Ali on Exxon contract: lopsided -Pt II

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592 GUARDIAN◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM◊GUYANA

Ali on Exxon contract: lopsided -Pt II

OPINION BY: GHK LALL –September 2026

GHK LALL.

In 2023, Pres Ali described the Exxon contract as “lopsided”, according to Stabroek News.  In 2024, Pres Ali told the New York Times that Exxon got “the better hand of the deal.”  In 2026, Pres Ali traveled to the ends of the earth to Al-Jazeera, and when questioned whether his government position that that the Exxon contract is a bad deal, he was tightlipped: “yeah, we do.”  He grew bold, found a kicker: it “never” was “a good deal.”  

In raw terms, “lopsided” can be defined as so leaning to one side that there’s danger of capsizing.  The MV Barima killed over 100 Guyanese when it capsized, with many of the destroyed still unknown.  Exxon’s contract is so “lopsided” to use Ali’s own word, it has capsized and killed the hopes of Guyanese.  The grievously wounded unknowns are future generations of Guyanese.  When anyone declares something as lopsided, it’s clear that danger is recognized. 

The destructive potential of that presence is palpable.  Danger threatens.  Yet, there’s sitting on hands, and sword fencing taking over.

In his Al-Jazeera exchange, Ali soft-pedalled the ugliness of Exxon’s Guyana contract.  It’s not “a good deal.”  Lame and a shame.  There is nothing good about the deal; therefore, there’s an obligation to say it unambiguously: the Exxon contract is bad, it stinks.  Its stench sticks to those in Exxon who sell locals their defective goods.  Exxon is a true partner to Guyanese.  Then, why the resistance to sitting at the table of renegotiation?  Why even have the clause that allows such opportunity?  Why leave Guyana’s president with the indignity of feeling for innocuous words that cloud the diabolical machinations behind the contract?  Why compel to make an international spectacle of himself (and Guyanese) with his shifting to evade lashing the Exxon contract as a noose around Guyanese necks.  The Exxon men from Texas should know noose.  It lynches this country and its peoples.

Exxon had the “better hand of the deal” was what Dr. Ali told the New York Times.  The PPP used to rail and rage against the Exxon contract.  But its conversion to Exxon religion has its leaders, like Mr. Ali, soft-soaping and sugarcoating and sweetly sanitizing the same contract that they had damned as among the worst ever.  It is a giveaway when leaders start using wimp language, begin adopting limp postures, with a document they had denounced before as a horror to nation and nationals.  The Exxon contract is healthy or deadly for Guyanese.  It’s fair or it’s foul for Guyanese.  It is right or should be kicked out of sight for Guyanese.  None of this touchy-feely lavender-like language that is about don’t upset Exxon whatever is said or done.  Also, be careful who it is said to, and how.

When a leader has lost the national script, he or she has lost utility.  When a leader has lost his way, only to relocate himself on the side of predators, then its time that Guyanese see him for who he is and give up on him.  When Ali speaks as he does, and slides as he does, it is as if Lords Alistair Routledge and Darren Woods operate as de facto presidents of Guyana.  Except that they have the smarts to use Excellency Ali as their proxy, and speak through him. 

It’s more than a public partnership.  It’s a public twin.  Might be more accurate to name that a public triplet.  All for one, and one for all. 

Hence, a contract that is bad on its face (a deformity from deformed minds), bad in its character (vile and depraved), and bad in its objectives (to strangle the Guyanese people) survives and grows in strength.  Thanks to wishy-words, slack mouthed jawing, and still claiming the mantle of being for Guyanese.  Lopsided is many-sided, all of them treacherous.

Ali: Exxon contract is bad -Pt I

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592 GUARDIAN◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM◊GUYANA

Ali: Exxon contract is bad -Pt I

OPINION BY:GHK LALL– September 2026

Pres Ali had a moment of insight visit.  The Exxon contract is bad (“Ali again agrees Exxon contract was bad, but still rules out rejigging” -KW, Sept 14-2026).  Instead of half-hearted acknowledgement, the preference is to accept the president’s position as frank if not honest admission.

Not the first time that a PPP champion has come down negatively on Exxon’s tricky piece of paper, that 2016 death sentence delivered on Guyana.  At different times, different PPP heavies have blasted that same Exxon contract as ‘a tragedy’ and a ‘crime’ and much worse, if that could be believed. 

Does leaving a ‘crime’ unresolved makes it less of a crime on the Guyanese people?  Does fearing to touch it, distancing from it, gives it a sheen of righteousness? 

