The KN oil ads have disseminated false info on Africa and Trinidad and should be withdrawn
Dear Editor,
On Friday November 1 the Kaieteur News published an advertisement (p 7) under the caption, “Guyana’s Oil’, subtitled how poorly Africa does in spite of having oil. A similar advert entitled, ‘Guyana’s Oil: What you must know’, was carried on pages 19 and 11, respectively, on Friday 13th. The same applies to the Dec 15th & 16th editions of the paper.
The idea that Africa is the worst place on earth and its leaders the least competent and the most corrupt are beliefs that underpinned slavery and today in some parts of the world outside of Africa provide a logic for opposing or undermining African-based parties or Governments led by African leaders. Guyana is one such place. We need to pay attention to such corrosive and dysfunctional messages. The series of adverts being disseminated by KN is a case in point. Linking Africa to corruption and to debt is due to the writer’s perception and bias. The paper is on safe ground by linking it to poverty. As far as corruption is concerned, I invite readers to examine the most recent Corruption Perception Index (CPI 2018) where Botswana is demonstrated as performing better than Spain, Greece and Italy. The very countries of Africa selected by the editor - Ghana (78), Senegal (67), Rwanda [in place of Burundi] (48) - are ranked as less corrupt than India and much of the Caribbean. The other two mentioned CAR (149) and DRC (161) performed poorly. Why then was Africa selected by the editor to make his case?
Readers may think that it is done to demonstrate persistent poverty in spite of natural resource endowment. But the paper seems to be saying more, it attributes the poverty to the exploitation of petroleum. It urges, “Think about it! How many countries were left dirt poor and billions in debt after the oil companies left their shores? Ask the people of the Central African Republic, Burundi or the Democratic People’s Republic of Congo – three of the poorest countries in the world , with massive oil resources and billions in debt.”
First, the paper and/or sponsors of the advert (I believe them to be the same) also seem to have confused their oils! The three countries mentioned are certainly amongst the poorest in the world but the only oil they all produce is palm oil!! Senegal which is mentioned in the November 1 advert as a petroleum producer has yet to produce a drop of petroleum. It is an impending producer. Neither Burundi nor the CAR is known to have reserves of petroleum or gas. DRC is a marginal producer of petroleum (25,000b/d).
Secondly, none of the states is facing poverty as a result of having ended petroleum production, or strictly speaking, went broke when oil companies departed. The causation implied here is certainly not true, whichever way it is supposed to run; oil did not cause these countries to be poor or poorer.
Thirdly, the claim of an inevitable link between petroleum and chronic indebtedness has been a recurring theme in the paper since 2018, notwithstanding the absence of any factual basis for the assertion. In order to make this case therefore, false information on Africa is being disseminated.
The DRC’s external debt amounts to some US$70 per caput, equivalent to 13% of their GDP. Nigeria which is an African oil-producing state, is often the butt of much criticism as regards the benefits from oil, has an external debt which is a mere 3% of GDP and a little over US$60 per caput. There are many very much more seriously indebted states and many states outside of Africa have been chronically indebted without ever having produced a drop of oil. Guyana and Nicaragua, neither an African state, were, in the mid and late 1980s, the most chronically indebted countries in the world. Today, the Caribbean claims to be amongst the world’s most heavily indebted and not because of petroleum companies. However, New Zealand and Greece’s debt burdens per citizen are $40,300 (100% GDP) and $42,800 and (228%), respectively!
For all these reasons the adverts should be withdrawn. Interestingly enough, fully one half of the supposed advert of November 1 is devoted to ‘educating’ Guyanese readers about T&T and petroleum but instead of enlightening, it demonstrated an appalling ignorance of the basics of economics. The advert states that, “after over 100 years, T&T our sister country, is now struggling to find its way back to sustainable positive growth”. Three years of negative growth does not prove that growth is unsustainable. Guyana has endured more than one threeyear period of negative growth under the PPP and the PNC and is currently expected to experience 86% growth in 2020. No economic theory or arithmetic requires growth to be positive every year for it to be possible over the medium term. It has become fashionable for Guyanese reporters to disparage T&T’s growth. But in spite of the negative growth highlighted by the paper, T&T’s debt is a mere 76% of its GDP and US$15,700 per caput. Trinidad’s GDP per capita is $16,085, nearly three and a half times that of Guyana’s. Those figures show that in material terms even after three years of negative growth, T&T is far better off in income, expenditure or production terms than many non-oil producers, including Guyana at this point in time.
So, apart from the fact that the writer and advertiser are not at home with economic concepts, what exactly are the adverts trying to do?
One of these adverts purports to, “ask why so many Guyanese are silent about the oil and gas industry”. I would venture to suggest that they are not silent. If those Guyanese voices are not audible enough the cause is to be found in ‘noise’ from mis-information and even false news in Guyana which often drowns out intelligent debate.
I urge therefore that the Kaieteur News Editor withdraws the adverts, for they are grievously erroneous and suggest that the newspaper’s research is at best illinformed and at worst mischievous. Kaieteur News should also withdraw them because the repetition of so many falsehoods suggests contempt for your readers.
Yours faithfully,
Foreign Secretary