Perpetual Domination

Extracted From:
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/02/perpetual-domination.html


Kaieteur News
27 February 2007

Freddie Kissoon Column
PERPETUAL DOMINATION

I have done in the National Park itself a lot of things after jogging. I don't have a copy of Kean Gibson's “The Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana .”

I took (mind you, I didn't “walk” with it) it with me, and after jogging, reclined under a tree and read it. It is a booklet, not a full length manuscript. I was livid, exasperated, and mad after what I read.

Gibson's little reader is nothing more than gossip you find at the fish market. I got up, stuck it between some branches, and headed towards my car.

One of the nicest post-jogging moments I have enjoyed in the park occurred three years ago. There I lay under a tree and read a beautiful editorial of the Stabroek News on environmental protection and ecological preservation in the Third World as a vehicle of domination by the developed countries.

The editorial quoted extensively from an author who showed that these so-called green mechanisms that the First World has laid down in the Third World are for the benefit of the industrialised countries.

I wonder if the writer of yesterday's Stabroek editorial remembers that piece three years ago. The problem with editorials is that they are done by several persons, and you may find that, five years after a position is taken on a certain phenomenon, another writer, unaware of the previous article, pens an exact opposite viewpoint.

In yesterday's editorial, the Government of Guyana is lambasted for allowing Buddy's International Hotel to proceed without an environmental impact assessment.

I have done three articles on the conspiracy and uselessness of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is the fourth essay. After destroying the ecology of the world through industrialisation, the rich Western societies have demanded that, if the Third World
countries are going to continue to receive aid, they have to adhere to certain ecological policy guidelines laid down by the EU and the US .

Now, mind you, this thing is a coercive process. The Third World could not have refused to have an Environmental Protection Agency. No EPA, no aid. Even with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Conservational International, countries like Guyana have to accept them. Incidentally, the advisor of WWF, Dr. Gary Clark, is a consultant to Barama.

The time is coming when territories like Guyana will be in a position to reject the EPA, WWF and other impositions because the traditional aid package is getting smaller each year.

Where is the EPA in the developed world? To answer that question, we should ask another question: who collects the ocean of cocaine that is shipped to the US ?

The US pushed the Narcotics Act down the throat of the Hoyte Administration. That was more than eighteen years ago. But the drug lords in the US are still receiving the “white lady” from the Caribbean (including Guyana ) and South America . Why hasn't the importation been
cut off a long time ago?

Where was the EPA in the USA when President Bush rejected the Kyoto Agreement? Where is the EPA in all those countries that continue to industrialise at the expense of the environment? These demands for ecological preservation remind one of the heydays of the anti-imperialist movement after WW2.

It sounds so imperialist in outlook – “for you to get aid, we want you to stop destroying the environment.” In these times, the word ‘imperialist' is no longer in vogue, but form changes, not substance. We don't say “imperialism” anymore. We say “unequal trade” or “hegemony
of the West.”

Take the question of aid. When I was in graduate school, one of the most influential books at the time was entitled, “Aid as imperialism.” It argued that when these aid packages are agreed on, the bulk of the money goes back to the donor country, because the recipient country has
to employ foreign consultants and buy the required products from the donor country.

Thirty years after that book was published, the situation remains identical. Go to the Oasis Cafe on Carmichael Street and you will see a school of foreign consultants having their lunch and dinner there. They live in the most expensive mansions in Region 4. At the end of the day,
a big chunk of the aid package goes to them. Now, don't get me wrong; this is not only confined to the West.

The Chinese operate in the same vein. This is the nature of imperialism. The Chinese, Indians and Brazilians are set to replace the Europeans and the Americans as the new powers in the Third World , but do you think their methods will be any different?

The aid contracts will stipulate that you have to buy the goods from China and employ Chinese consultants.

Today, in Guyana , the EPA is a hindrance to investment. It is an irrelevant agency whose authority should be minimised. Armed with its legality, the EPA goes around making life hard for small investors. Its personnel visit small business places and make all kinds of demands.
They enforce requirements that entail expenses that these struggling newcomers cannot afford.

Take the furniture industry. It is one of our strong points. We have good wood that the outside world craves for. I grew up in Georgetown seeing these modest establishments at work. Now, the EPA is on the loose. They visit these people and tell them about all types of modern
equipment they have to get.

There is this talk about an environmental impact assessment. Do you know how much that thing costs? When Europe and the US were developing, did they do any impact assessments?

Let's quote the Stabroek editorial, “”Even before the land was cleared, it was the EPA's mandate to ensure that an environmental impact assessment study was done for the sprawling 250-room hotel before a decision was made on an environmental permit to construct.” When
Pegasus was constructed on the outer rim of the Atlantic Ocean , there was no EPA or an environmental assessment impact. It remains a strong hotel.

I believe the President did a smart thing with the Buddy's International Hotel. He didn't order the EPA not to investigate, so the aid donors couldn't flex their muscles.

The EPA knew its place and kept its tail between its legs. I hope it continues to do so in the future.

By the way, which country is going to put sanctions on Japan for whaling? The big countries always protect their interests. The small countries must do the same.