a training camp in Barbados. This training camp represents an exciting opportunity for players in Guyana and the region to enhance their skills under the guidance of a world-class coach. Related Similar Articles

Minister Bharrat on Petroleum Commission Aug 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column Kaieteur News – I had the early idea to disagree with the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Vickram Bharrat when he said that a Petroleum Commission would slow down the oil sector.  A change of heart occurred at lightning speed.  Discretion is the better part of valor, and there is no way that I am engaging in any wrestling match with those two heavyweights that he ensured were by his side. GHK Lall A picture is worth a million sterling.  Geology and Mines Commissioner, Mr. Newell Denison was the picture of solemnity to the point of grimness, while Permanent Secretary Joslyn McKenzie made sure to keep his head down with eyes glued to the floor.  Me, I aint messin wid dem two guys: life is too meaningful to get into a fight that is unwinnable.  For the record, I had long acquaintance with those two fine Guyanese, which I cannot say about Minister Bharrat.  The plan is to stick close to him the next time he decides to travel to JFK.  The conversation should be more than enlightening. The normally tightlipped Natural Resources minister was unusually talkative.  A Petroleum Commission is not a “magic fix.”  Vice President Jagdeo, the real natural resources supremo, said the same thing before.  Do these guys have the same speechwriters?  Then, it could come in due time, which was what Jagdeo covered his rear end with before.  Again, the same speaking from one script, while leaving the door slightly open for a Petroleum Commission. Hedged language by both Minister Vickram Bharrat and the Chief Minister Bharrat.  Is that really necessary?  Both are downplaying the need for a Petroleum Commission, while upscaling the Petroleum Unit in the Ministry of Natural Resources.  One would think that this vaunted Petroleum Unit would not be another top secret national subagency, like the Special rank of the Guyana Police Force.  My thinking is that such an expert and highly hailed Guyanese (or whomever) group, at least, would be introduced to Guyanese for them to determine who are these mysterious experts entrusted with such sensitive work for hopeful citizens. Perhaps, Minister Bharrat is displaying his clever side by having Messrs. Denison and McKenzie as his bookends, as he signals the elevated role of his secretive Petroleum Unit. Commissioner Newell Denison, I believe, is a man who possesses training and skills in the field.  Is he a member of that Petroleum Unit now saddled with so much?  If he is, why does he look so unhappy?  Is that fine fella whose name was hung out to dry for the US$214M audit findings reduction to US$3M a member, or member in waiting?  If so, my comfort level just took a dive.  Nothing personal, but it is just that he is somewhat shaky, or always seems to be around shaky setups that don’t quite land on firm ground.  PS McKenzie, being the player that he is, is a man who could be trusted to carry a load quietly and artfully, a vital skill for a Jagdeo-type Petroleum Unit.  The question is whether Mr. Mac is a member of that team of luminous Guyanese workers in the Petroleum Unit shoved into the spotlight.  All this matters because my interpretation of the situation is that the Petroleum Unit is being held out as a very good substitute for a national Petroleum Commission. In the normal scheme of developments and presence like these, this Petroleum Unit of which both Bharrat Senior and Bharrat Junior are now talking up a storm would be mostly technical and operational in nature.  I will give any Petroleum Unit of even limited merit that credit.  But a Petroleum Unit is not a substitute for a Petroleum Commission and both Bharrat One and Bharrat Two have been around long enough, and are sensible enough, to know so.  It was Big Bharrat who said in another section of the media in August 2020 that a Petroleum Commission would be in place in six months.  Forty-eight months later, the same Bharrat Jagdeo now sells to Guyanese this creature that he calls a Petroleum Unit, while consistently and strenuously insisting that it is the genuine article. That is, a workable, likeable, and presentable Petroleum Commission in drag.  I repeat something that I have said before: it is at times like these that I am intrigued by how much of a combination of Houdini and Machiavelli and Modi that Bharrat Jagdeo is.  This Vice President of Guyana is so wily that he could sell sand to the Saudis. Or bows and arrows to the indigenous people of Guyana.  To say this differently, he took a mosquito (Petroleum Unit) and made it into a manatee (Petroleum Commission).  This superstar Jagdeo should be made Guyana’s president for life, regardless of what the constitution and courts say.  I raise his prolife some more: he should be president of Exxon, with no further use for such Dallas Cowboys as Darren Woods and Alistair Routledge. Here is the endgame.  The best Petroleum Unit cannot and must not be a proxy for a Petroleum Commission.  In its best hands-on expressions, the former is about the interpretational, organizational, operational, and governmental.  At a higher and detached (independent) level, a Petroleum Commission is about clinical stewardship, unfettered insights, positive and probing strengths among many other hopefully neutral attitudes, attributes, and actions.  A powerful Petroleum Unit is still a public service animal subject to sophisticated political manipulation.  A well-manned Petroleum Commission backed by the right instruments could stand guard and get the best from this oil wealth that is now enshrined with so many quirks and what looks, sounds, and smells queer. I present Bharrat Jagdeo’s Petroleum Unit as Exhibit 1. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) Related Similar Articles

