Category Archives: Guyana

“Revolutionary Suicide”: Remembering the Jonestown Massacre

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in Guyana, Human Behavior, United States

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Aerial view of Paradise off of Clark Road – Camp Fire, Northern California
November 15, 2018
Photo Credit: San Francisco Examiner (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

 

As California burns and super-storms ravage our southern and eastern coastal states, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Reverend Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Today, November 18th, is the fortieth anniversary of the mass murder-suicide of 916 Americans at the People’s Temple Agricultural Project at Jonestown in the northwest forested region of Guyana.

The 276 dead American children had no choice.

Teacher with Children Singing – Jonestown – Guyana
Photo Credit: California Digital Library

 

Victim of his own megalomania and alternate reality, the Pentecostal leader coerced his followers into ingesting cyanide-laced, grape-flavored Flavor Aid.

“Revolutionary suicide,” the Reverend Jim Jones called his final, defiant act. Continue reading →

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A Troublesome Man by Stella Bagot

19 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in Guyana, Recommended Reading

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Front Cover - A Troublesome Man by Stella Bagot

Front Cover of A Troublesome Man by Stella Bagot

 

In her authorized biography, A Troublesome Man: About the life of Dr. Ptolemy Reid, Prime Minister of Guyana, 1980-1984, Stella Bagot records Dr. Reid’s account of his journey from childhood to his entrance into political life. It’s an engaging and inspiring story of a poor village boy who, with determination and persistence, overcame the obstacles along each step of his journey.

Ptolemy was born on May 8, 1918, the youngest of five siblings, in Dartmouth Village on the Essequibo Coast of then British Guiana. He lost his father to pneumonia when he was ten years old. To contribute to the family’s income, he worked on their farm plot, in the sugarcane fields, and with local fishermen. His school attendance suffered.

On completing primary school at sixteen, Ptolemy pursued employment as a pupil teacher. Five years later, he took two years off to earn his teacher’s certificate at the Government Training Center in Georgetown, the capital. Over the following eight years, he gained the reputation as a strict and proficient teacher at the Dartmouth Anglican village school. Continue reading →

A Savior is born to us

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Guyana, Religion

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Nativity Play, Sacred Heart RC Church, Georgetown, Guyana
Photo Credit: Facebook Photo Album Sacred Heart RC School in Georgetown

[This is a re-post of my Christmas message 2011, the year I started my blog.]

 

My parents were not church-goers. They never forced me and my four siblings, baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, to attend Sunday Mass. But they made sure we got a good Catholic education by sending us to schools run by the nuns.

As a result of my religious school education, the Christmas Season was much more than time for family get-togethers; Santa Claus; exchanging presents; Christmas trees and decorations; and our traditional Christmas dishes and black cake. Christmas Day was the celebration of the birth of Jesus – the Savior born to us.

The Christmas Novena was an essential part of preparing for the coming of our Savior. During nine days before Christmas Day (December 15-23), I had to get up at four o’clock in the morning to be sure to get a good seat at the five o’clock Novena Mass. A religious custom of the early Portuguese immigrants from Madeira, the Novena has become a part of Guyana’s Catholic tradition.

I recall walking through drizzle towards the rear entrance of our parish church. The raindrops, slanted by the wind, glistened in the light streaming from the large open doorway of the church. When I entered the church, the choir in the alcove overhead, was singing Bemdita Sejaes, the traditional Portuguese hymn to begin the Novena Mass. I did not know what the words of the hymn meant, but it filled my soul with joy.

Christmas Eve Night, at 11:00 p.m. before the Midnight Mass, was the time for the highlight of the Christmas Season: the live enactment of the Nativity of Jesus at Sacred Heart Church on Main Street. (The church, built and funded by the Portuguese immigrants in 1861, burned to the ground on 25 December 2004.)

The year of my first son’s birth, the parish priest at Sacred Heart Church invited me and my husband to play the roles of Mary and Joseph. Our two-month-old son played Baby Jesus. Lying in the manger, he slept through the entire performance. I was relieved. Even a young angel, as she cuddled him at the end of the pageant, did not succeed in waking him.

As recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke, on the night that Jesus was born, an angel appeared to shepherds guarding their sheep to tell them the good news. “Do not be afraid,” the angel told them. “Today…a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Our planet is in dire need of a Savior. Christ our Savior empowers me to keep up the struggle in the face of injustice, adversity, and hopelessness… and to triumph.

