More on Guyana

I wrote the other day about my trip to Guyana to support the opening of a safety council there. My professor asked about the trip and specifically asked if corruption and crime were at all involved in the negotiations and work we were doing there. 

His question jogged a memory. When we were on this trip to Guyana, I presented to the Guyana government and representatives on the benefits of a safety council. 

There were also many representatives from Trindad with us who wanted to be vendors for the safety council work Guyana was planning with Exxon. Most of the Guyana representatives were very stand-offish to getting any help from their Trinidadian neighbors and expressly said that they didn't trust the Trinidadian vendors. There was also a belief that was not so expressly discussed by the Trinidadian representatives that most of the challenges to entering the market in Guyana had to do with government and internal corruption. It was interesting as an outsider to see the different under-pinnings and undertones within the discussions. 

Additionally, it was interesting to see that there had been Chinese based multi-nationals organizations that had been in Guyana and investing in Guyana for ages and were also a part of mining operations that were "okay" with the "one death a day is fine" mantra. So there was a lot of prejudice about outside companies in general based on the effects of those outside organization's history within Guyana. It was certainly an uphill climb to establish a safety council there based on all of these challenges.