The Ones Who Left
For decades Guyana exported its most capable people and imported their remittances. Oil money has not yet broken the pattern. Article 7 of twelve in Beyond the Resource Curse.
For decades Guyana exported its most capable people and imported their remittances. Oil money has not yet broken the pattern. Article 7 of twelve in Beyond the Resource Curse.
Drawing on a book-length comparative study of eighteen countries, Ramesh Gampat and Minakshi Mahabir document what they call the 64/80 paradox: Guyana out-invests 64 per cent of its comparators in health and education, yet 80 per cent of them obtain better human capital outcomes. Efficiency deficits, inequality and governance failure explain the gap — and the oil window for closing it will not stay open for ever.
Bauxite, gold and timber gave Guyana three booms, three different ownership structures, and the same outcome each time. Article 6 of twelve in Beyond the Resource Curse.
Nearly seventy-five years after Martin Carter first refused to still his voice, the closing line of “Looking at Your Hands” has become a national slogan. This Sunday Essay asks what it would mean to treat it instead as a standard, and to hold the M/V Barima inquiry, the closure of Stabroek News, and the institutions of the oil era answerable to the poem.
A GBJ Series · Beyond the Resource Curse Article 5 of 12 Independence morning, the nationalizations, and the gap between the deed and the doing. By Nabaclis Piknee · September…
A GBJ Series · Beyond the Resource Curse Article 4 of 12 What “ours” meant when the flag was still British. By Nabaclis Piknee · September 5, 2026 This essay…
A GBJ Series · Beyond the Resource Curse Article 3 of 12 A vault, a university, and what breaking a curse on purpose actually costs. By Nabaclis Piknee · August…
Oil Sector Policy · Analysis The Empty Rig Floor What ExxonMobil’s Permian Automation May Mean for Guyana’s Next Oil Decade A contractor in West Texas now moves two-thousand-pound drill…
GBJ Commentary · Trade & Investment A Trade Centre Is Not Yet Trade What the WTC Georgetown Conference Should Be Measured By Five days in Kingston, a first anniversary,…
The GBJ believes that the success of the no confidence motion and its aftermath coupled with the emerging oil economy has once again provided the key stakeholders with the opportunity to act boldly to seize a “grand bargain” that would see a genuine Government of National Unity preside over the emerging oil economy for the next six years. The broad outlines of the marriage of the economic, security, and environmental bonafides of the three key ethnic groups and its potential impact on Guyana’s social cohesion are clear. The GBJ believes that movement of this type in the political sector, now, would provide the impetus for robust economic growth in 2019.