Debbie Nevins - Guyana

L OCATED ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA, GUYANA is a relatively small country. Nestled between Suriname and Venezuela to its east and west, it also borders the gigantic country of Brazil to the south. Guyana is a country that doesnt often make international headlines, but today it is perched upon the brink of great new possibilities. For better or for worse, they could change everything.

The Cooperative Republic of Guyana was once known as British Guiana. In those days, 18141966, it was a British colony and part of the British West Indies. Today, though, its an independent nation, and the only English-speaking country in South America. In 2016, it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of independence with a colorful, upbeat, six-week-long festival. Guyanese are naturally proud of their country, poor though it is. In fact, its the poorest country on the continent and one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

With its natural attributes and resources, Guyanas poverty can seem surprising. After all, this is a land of massive, pristine rain forests endowed with energetic rivers, breathtaking waterfalls, and diverse Amazonian wildlife. Bauxite, gold, and diamonds are found beneath its soils. Sugarcane and rice grow in abundance.

Orinduik Falls on the Ireng River is one of Guyanas many impressive waterfalls.

But against this backdrop of a rugged and unspoiled ecosystem, Guyanas history is filled with struggles and pain. Caribbean Amerindians, European colonial masters, African slaves, and indentured laborers from East India, China, and Portugal have all left their marks on Guyana. Today their descendents number fewer than one million. Most live along the narrow coastal strip facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Often called the land of six peoples, the Guyanese are a multiethnic mix. Despite their claims of unity, however, they are divided by racial and ethnic tensions. The Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese are the largest groups and have most of the political power. They are distinct populations who mostly do not intermix. A racial atmosphere clouds all aspects of society and politics.

The main political parties are dominated by the two groups, and party loyalty depends less on political philosophies than on ethnic makeup. Presidential elections usually pit the candidates of the Indo-Guyanese Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) against those of the Afro-Guyanese Peoples National Congress (PNC). In 2015, David A. Granger, a politician with African roots, became the president with the support of a coalition party which included the PNC. He was to remain Guyanas president until the next elections in 2020, but a vote of no confidence dissolved his government in late 2018. Earlier that year, the seventy-three-year-old president announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. His illness, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system. In October of that year, Granger flew to Cuba for more complete testing and to begin chemotherapy treatment.

That the president felt he could not obtain optimal medical treatment in his own country speaks volumes about Guyana. It is a very poor country, and the reasons for that are complicated. It also suffers a severe brain drain as educated and highly trained people emigrate abroad in record numbers. They leave behind an inadequate, understaffed, and underfunded health-care system. The problem is circular. Because Guyana is a poor country, homegrown professionals move to other countries for better salaries and better working conditions. In turn, the deficit of skilled workers only reinforces Guyanas poverty.

David A. Granger became the president of the Republic of Guyana in 2015.

Guyana has tried a variety of governing and economic approaches. It had a state-led socialist dictatorship for its first few decades, and moved on to a democratic government with more of a private-sector economy. The latter approach has led to a much improved economy in recent years. Nevertheless, the country is still dragged down by its previously incurred debts, a shortage of skilled labor, deficient infrastructure, and ongoing racial and ethnic tensions.

But wait! A powerful and surprising factor has recently been thrown into this logjam. And it has the potential to blow that logjam wide open. Essentially, Guyana has hit the jackpot, and that jackpot is oil. The big question now is: will the country go boom or bust?

In 2015, the ExxonMobil Corporation and its international partners discovered vast oil reserves off the coast of Guyana. Since then, they have been rapidly building wells. The oil is expected to start flowing in 2020, and ExxonMobil has promised about half the profits to Guyana. That money could be enough to transform the nation into a new international powerhouse, raking in wealth it never imagined. The gush of oil dollars will begin pumping about $300 million each year into the governments coffers, and could rise to $5 billion per year in about ten years.