It was the same Pres Ali, who himself made big, bright, speeches of all that he was going to do to every contract.  It certainly had to include the biggest one of them all -Exxon’s contract.  Apparently, he since received a message from god: thou shalt not go near to the Exxon contract, thou shalt not think of doing so.  The power that spoke to Pres Ali is not overhead.  Its thrones are in Spring, Tx and Washington, DC.  Before Senora Delcy Rodriguez was put in handcuffs, Pres Ali and the PPP Govt were put in a straightjacket.  One for each of its Cabinet members and members of parliament.  Never have I seen such a set of god-fearing people in all my encounters.

I think that, in the same manner as Exxon had a readymade (bad) contract to shove in the PNC Govt’s hand, so it also was slick enough to put in Pres Ali’s mouth what gave it a ring of authenticity, the equivalent of a chastity belt: sanctity of contract.  Think of that: a national leader with a PhD has a vocabulary that is limited to three words: sanctity of contract.  Must be an imaginary school.  Suspend that a man who swore an oath (“review and renegotiate”) before a countrywide assembly of people, then flatly disowns it. 

Focus on where that same man, national leader, is.  The Exxon contract is bad for Guyana and Guyanese.  But there he leaves it.

Why is he still there at the helm?  Having failed to lead the nation out of a national tragedy with its biggest inheritance, why is he still hanging around?  He has all but confessed to impotency.  So, if powerless on getting the best (or, at least, more) on Guyana’s biggest bonanza, Pres Ali should be decent enough and  leave.  Having surrendered to fear of ruffling Exxon’s feathers, Pres Ali should possess that modicum of self-respect that leads him to admit publicly that he is not the man for the job, and depart.  The crown jewels are held captive, and Pres Ali ties himself into knots, so that he can claim paralysis. 

In the circumstances, of what use is Pres Ali to this country, and the aspirations of its peoples?  Less than nil, is what I think.  Sanctity of contract is bluff and bull.  The president knows it.  Sanctity of contract is a copout and the cowardly way out, and the ruling party and the president know it.  If the president is not man enough to go toe-to-toe with Exxon for better for Guyana, then he is not the man to be where he is. 

Sanctity of contract has reduced him to a figure of farce: a farce wrapped in the flawed and full of the filthy.

It is a widely held standard that if something isn’t broke, then don’t fix it.  Why tamper with what works?  In contrast, if it is bad, then it’s the first project that’s in need of immediate improvement.  Pres Ali agrees that the Exxon contract is bad. 

Few are the Guyanese (or even those in Exxon), who would disagree with how I trash it, spit on it, and urinate on it.  If this is being done to this disaster of a contract, it shouldn’t require much to appreciate where I stand with those who defend it.

Music lovers, abusers, licensed to terrorize Guyanese

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592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

Music lovers, abusers, licensed to terrorize Guyanese

OPINION BY : GHK LALL  September 2026

Guyanese love their music.  I do, too.  The problem is that Guyanese love their music much too much.  It’s a big problem, a national one.  Citizens clash with members of the Guyana Police Force trying to do their job, establish sanity around the Kitty area.  Citizens in Leonora so caught up in the revelries, frenzies, and ecstasies of booming music that they forget it’s the birthplace of Guyana’s Pres Ali.  If thinking of the worsts way to disrespect Guyana’s head-of-state, music blasts at all hours do so.  Done almost round-the-clock.  Not a beat lost from the partying to care about insulting Guyana’s president, Guyana’s Police, Guyana’s people.

People such as working-class villagers, who toil for their honest dollars.  They count, don’t they?  People like dedicated students, who must put in time during the nighttime.  They are the future; said so, hasn’t it?  People include newborn babies, toddlers, and frail elders.  There’re still seen as people, aren’t they?  So, somebody in the PPP Govt, in the Police Dept, in the law division, should have the courage and courtesy to share with the sleep-battered, eardrum-bruised, and homestead-besieged in the capital city and countryside, how it is that noise explosions and noise casualties go unaddressed, are left on their own?

Today, I do something different: the personal pronoun is used for the Excellencies addressed humbly.  Are you, Dr. Ali, this captive to the private sector that noise explosions have become a negligible matter?  A condition that produces rolled eyes, chuckles, and winks and a nods in the PPP Cabinet.  In other words, boys will be boys and girls just wanna have fun. 

I regret that Pres Ali has done so poorly as leader.  On oil.  On noise nuisance.  On cost-of-living.  The president is on record as counseling Guyanese to eat out less. 

By the same distasteful logic, he should have his agents instruct bar owners, bar operators, event controllers, and music masters to deal in less decibels, with less distress on hapless neighbors, others.

Are you, Dr. Hicken, Guyana’s law enforcement powerhouse, this impotent– re: taking needed action so that there’re less breaches of the peace, a more civilized ambience in this globally luminous country?  If you, Dr. Hicken, have been reduced to a comedic police commander-in-chief, one that’s helpless when noise nuisance is such a menace in Leonora, then where can you police, Dr. Hicken? 