Christ our Savior empowers us with love. Regardless of our religion or non-religion, love runs deep in the heart of each one of us. Let us manifest love. Love conquers all.

Guyana ties the knot with ExxonMobil

23 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by in Guyana

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ExxonMobil Country Manager receives Production License from Guyana Minister of Natural Resources - 15 June 2017

ExxonMobil Country Manager Rod Henson receives Production License
from Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman
Georgetown – Guyana – June 15, 2017
Photo Credit: Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources

On June 15, 2017, Guyana tied the knot with ExxonMobil with the signing of a production license for the extraction of oil and natural gas, located offshore the Caribbean/South American nation with a population of 800,000 people. With this license, together with the Environmental Permit granted on June 1st, ExxonMobil will proceed with the Liza Phase 1 development. Located 120 miles offshore in an area known as the Stabroek Block, the Liza field development includes a subsea production system and a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel designed to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day. Exxon and its partners plan to begin production by 2020.

ExxonMobil’s press release on June 16th states: “Phase 1 is expected to cost just over $4.4 billion, which includes a lease capitalization cost of approximately $1.2 billion for the FPSO facility, and will develop approximately 450 million barrels of oil.

It is a marriage of unequal partners. ExxonMobil’s profit margin in 2016 is more than twice that of Guyana’s GDP of US$3.5 billion for the same year. With the assistance of local and foreign experts in the industry, the Guyana government has reviewed the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), signed in 1999 when exploration began under the former leftist Guyana government. Continue reading →

Down Independence Boulevard And Other Stories by Ken Puddicombe

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Guyana, Recommended Reading

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Book Cover - Down Independence Boulevard and Other Stories by Ken Puddicombe

On May 26, Guyana celebrates 51 years as an independent nation. Independence did not come easy. Worker strikes, riots, lootings, burnings, beatings, rape, and killings turned the coexistence of the country’s multi-ethnic population into a toxic stew of animosity and mistrust. The so-called “racial disturbances” of the 1960s drove hundreds from their homes. Those who could, fled overseas.

In his collection of sixteen short stories, Down Independence Boulevard And Other Stories, Guyanese-Canadian author Ken Puddicombe, who migrated to Canada in 1971, takes us within the homes of families faced with racial violence and upheaval. With the keen eyes of a master story teller, Puddicombe lays bare their ruptured lives and re-invention as immigrants in a foreign country. Continue reading →

On the Making of My Convent Novel

14 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Guyana, The Writer's Life

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When my friend and poet, Angela Consolo Mankiewicz, told me that my second novel had to be about my life in the convent, I balked at the idea. To embark on a journey back to a time and place that caused me grief would require some meaningful purpose. The 2012 documentary film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, exploring the first known public protest against clerical sex abuse in the US, gave me the impetus I needed.

My convent novel, inspired by real events that took place in Guyana in the 1970s, had to be relevant to the present. To bash the nuns and priests would be unjust. Most religious men and women that I lived and worked with had devoted their lives to their God and strove to live according to His teachings. I have long forgiven those who had betrayed or abandoned me when I needed them most. Continue reading →

“Destination” – Poem by Guyanese-Canadian Poet Janet Naidu

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Guyana, Immigrants, Poetry

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East Indian Indentured Laborers

In commemoration of the centennial of the abolition of Indian Indentureship on March 12, 1917, my Poetry Corner May 2017 features the poem “Destination” by Janet Naidu, a Guyanese-born poet, writer, social activist, and life-skills coach. She migrated to Canada in 1975, at the age of twenty-two, where she obtained a BA in Political Science and Caribbean Studies from the University of Toronto and, later in life, an LLB from the University of London (UK).

With the abolition of slavery in 1834 and the end of the apprenticeship scheme in 1838, the mass exodus of ex-slaves from plantations across the British Empire created a dire need for a regular and reliable supply of labor. On May 5, 1838, the first group of about 400 Indian indentured laborers, on a five-year contract, arrived in British Guiana on the sailing ships, Whitby and Hesperus. By 1917, their numbers totaled over 238,000 Indians, comprising 42 percent of the colony’s population. Only 65,538 returned to India on terminating their contract. Janet Naidu’s grandparents from Tamil Nadu were among those who arrived on the SS Ganges on November 8, 1915.