Vickram Bharrat from absentee minister to hallucinatory Aug 21, 2024 Editorial Kaieteur News – Minister Vickram Bharrat is in awe to Bharrat Jagdeo, owes his political existence to the vice president.  He has no choice but to parrot what makes no sense to reasonable men and women, which imitates the standards that the vice president has made his personal brand. It is unfortunate, part of the continuing disaster of Guyana that the Minister of Natural Resources could say with a serious face that, “from a neutral point of view we would see that Guyana’s oil and gas sector is one of the better managed oil and gas sector in the world.”  Minister Bharrat knows better, knows what is closer to the full truth of Guyana’s oil and gas sector, but he is so much at the beck and call of political considerations that he is unashamed to deliver what falls foul of the facts. It is cringeworthy, for what the minister said is best described as bordering close to insipidity.  We start with Minister Bharrat himself to lay some simple points before Guyanese, the world. Minister Bharrat collides head-on with this truth: he has been silent; he has been missing for most of the last four years.  The world has been inspired to the point of fevered excitement with Guyana’s oil and gas developments, as announced by ExxonMobil, and he has been nowhere in sight.  When Guyanese look to him (the subject minister) he has been a phantom.  When citizens look for, hope for, an update or two, a few encouraging words founded on facts, the minister has been like a tomb: hollow, quiet, unbreathing.  Perhaps that is what meets the definition of Minister Bharrat for one of the better managed oil and gas sectors in the world. The second clash with the minister’s brazen and comical claim about “one of the better managed” is that almost impenetrable secrecy has been the norm around oil and gas developments.  But Minister Bharrat is bold-faced, even two-faced enough, to speak with a straight face about “transparency” in this the most crucial of Guyanese economic sectors.  War has been declared against transparency in Guyana’s oil and gas sector, with abundant secrets being the PPPC Government’s dominant culture, but Minister Bharrat has the audacity to pretend that there is transparency. Has the minister lost it?  Does he live in the real world or, like President Ali, has taken up full-time residence in some fantasy land of his own creation?  The true level of proven (and known) total current oil reserves has been degraded by his ministry and his chief policymaker in the oil and gas sector to a game of guesstimates, but the sector is “one of the better managed.”  Likewise, billions in project expenses are hidden, full audit reports are kept from the public, but the sector is “one of the better managed” in the world. Most glaring of all, and this is a judgment call, there is the heavily marketed Wales Gas-to-Energy project about which Guyanese know three things only.  It costs US$2B (the most expensive local one to date), it is a web of tricky schemes (Jagdeo’s footprint), and it has been plagued by secrets (supporting documents concealed).  It could be that in the world that Minister Bharrat operates, secrets and schemes are part of the prevailing state of mind.  As Guyanese now know from hard experience, secrets and schemes are also compulsory components in the management practices of a government fanatically committed to such a self-serving, if not self-enriching, environment.  Minister Bharrat may have earned himself a unique honor: he is the only one who believes that this country’s oil and gas sector is “one of the better managed” globally.  Seeing that the minister has grown into a clever politician, there is the probability that he himself may not believe what he said about “one of the better managed.”  It was what he was ordered to do, what the situation to be glossed over called for, so he just did it, while hoping for the best. Guyana loses billions annually from no taxes, no ringfencing, and no independent oversight, yet it is “one of better managed” anywhere. Clearly, Minister Bharrat is now a victim of his own hallucinations and those of Bharrat Jagdeo also. Related Similar Articles

The most significant development in our agricultural sector in recent times Aug 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom Kaieteur News – There was a time when you wanted bargains on food on sale at the markets all you had to do was to wait until the sellers were leaving to make your purchases. Many of these sellers did not want to pay the cost of transporting their leftover produce back home and so they would sell it at dog-cheap prices. This ain’t happening anymore. No last-hour bargains are available because most sellers are not willing to drop their prices. They prefer to take their produce back home and bring them back the next day or next week, depending on how often they sell. Sellers, who now often operate in multiple markets, are also less inclined to drop their prices. Instead, they take their produce home or dump them, leading to a vicious cycle of wastage and inflated prices. In this context, the launch of the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC) project to dehydrate fruits and vegetables is perhaps the most exciting development in the agricultural sector in recent memory. In a sector often dominated by the