If Leonora, the sacred shrine recognizing Mohamed Irfaan Ali’s entry into the world and later national coronation, cannot be oases of peace and calm, then of what use are you, Mr. Hicken, to your president, and the people paying you?

Are you, Prof Anil Nandlall, so highflying about the majesty of the law, yet so low crawling when it comes to the application of the law, sir?  Laws that atrophy into laws unenforced condemn you, Dr. Nandlall, to a caricature of what an attorney general shouldn’t be.  It is unbelievable and unacceptable, Drs. Ali, Hicken, and Nandlall that large bunches of widely scattered noise mongers can be coddled so much. 

Protected so much, they are confident that they can repeatedly pierce Guyanese with noise weaponized for their (mongers) pleasure to the injury of Guyana’s law-abiding population .

I regret personalizing these noise nuisance crime waves, with Pres Ali, Comm. Hicken, and AG Nandlall (exceptional overachievers) dragged into the public square and dissected before domestic and foreign audiences.  Not my way, nor my style.  But these crimes have lasted too long.  I believe that if Pres Ali, Comm. Hicken, and AG Nandlall are genuine about shutting down noise nuisance, it’s over.  None of this appalling asininity about insulating music rooms. 

Because the rum culture, and other less liquid cultures, still flourishes, with attendant chaos on roads and homes.  Government should never be a party to what damages society’s texture.  Leaders shouldn’t turn their faces, when an issue that can be solved is made unsolvable.  Cut the bull.  Begin with the bona fides that demolish noise nuisance explosions for good.

Old Lion Ramotar can still roar

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592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

Old Lion Ramotar can still roar

Guyanese should listen to Excellency Donald Ramotar.  He could sniff out a colonizer from across a continent, and that’s during a tsunami.  He has been there, seen them, knew them.  In all their stripes.  If there’s one Guyanese who is equipped to identify colonizers in a lineup, Don Ramotar is that man.

Excellency Ramotar roared recently: ‘U.S. re-colonizing the Caribbean.’  There’s a troubling undercurrent in the former president’s construction.  Most of the Caribbean, perhaps all of it, likes it, and welcomes it.  Guyana is no different, with Guyanese leaders hustling to outdo one another to register their surrender to Washington.

Behold, the Black Man, and the Brown Man, who have neither backbone nor any ball of their own.  They slide like jelly below the white man’s boot.

William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses Grant must be crying in their graves.  All the sacrifices they made, all the blood that was shed, all the humiliations endured Only for the descendants of slaves and semi-slaves (indentured) to surrender liberty for a pat on the cheek and a pot of pee emptied into their open mouths.  I have never come across men and women so lacking in shame, so bereft of basic pride, so shallow where patriotic principle is concerned, and so callous about the welfare of the people who put them where they are.

Colonizers and re-colonizers have their visions of how the world should run, and who should run it.  I expect that, and make space for that mindset. 

What is found intolerable and deplorable is when the formerly enslaved, and the formerly harnessed and driven like beasts could now gladly kneel and eat out of the hands of their new masters.

Their oral rationalizations are pathetic.  The language of slaves who love their conditions, and crave the whip that lashes all honesty and dignity out of them.  The language of the enslaved and recolonized that speaks odes to their colonial masters and live to lick their boots.

Special relationship.  Must be a damned house slave made to feel important, given charge of the cutlery and kitchen.  One who sells his people to any bidder, and still sees himself as a king of some standing.  A king is set to visit these parts.  His wealth came from the blood and sweat of people criminally wrested from their homelands, their families.  Now he comes for more easy wealth, with a fixed smile on his face, and a sword at his side.

One regional leader is so much in love with himself, he believes that the king comes to him, because of how great he is (in his own eyes), and not for the fluids that flow from the seafloor.

The Old Lion Ramotar is aggrieved, feels a sickening sense of abuse and déjà vu.  Indeed, he has been there before, and seen these pirates and plunderers before.  He has also seen more than his share of bootlickers and brownnosers from the local realm.  He let down his guard.  Fooled himself that the last bootlicker and brownnoser were gone.  Sad to say, a whole new cohort of gutless, boneless, and testicular-less men have sprung up in their places.  They rejoice at being today’s new poodles.

Donald Ramotar lamented the abandonment of Cuban friends of decades vintage.  The white man, that predatory pack of old and new colonizers, could ask them to give up their mothers, and men who revel in their impotence would swiftly do so.  Guyana’s former president also spoke of the loud silence in the face of intensifying abuses from re-colonizers.  I specify them: Cubans, deportees, Chinese, and oil. 

Guyana cannot be a sovereign nation, an independent country.  Guyanese cannot be sons and daughters of liberty.  Not when their leaders are enslaved, and sell themselves for a kick from their white masters.  Excellency Ramotar was polite -re-colonizers.  I’m am incorrigible: enslavers and predators have taken over Guyana.

