Compensatory Claims to Bankrupt Guyana

Compensatory claims by our Caribbean island friends for oiled beaches would bankrupt Guyana

Our angelic lawyers and appellate judges are debating in medieval terms whether ‘assurance’ or ‘insurance’ or ‘full liability coverage’ or ‘complete indemnity’ can all sit on the head of a pin.  Meanwhile, let us consider why we need such security instruments.  Since the PEMEX oil spill at the Ixtoc-I well in the Gulf of Campeche…

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Recall Dorm Construction Bids

Recall all dorms construction bids and revise to exclude inflammable materials

Dear Editor,Your editorial of 24 May (Mahdia tragedy, https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/24/opinion/editorial/mahdia-tragedy/) on the horrific deaths of 19 children in a dormitory fire on Sunday night (and other children who are seriously burnt, all the children scarred for life) reminded us of the government’s serial failures to learn from the earlier deaths of three schoolgirls in Waramadong Secondary School…

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Fishermen as collateral

Are fishermen to be simply ‘collateral damage’ to the oil companies and contractors?

Please allow me to respond to ExxonMobil Guyana’s Media Advisor, Kwesi Isles, who you quoted in your article ‘Surveys in Demerara River approved by EPA for pipeline works – Exxon’ in KN on March 01, 2023.  I appreciate that the capital-intensive nature of the petroleum sector forces a ‘hurry, hurry’ approach, exacerbated in Guyana by…

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MARAD-notices-Janette

MARAD notices indicate these surveys have already started apparently without EPA authorisation

Has anyone asked the fish or fishermen? MARAD notice number 30 (2023) published on February 24 is for 8 months of geotechnical and geophysical surveying in the vicinity of the Demerara Main Ship Channel near Plantation Best and covering 70 square nautical miles.  MARAD notice number 31 (2023) published on February 22 is for 5…

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Amerindian communities accomplices

Gov’t now appears to be making Amerindian communities accomplices in this carbon credits illegality

The Department of Public Information has distributed several articles in the last few days in mid-February 2023 about the jurisdictional forest-based carbon credits (33.47 million tonnes of CO2e) awarded by Winrock/ART/TREES to the Government of Guyana on 01 December 2022 and sold immediately to the oil company Hess Corporation (USA).  Winrock has failed to respond…

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Money Loss of Control by Amerindians

Core issue is that vast amounts of money are being discussed which may involve loss of control by Amerindian titled Villages over their forests

I noted with interest the use of taxpayers’ money by the Department of Environment and Climate Change for a full-page advertisement in the Stabroek News, ‘Erroneous forest carbon analysis by Dr Janette Bulkan’, (06 January 2023).  This undated ‘public release’ advertisement addresses only 4 of the points made in the SN Daily Feature ‘Jurisdictional forest-based…

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The Amerindian Act is quite clear about whose responsibilities it is to manage titled Amerindian Village Lands

I recommend the article written by Ann Usher on ‘Indigenous groups in Guyana raise alarm over historic issuance of carbon credits by Norwegian-funded certifier’, Development Today, 23 December 2022. Available at: https://development-today.com/archive/dt-2022/dt-9-10—2022/indigenous-groups-in-guyana-raise-alarm-over-historic-issuance-of-carbon-credits-by-norwegian-funded-certifier. Development Today describes itself as ‘a free-standing journal covering Nordic aid, produced with no grants from donors or NGOs. Our journalism is funded by…

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Rainforest Foundation Norway: Questions on your congratulatory message on the issuance of Winrock-ART’s TREES jurisdictional forest-based carbon credits to Guyana on 5 December 2022

Dear Rainforest Foundation Norway We noted with surprise a congratulatory message attributed to Rainforest Foundation Norway on the issuance of Winrock-ART’s TREES jurisdictional forest-based carbon credits to Guyana on 5 December 2022 (Department of Public Information (2022) ‘Sale of carbon credits: $157B for investments in low-carbon development across Guyana’, Department of Public Information, 21 December. Available…

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