narrative of challenges and setbacks, this initiative stands out as a sign of progress, a tangible step towards addressing one of the most pressing issues faced by our agricultural sector: post-harvest losses. The benefits of this initiative are far-reaching and have the potential to bring significant positive changes to the lives of farmers, consumers, and the local economy. For decades, the agricultural sector in Guyana has been grappling with the issue of post-harvest losses. The statistics are staggering: in 2016, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated that post-harvest losses for cassava were as high as 23%, and for tomatoes, a shocking 34%. At the same time, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) estimated that about 30% of all fruits and vegetables produced in the country are not consumed. This represents a significant loss not just in terms of wasted produce but also in terms of lost income for farmers and higher prices for consumers. The GMC’s dehydration project is a bold and innovative response to this problem. By focusing on the dehydration of fruits and vegetables, the initiative aims to extend the shelf life of these products, reducing the need for farmers and sellers to dump unsold produce. This is a significant step forward, not just for farmers and consumers but for the entire agricultural sector. By reducing post-harvest losses, farmers can increase their income, and consumers can benefit from lower prices. Moreover, the project has the potential to spur the growth of a new industry in Guyana: the processed dried foods industry. Dehydration is a well-established method of preserving fruits and vegetables, and its potential in Guyana is immense. In many countries around the world, dried fruits such as apples, peaches, dates, cherries, and grapes are not just popular snacks but also valuable export products. Guyana has the potential to tap into this market, leveraging its rich agricultural resources to produce a range of dried fruits and vegetables for both local consumption and export. Already, there are promising signs of what can be achieved. A local company is manufacturing dried dates, coconuts, papayas, and pineapples, and during the Christmas season, many Guyanese use locally processed foods that have undergone some form of dehydration, such as carambola and five-finger. Under the APNU+AFC, sun-dried tomatoes were produced in the interior using solar dryers, a product that has a large market in North America. The Pomeroon region, with its abundant fruit production, suffers from significant post-harvest losses, but with the right investment in dehydration technologies, this region could become a hub for the production of dried fruits. By creating a new market for dried fruits and vegetables, the project can help to diversify the agricultural sector, reducing its reliance on fresh produce and opening up new opportunities for farmers and processors. This could lead to the creation of new jobs and the development of new skills, particularly in rural areas where agricultural employment is often the mainstay of the local economy. In fact, the expansion of drying technology can spur hinterland food production and food processing. This can have a transformative effect on the lives of hinterland residents and help to reduce extreme poverty in the interior. The project has the potential to stimulate the overall growth of the local economy. The processed dried foods industry is a high-value sector, with significant export potential. By developing this industry, Guyana could increase its agricultural exports, bringing in much-needed foreign exchange and boosting the country’s economic growth. At the same time, by producing dried fruits and vegetables locally, the project could help to reduce the country’s reliance on imported processed foods, improving food security and reducing the country’s trade deficit. This initiative, small as it is, is not just an important step forward for the agricultural sector; it is a model for the kind of innovative, forward-thinking projects that are needed to drive the development of the Guyanese economy in the years to come. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.) Related Similar Articles

Bharrat’s disinformation on oil production rates is unprincipled and dangerous Aug 21, 2024 Letters Dear Editor, I read without surprise, the August 10, 2024 KN clip “MP Vickram Bharrat provided misleading, deceptive information to Parliament on rate of oil production – David Patterson”. We all know that “misleading and deceptive” are parliamentary jargons for “lies”; but, in all fairness, let’s also charitably attribute some of the Honourable Minister’s mouthings to ignorance. Ministers are expected to at least be responsible and competent enough to read and comprehend for themselves, matters of grave concerns to their people. Unfortunately, this Minister who is vested with the all-important safe keeping of the most hazardous operations in Guyana, i.e., oil & gas and mining, has carved out a record of lack of intellectual curiosity, incompetence, wimpiness, and don’t care a damn attitude about the health, safety and environment of the Guyanese people. Besides his unseemliness plausibly called out by MP Patterson, this is the same man, who, in order to kowtow to Exxon, lied with his characteristic wry smile, that the Liza 1 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) allowed Exxon to freely flare up to 14 billion cubic feet of gas, when in fact, nothing of the sort ever existed in the EIA which unequivocally ordains that flaring is prohibited. This is also the same man who denied ditching of the 2019 World Bank Plan for rigorous