PPP -best guerilla fighters, stealth operators of all

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592 GUARDIAN◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM◊GUYANA

PPP -best guerilla fighters, stealth operators of all

OPINION BY: GHK LALL September 2026

BBC and other Western media called them irregulars.  Unorthodox also sold well.  I fuse elements from irregulars and unorthodox to my preference for unpredictable.  Guerrilla fighters and stealth operators have still endured.  In any study of both, there’s none better than the PPP (old or new).

Take Cheddi Jagan.  The Americans cut the floor from under him, dropped him into a deep, dark hole.  Though clobbered, he didn’t cry.  Never was crushed.  He worked the wilderness, traveled the edges, kept his chin up.  His fighting spirit never deserted.  Despite many electoral defeats.  In sum, he laid low; adapted.  Changed from a lion to chameleon; won the day.

Discard burnt cane fields.  Discard the Sun Chapman.  Discard the Abrahams; later the Sawh family.  Discard boycotted parliament.  Discard when he took matters in his own hands -the Mace.  Recall: Cultivating his local and foreign assets.  Training for his loyalists.  Moses can testify.  There was Dr. Jagan: environmental scholar and guerrilla fighter, who never gave up.  One who never yielded to superior forces, the odds.  Rallied loyalists.  Donald and Clement can testify. 

One who never crossed the floor beyond ‘critical support’; and to use the lavatory.  A simple man became sophisticated under duress.  Mention guerrilla fighter and stealth operator, and CBJ was it.

Then there’s Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.  The PPP best imitation of a guerilla fighter.  He’s so good that an American ambassador paid court; not the reverse.  Oil.  Check history.  When Jagdeo is cornered, he gets flustered first.  Oozes hostility next.  Becomes increasingly aggressive.  Everything vented; not for delicate stomachs; shaky nerves. 

The guerrilla fighter side of the PPP flares when Live in Guyana and State Media are unleashed to assassinate those pressuring PPP luminaries. 

In classic guerilla fighter mode, there’s deniability.  None of Guyana’s Excellencies, not Ali, not Jagdeo, not Nandlall, not Phillips, not Hicken, not Waldron has any knowledge of what Live in Guyana is.  Nor who are the guerrilla fighters inside Live in Guyana carrying on psychological warfare for the PPP Govt.  So, what’s this omnipotent, untouchable, Live in Guyana: Vatican Radio or the guerrilla arm of the PPP?  Now, try this dessert.  The PPP loves guerrilla fighters so much, it even welcomed a Palm Tree explosives expert into the PPP cup, and one of Guyana’s highest offices.  With guerrilla fighter recruitment like that, who can best the PPP Govt?

Recall the Mash jailbreak and mayhem.  Recall how Jagdeo marshalled his forces, deployed his assets.  Who was he, General Westmoreland or Ho Chi Minh?  And wasn’t the latter a great guerilla fighter?  Operating from shadows, or tight pockets, is guerrilla culture.  Operating with secret powerful backers is the modus operandi of guerrilla fighters.  The PPP Govt’s Live in Guyana neatly fits all three slots.  Thus, I submit the PPP as Guyana’s best guerrilla fighters.  CBJ ran with the greats during his years.  Mohandas, Martin, Mandela.  The underground was their home.  On the run their existence. Jagan and Jagdeo learned from them, got made enemies pay.

Burnham -5th richest Black man in the world.  Nonexistent Swiss bank account.  A fairytale sold and bought by many.  Guerrilla fighters in action. Talk about a bloodless assassination!  Cells planted in the political opposition; sleepers in churches, everywhere.  Stealth operators living double lives.  Who’s better than the PPP Govt at this type of guerrilla fighter.  Paid trolls to multiply online numbers (likes and dislikes for speakers and programs).  Another kind. Incumbent advantage that misuses State assets to sabotage adversaries, and persuade Guyanese of their own purity.  Recall people hurled from a bus in the interior; men in red with baseball bats cutting lines of approach and communication.  Ask Azruddin.  Guerrilla fighting writ large.  A different approach.  Reserve strike force to berate opponents. 

Coerce the compromised and cowardly.  Turn them against their own.  Then laff at their weakness and humiliation.  Stealth operators culling the field and cultivating human assets to do dirty work.  Lawmen.  Political men.  Religious men.  College men and women.

 The PPP is the best by far as guerrilla fighting and stealth operators.  Reexamine the PPP as guerrilla fighters and its biggest coup: the parliamentary no-confidence motion that toppled the PNC.  Howzat for guerrilla fighters and stealth operators pulling off a stunner!  A government betrayed for cash.  Beat that one. Jagan did several time

Last, Jagan embraced the trenches and forests of cane.  Mohandas, Martin, and Mandela fought their battles in unique ways.  All four, guerrilla fighters of special distinction, had one defining standard.