Sailships Whitby and Hesperus arriving at Port Georgetown - British Guiana - May 5, 1838

Born in the village of Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara, Naidu was the seventh of eight children. Like his parents, her father was a cane cutter. Her mother sold home-grown, green vegetables in the market.

In “Destination” from her poetry collection, Rainwater (2005), Naidu conjures the immigrants’ fearsome voyage across the ocean for an unknown destination. Continue reading →

A Mouth Is Always Muzzled

13 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by in Guyana, United States

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corporate-power-elite-stranglehold-on-us-government

I thank Frank Parker, a former engineer and author of five self-published books who blogs from Ireland at http://franklparker.com/, for nominating me to take up the ‘Three Quotes for Three Days’ challenge.

The rules of the challenge are:

  • Three quotes for three days.
  • Three nominees each day (no repetition).
  • Thank the person who nominated you.
  • Inform the nominees.

Due to time constraints, I will not be posting my quotes on three consecutive days, but rather one a week on Sunday. In keeping with the vision of my blog, I will share quotes from a Guyanese, Brazilian, and an American.

My first quote is taken from the 1969 poem, “A Mouth Is Always Muzzled,” by the social-political Guyanese poet Martin Carter (1927-1997).

But a mouth is always muzzled
by the food it eats to live.

The young Martin Carter came to maturity as a political activist during Guyana’s struggle for independence from Great Britain. While campaigning for the colony’s first mass-based, multi-ethnic, democratically-elected government, the young poet used his street corner meetings to educate his listeners about their social and economic condition and to bring together workers of different ethnicity. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Is ExxonMobil victim of its own deception?

17 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Guyana, United States

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ExxonMobil Web of Climate Denial

ExxonMobil Web of Climate Science Denial
Photo Credit: DeSmogBlog

In spite of scientific consensus worldwide that we must transition to cleaner forms of energy and to keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground, ExxonMobil shows no sign of winding down its oil and gas explorations. In May 2015, they announced a significant oil discovery in the Stabroek (Guyana) block about 120 miles (193 kms) offshore. What elation for the newly-elected Guyana government! For a poor developing country, the prospect of oil riches seems a lifeline.

This month, the great news circulated across the fossil fuel industry. “The United States Geological Survey ranks Guyana-Suriname as the world’s second-most prospective, underexplored offshore basin, with an estimated 13.6 Bbbl of oil and 32 tcf of natural gas yet to be discovered,” declared the Offshore Magazine on July 7, 2016.

The article further stated that: “ExxonMobil is reportedly moving Liza [exploration well on the Stabroek block] into the pre-front-end engineering and design phase. Despite low oil prices, analysts such as Douglas-Westwood agree a fasttrack development, while capital-intensive, could provide large potential returns on investment.”

ExxonMobil is by no means alone in its pursuit of more profits. While its affiliate Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Ltd. (USA) holds 45% interest, its partners Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. (USA) and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd. (Canada/China) hold 30% and 25% interest, respectively.

Other players have also gotten on board. In January 2016, Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources signed a petroleum prospecting license and production-sharing agreement with the joint-venture team of Tullow Guyana BV (UK) and Eco (Atlantic) Guyana Inc. (Canada?) with 60% and 40% interest, respectively.

Commercial production is not expected to begin until another four years. That’s 2020. With continued record-breaking hot temperatures since 1880, Earth’s climate system already shows alarming changes. Rising sea levels, due to melting ice caps, is not good news for Guyana where the majority of the population lives along the low-lying coastal region. Will Guyana’s petrodollars come in time to relocate its capital and build a new port for the oil tankers?

While Guyana plans for its oil-rich future, ExxonMobil continues to fund climate science denial. Although they knew decades ago that carbon dioxide emissions from the use of their products could result in dangerous climate change impacts, ExxonMobil chose to deceive their shareholders and oil-addicted consumers.

During their presentation before the U.S. Senate on July 11 and 12, nineteen Senators repudiated the ways America’s largest oil and gas multinational corporation and others in the fossil fuel industry “developed a sophisticated and deceitful campaign that funded think tanks and front groups, and paid public relations firms to deny, counter, and obfuscate peer-reviewed [climate science] research.”

The degree of deception demonstrates the industry’s lack of moral values. To endanger the lives of millions of people across our planet is a crime against humanity. Could it be that ExxonMobil and its facilitators have become victims of their own deception?

What about the people of Guyana? What environmental risks do they face in the not too distant future?