oil & gas oversight with a highly specialized 36-member EPA Petroleum Unit, and the EPA Study Leave Policy sponsoring employees to pursue advanced studies for a five-year service in return. However, the appearance of the Plan’s cover page in the media, forced his shameless about face lie that the Plan was still being executed, though, not a single position in that Plan has been filled; and despite his farce about full monitoring, there isn’t a single person with even one hour of training in oil & gas to understand or question the simplest of Exxon’s activities, thanks to his sabotage of the World Bank Plan and EPA Study Leave Policy. Exxon no doubt takes full advantage of this impotence as they call the shots and get whatever they demand. They know they have caught a big big pakoo and surely know what to do with it. On top of that, the Minister continues to display his advanced stage of grandiose delusions and dishonesty, when he unabashedly tells the nation that “We have total transparency and accountability…and everybody likes what we are doing.” Is this man insane, or just takes Guyanese for fools! Does he really think that “total transparency” means: hiding Exxon’s files in the EPA Director’s office away from all, including the staff; hiding the people’s own petroleum reserves from them; refusing to show the purported $2B parent company guarantee deposit; that the Petroleum Commission should be made up of people from his Ministry, though they crucified former Minister Trotman for being entrusted with too much authority in his first Commission draft document; and refusing to make public, the Field Development Plans (FDP) under the insulting pretext that it is too complicated for Guyanese to understand. I wish to advise that the Minister not judge others by his standards. May I also educate the Minister that there is something called the UN Escazú Agreement signed by Guyana in 2018 and ratified in 2019, obligating him to providing public access to such information like the FDPs. Returning to Patterson’s exposure of Bharrat’s disinformation act, the safe oil limits set by Liza 1, Liza 2, and Payara EIAs, are 120,000 barrels oil per day (bopd), 220,000 bopd, and 220,000 bopd, respectively, totaling 560,000 bopd. However, the Minister acquiesces to the current rate of 650,000 bopd, soon to be upped to 708,000 bopd – a dangerous 26 % above the safe legal limit. Taking Liza 1 for example, its EIA enshrines in vanilla plain language that it is “designed to safely operate at sustained peaks of 120,000 bopd”, but the Minister is hell bent on irresponsibly defending its dangerously illegal current rate of 163,000 bopd, which is 36% above the safe rate. Bharrat’s story is that the EIA’s safe limit is 144,000 bopd and not 120,000 bopd – a flat-out falsity. If Exxon believed his story, wouldn’t they have raised it during the Coalition’s time? The answer is a resounding NO! for Exxon knows that the Coalition would instantly see its wackiness. For the Minister’s edification, that 144,000 bopd is a number exactly 20% (normally applied) above the 120,000 to model the estimated maximum air pollution emissions within a 20% accuracy, and has absolutely nothing to do with the production limit. This proves my earlier point that there is no one at the EPA who has any clue relative to these technical matters. In any case, shouldn’t Bharat’s math proficiency at least help him grasp that the current 163,000 bopd rate which he defends, still exceeds his fictitious144,000 bopd that he claims to be the legal limit? The honorable Minister is therefore advised to keep his mouth shut or embarrass himself and Guyana, until he finds someone knowledgeable to sensibly discuss such subject matters. The irrefutable fact remains that the EIA is sanctified in the EPA Act and Permits, and any change without public consultation is illegal. It is revered as the ‘bible’ being the only comprehensive project study that defines the hazards and mitigative actions, and sets the safety envelopes that must be followed – a conviction assuredly avouched by none other than Exxon’s own experts at public meetings. Its sacrosanct nature is reason why it takes such diligence to complete, taking years in some cases, and involving not only technical experts of the preparers, but also public input. Nevertheless, Bharrat crazily waves on the invalidations of EIAs in servility to Exxon and its greediness, bringing grave risks to Guyana’s economic, health, safety and environmental devastation – a treacherous act that enhances the chances of an oil spill while he dutifully stands with Exxon against an oil spill cost protection guarantee, without which, Guyana would be bankrupted. No wonder, Guyana is ranked 76th out of 142 countries by the World Justice Project, with a very poor 2023 rule of law index score of 0.5 out of 1.0. In stark contrast, the Coalition followed the rule of law with strict adherence to the EIA’s safe limit of 120,000 bopd; and further, to ensure that the rates do not even come close to reaching that limit, the EIA prescribes a safety cushion at a controlled rate of 100,000 bopd which was maintained throughout the Coalition’s tenure. However, upon taking office, the PPPC immediately and illegally upped the rate to 130,000 bopd and kept increasing it to the current rate of 163,000 bopd. This undeniably makes obvious that Exxon respected the competent oversight of the Coalition, but grabs the once in a lifetime opportunity to capitalize on this Government’s slackness, incompetence, and subservience to their demands – sentiments echoed by the Honourable Judge Kissoon in his sage ruling against Exxon. Sincerely, Dr. Vincent Adams Related Similar Articles