 They didn’t see themselves as guerrilla fighters or stealth operators.  From Cheddi to Madiba saw themselves as freedom fighters.  A distinction without a difference, I say.

GPL on the bandwagon -citizen bashing

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592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

GPL on the bandwagon -citizen bashing

OPINION BY: GHK LALL —September 2026

Somebody on the Board of Directors of the Guyana Power and Light Inc., (GPL) needs to listen to their conscience.  That is, if such has not been overtaken by cobweb and mildew.  They need to look at themselves in the mirror, then face their comrades in management.  Comrades they are, since PPP Govt blessing and Freedom House clearance have them where they are, keep them there.  The task: an injustice is being done to Guyanese.  Blamed for decades of GPL deteriorations.  After all the billions for upgrades, there’s still degrading of the ordinary consumers of energy in Guyana.  Relative to what’s going on with electricity supply, the GPL board should fire itself.

Somebody in GPL management should have the guts to tell his or her colleagues a simple, stark truth: the GPL has failed the Guyanese people.  Then tears that wound open by insulting them.  Constant blackouts caused by heavy use, overuse, of ACs, fans, lights.  Is somebody a complete jackass over there in the GPL management?  How many in Guyana’s human mass can afford an AC?  If they can, how many can afford to run it for any length of time?  I have backup facilities, and use of the AC for a limited period almost doubles the light bill. 

The PPP Govt cannot want business to drive the engine of the economy, then give those businesses sand and molasses for their electricity tanks.  Also, many businesses, except newer and smaller ones, have their own generators.  So, what foolishness is this from the GPL?  Pointing a nasty finger at Guyanese struggling to stay cool, trying to preserve scarce food, and working to give the children a little light so that they can study.  For the board and management of the helpless and clueless GPL, how much electricity does a fan or an energy saver light bulb use?  Indeed, there is volume, because that’s all that the poor people in this country have.  Now the GPL faults them for blackouts.

I thought that it was the PPP who said that the PNC represented 28 years of darkness.  So, where’s the damn light under the PPP, now that it has taken over for decades? 

My recommendation to the president is that the entire GPL management should be fired on the spot.  The people can’t do worse.  Truth be told, the president should fire himself.

He has done nothing but talk big, then disappeared to wherever catches his fancy, and in the company of people, that I would hold my nose against and turn my face.  When is the Wales Gas-to-Energy going to be in operation?  At this dark and desperate point, all that Guyanese want to know is when the extra megawatts will be live.  The PPP of Ali and Jagdeo can keep the half price money.  Just deliver the megs, so that Guyanese can get some relief, and there is an end to people cursing them for causing blackouts. 

How the hell can they cause blackouts when they exist in nothing but blackouts?  Somebody in the GPL, in the PPP hierarchy, in the PPP apology department answer that one to the satisfaction of the people.  Not I, the people.

 The GPL is now like a low streetwalker (censors say no word beginning with a w [which sounds like h]).  He or she finds fault with everyone and everywhere for their naked peddling of flesh for a shilling.  Recall the GPL.  Blackouts caused by contractors.  Blackout(s) caused by a Chinese operator.  Blackouts the result of a runaway minibus.  Blackouts the product of a racing truck.  Blackouts traced to transmission wires, and leaning lan-tun posts.  Blackouts due to the flaws and failures of everybody, except the GPL, and a dirty, decayed PPP Govt.

Now to top it all off, the GPL delivers a high voltage shock to John and Mary Public: They are responsible for blackouts.  It is why I am so much for the return of the cat o’ nine tails, public flogging, and stocks.  And those English bonfires.  I like the Chinese way: one final sendoff for the inefficient, incompetent, and those whose hands have hair.

Venezuela, Guyana: the mysteries, intrigues, of power

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592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

Venezuela, Guyana: the mysteries, intrigues, of power

OPINION BY: GHK LALL– September 2026

Imperial power.  It certainly can be multilayered.  Deep and complex.  A mystery in operation; fascinating it is expression, projection.  Take developments in Venezuela that are already well underway.  Consider developments pending in Guyana, that could go another way, send shivers up and down the spine of those in charge here.  Venezuela first.

Senor Alejandro Betancourt.  Only in the American firmament can a man go from a person of interest to a partner making possible massive reciprocal interests.  How does a man make that long journey, take that giant jump, from alleged law violator to oil intriguer and partner?  Just so there’s no mistake, the man spotlighted today is Senor Alejandro Betancourt and not that long ago former Venezuelan President, Romulo Betancourt.  Both the ancient and modern Betancourt seem to have a special love for America.  God bless America!  May God be merciful to them and me.

News coming to light highlights the role of Senor Betancourt in the removal of Nicolas Maduro.  Recall that he was under American law enforcement radar at the time.  Recall that he was a prime beneficiary of lucrative contracts under both the Chavez and Maduro regimes.  But this Venezuela billionaire bolichico -young master of the universe became a partner and instrument in an oil setup that essentially gifts a quarter of Venezuela’s sacred national treasure to America. 

In this deal of millennia, it is so good that its terms have to be kept away from Venezuelans.Imagine that arrangement.  A man grabs a quarter of the family house and all the riches in it, and the family is clueless of what its members get.  A big uncle, however, is a major contributor to the deal.

My impression is that even that formidable lady, she of nine lives durability, Senora Delcy Rodrigues was a secondary player in American-Venezuelan maneuvers.  Alejandro Betancourt was the main man; now stands as a tower of power in Venezuela.  From my own calling, I believe in the power of correction, redemption, and reconciliation.  But even for one like me, this is mindboggling and breathtaking.  Though not without precedent.  Remember, it’s America.  Only permanent interests.  I see the Pentagon featuring prominently; that says it all.

From Venezuela, what to say about Guyana?  What’s there to say?  I start simple.  American wants Mohamed.  One will do.  Two is better

Alejandro Betancourt and Azzrudin Mohamed

Looking at recent developments in Venezuela, intuition grows stronger that Azruddin Mohamed can be Guyana’s Alejandro Betancourt.  The parallels are eerie.  Mohamed a local billionaire.  Like Betancourt.  Mohamed a man under the U.S. microscope.  Like Betancourt.  Mohamed a man that was close to the seat of power in Guyana.  Like Betancourt in Caracas.  Mohamed a man on whom the U.S. wants to lay hands, ask some questions.  Like Betancourt of Venezuela at one time.  I believe that the U.S. wants what is in the Mohamed’s heads (two).  The Guyanese can use their heads like the Venezuelan billionaire and end up on the side of the righteous.  They are different kinds.

So, what will it be for the local man?  I wouldn’t fight extradition.  I would visit the U.S. Embassy and say: I am ready.  Get out the cuffs.  Let’s get down to business.  Let’s start talking.  Alejandro Betancourt did that, and a president was removed.  A runner, a corrupter, a stealer and a liar.  How about those in Caracas?  Just find the equivalent parties in Georgetown.  The human pickings are plenty.  Try this other thought.  Is there any Guyanese-in the Offices of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Attorney General, the Guyana Police, the Guyana Taxman, the Guyana Prosecution Office-who really believes that the Americans pursue the two Guyanese for some chickenfeed gold smuggling, tax evasion, and money laundering?  If there is one such Guyanese, he is stupider than I ever could be.

Wrap-up time.  Venezuela’s Betancourt dealt himself a fine hand, pleaded his case, emerged a winner.  He even gave up a brother in Maduro, a fellow caudillo.  Mr. Azruddin Mohamed’s table is before him.  He has good cards.  He went high and tight for decades.  There’s value in what’s in his head.  Bridgetown was the teaser.  New York or Miami could be the sweetener.  Thus, the mysteries and sophistications of imperial power in action. 

If I were part of the PPP hierarchy, I would seek asylum somewhere safe.  Those Blackhawk helicopters could be hovering.  The bell tolls.  For thee in the PPP brethren up there.  Even the freest rein to Exxon could be reduced to mere smoke.

 

AG Anil Nandlall hails Chris Ram

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592 GUARDIAN◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM◊GUYANA

AG Anil Nandlall hails Chris Ram

OPINION BY : GHK LALL– September 2026
I have always said that Guyana’s Hon Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC, MP, is capable of exceptional moments, actually has one of them, occasionally.  I wished there were more, especially given the caliber of this son of Guyana.  Separately, there’s a learning opportunity in Mr. Nandlall’s example for Excellency Ali.  Yeah, I should know better: water on duck’s back.

Attorney Chris Ram AG Anil Nandlall

Mr. Nandlall picked as fine a spot as he could.  A public tribute, a powerful and persuasive word of thanks for Chartered Accountant and attorney-at-law, Chris Ram.  Apparently, Mr. Ram contributed heavily to the finalizing of the Law School now growing in Guyana. 

A monumental achievement, for this oil rich country; the best site for it to be located. 

If Mr. Nandlall would permit the courtesy, I extend my own appreciation for the herculean efforts that Ram put in, with backing from the attorney-general himself, to make the law school in Guyana progress from a vision to the edges of a visible entity.  Guyana owes Mr. Ram.  At least, prospective law students, domestic and abroad, should be aware of the pivotal role he played to make the regional law school possible in Guyana.

First, there was a committee.  It didn’t hold long, wasn’t up to the task, fell down on the job.  Then, there was a tag team of which the ubiquitous Chris Ram was one half.  It didn’t fare well, was soon consigned to the dustbin of history.  Inevitably, it came to that time: Ram & McRae selected, two illustrious Guyanese names, one lone Guyana Ranger.  An extraordinary fighter for a law school in Guyana.  An arduous, uphill, battle at the beginning and many points afterwards.  I’m sure that there were times when he felt like that fortuneless fellow from Greek mythology.  Remember Sisyphus; the man with the boulder that had to be pushed to the mountaintop, only when it reached near there, to tumble right down back on him.

The gods must have their fun.  It may be so, but there was still a job to be done.

My understanding is that the now embattled President of the CCJ, Justice Winston Anderson, was a source of strength during those dark, difficult, dismal times.  So, too, was Excellency Jacqueline Brown, who was astute and admirable in her backing for a regional law school, and for it to be in Guyana.  In life, too often the end product is seen, and the champion contributors given visibility and heralded.  Mr. Ram deserves every syllable of recognition and praise for his work.  So, also, the head of the CCJ and the indefatigable Ms. Brown.

It feels good to pen this public service circular.  Guyana is now the proud address of a regional school.  Ram is the recipient of encomia from a PPP Govt luminary.  Energy and excellence are hailed momentarily.  There’s no place for any enemy.  Manufactured or the result of a commitment to a certain quality of national duty.  May this warm moment be more than temporary.  It’s not that I trust in God more today (though I am just back from preaching in his house). 

It is that I believe that all could be well in Guyana, if only there is that honest effort to nurture what is best in ourselves, and then express it publicly.

I started with a bow to Anil Nandlall.  I close with a curtsy to him.  May there be more of this, when such is due.  May he use his high office, his good offices, to tame the beast that roams so unchecked in many a breast.  Then escape to wreak one carnage after another across this country.  I am hard pressed to see how anyone in Guyana could be so tight, so disturbed, as to think differently.  Thanks again to Messrs. Chris Ram and Anil Nandlall.

Street exchange rate: $15,000 for $1.6 million

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592 GUARDIAN◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM◊GUYANA

Street exchange rate: $15,000 for $1.6 million

OPINION BY: GHK LALL— September2026

It’s unbelievable.  Try wrapping head around this: 90 feet of cable worth $1.6 million bartered for $15,000.  It’s the new street exchange rate that allows a man to eat.   I don’t know about powder or smoke, not going near those two.  After all, I have told this to Drs. Ali Mr. Food Security, Dr. Jagdeo  Mr. Food Psychology imagine being full, and not famished until blue in the face: a hungry Guyanese cannot eat concrete, cement, or sand, i.e., roads, bridges, and culverts.

People in this place are hungry.  A hungry man is a desperate man.  Grabbing ninety feet of heavy-duty copper cable weighing 30 pounds could not have been an easy feat.  With so many eyes watching.  With so many lights around.  But a hungry man somehow digs deep, finds that last ounce of superhuman strength.  Plus, the adrenaline gushing in torrents.  I would slap him around for the drugs, but give him a pass for the food.  Because that’s reality in oil rich PPP Guyana. 

A citizen so hungry, that he faces danger with aplomb, lugs 90 feet of cable that weighs dozens of pounds, so that he can get a bite to eat. 

If I were among the leaders in the PPP Govt, I would hang my head in shame, have difficulty facing the poor people of Guyana.  All these billions, and a citizen is forced to steal to sate the pangs of his hunger, so that he could survive to tomorrow.

Mothers shoplifting milk for their children.  Mothers cutting their fingers when slicing whatever they have.  To spread it around, so that all the children get something to take to school for lunch or the lessons that come later.  Meat and fish are usually off the menu, whatever the mothers are slicing.  Too expensive.  Too out of reach.

I am thinking of this national embarrassment, this governmental humiliation.  In a land of abundance-rich stats, richer leadership rhetoric, and the richest cash flow in its history-there are those who are compelled to scrounge to make it through another day.  Is the president listening?  Is he still seeing political motives in every statement, around every corner, behind every shadow?  Whatever the president sees, he should peel away the scales from his eyes, and see that man from Albouystown breaking the law, and pilfering a load of copper wire to reduce the gnawing wrenching that stretches from his esophagus to his duodenum.  Hunger is a hurting thing.  It’s not Lou Rawles, it Guyana’s cruel environment

Look at this tragic episode in the life and times of this dazzling new era in Guyana’s existence.  To lift himself out of hunger’s ferocious grip, a man has to break the law.  To the PPP Govt, I say.  Argue about true rate of poverty.  Hide that statistic.  Boast about cash grant.  Extol PPP Govt wisdom and generosity. Then face this set of unyielding facts and circumstances: how many more Guyanese are engaging in below the radar, petty theft, to make ends meet, to put a pot on the fire? 

How many citizens of this glorious Republic are rummaging in either private or public receptacles to see how lucky they could get, if they would hit the jackpot today?  Meaning, a slice of leftover bread or bake thrown out for the pickup people to haul away?

Hunger is transforming Guyanese into lawbreakers.  How many caught?  How many have the book of justice thrown at them, put away?  An injustice, from my perspective, when leaders live like lords of the manor, flitting from one banquet to another, guzzling the fat of the land.  Fat that first belongs to the Guyanese people, and not their abusers and deceivers.

The question I have is what is Guyana’s justice system to do with this copper cable thief?  Make him an example?  What is the PPP Govt going to do with him?  Probably, make him into a monster, then sell that as a Xmas toy to scare the children.

Donald Trump, Irfaan Ali: what differentiates, who imitates?

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592 GUARDIAN♥ACCOUNTABILITY♥INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♥GUYANA

Donald Trump, Irfaan Ali: what differentiates, who imitates?

OPINION BY: GHK LALL September 2026

I have long observed Presidents Donald Trump and Irfaan Ali.  Who’s the leader, who the imitator?  Which one is the pretender, or are they both?  Because of the grand and glorious natures of both Pres Trump and Pres Ali, the great pretender is more appropriate.  The competition between the two is for the crown of who is the greater pretender.  It’s a close call, almost a photo finish.   Consider.

Pres Trump just finalized a secret deal with Venezuela, with a hapless and helpless President Delcy Rodriguez dragged along, while trying to keep her slip from showing.  He instantly proclaimed it as the best oil deal ever.  Mosey on over to Guyana, and there is Pres Ali’s PPP Govt.  According to Guyana’s Ali, his PPP Govt is the most transparent in Guyana’s history. 

The pressures of his high, demanding, office made him forget access to information; Exxon audits; and cost-of-living stats distorted. . 

An American and a Guyanese, both leaders who discredit themselves appallingly without any help from others, claiming to be the best in class, the best ever.

Pres Trump has visions of Making America Great Again.  He succeeded.  In reimaging the KKK and reselling it as MAGA.  Though no cone hats and white sheets for their uniform, there’s still white heat generated by a storm of white supremacy.  I wonder how many of those characters are resident in Duke Street and Ogle.  So that all Guyanese get my point, the U.S. Embassy and that projection of American imperial power, Exxon, respectively.  Exxon’s red, white, and blue colors are not accidental.  I should be proud.

In Guyana, Pres Ali very much likes the idea that he is the greatest.  He isn’t named Mohamed I. Ali for nothing.  Whereas, Mr. Trump has MAGA, Mr. Ali has One Guyana.  Renegade Indians, tribal traitors, and parasites and naysayers from Guyana’s other tribes are not welcome inside the One Guyana tent.  Though separated by 2500 miles of ocean and islands, the American Donald Trump and Guyanese Irfaan Ali are the closest reproduction of those Siamese marvels that’s been my joy to encounter. 

 To this point, the thrust has been that when Trump and Ali are lined up side-by-side, what differentiates?  What separates?

Candidate Trump campaigned on a pledge to end wars.  On assuming office, he promptly discarded that pledge and runs with one of the biggest moneymakers for the Republican base Wall Street and America’s sprawling military-industrial complex.  When there are no grounds for war, he manufactures one.  Perhaps, he meant the thought of war, and not the practice of it. 

Candidate Ali campaigned on a pledge to review and renegotiate all contracts.  On assuming Guyana’s presidency, he declared war on Guyanese interests, by settling for newfound solace in sanctity of contract.  Identical to how Trump pays his debts to America’s war machine and business interests, so also Ali’s halter wrapped around his neck compels him to pay PPP indebtedness to America; those commitments made to Pompeo, Lynch, and others of that cabal.

Pres Trump has issued pardons left and right to insurrectionists and subversives.  Those who laid waste to the Capitol in Washington, in the manner of Atilla the Hun and Alaric the Visigoth.  Vandalism doesn’t come near to covering that wreckage.  Yet, presidential pardons and Republican no objections have since led to those being doled out like donuts and free coffee. 

Pres Ali and his PPP have a cabinet, a Congress, a consulate or two, and a cohort, where there’s no need to look too long, or research too hard, to find terrorists, stalkers, predators, assassins, financial felons, and corrupters.  Like America, so Guyana.  Somehow those outstanding Guyanese emerge with untarnished hands and sanitized characters, compliments of some mysterious PPP pardoning process.  Purest Guyanese patriots.

Both Presidents Trump and Ali see the free and independent sections of the media as an enemy to be vanquished.  Both Trump and Ali see the judiciary in a certain light, have their uses for it.  Both leaders boast a compulsion to the outlandish and outrageous.  Both seem to think nothing of immersing themselves in the injurious and infantile.

Summation time.  In considering all this, the two earlier questions return reinforced.  Donald Trump and Irfaan Ali: who is the leader, who the imitator?  What differentiates, what separates?  One more: who came first, who owns first place?  A progressive, everyone.