A few months ago, I had the opportunity to visit a country that truly doesn’t get enough attention, especially with some of the things that are have been actively unfolding over the past few years.
I’m talking about Guyana.
Guyana is in North-South America, and along with French Guinea and Suriname makes up a triad of countries with an eclectic combination of international influences, due unfortunately to slavery, colonization, and imperialism.
I figured a visit would be a good chance to set foot in one of South America’s least visited lands, even though the context of my visit was short and limited.
I made it into Georgetown late at night. It felt like a small city to be the county’s capital, but the small family homes on the way from the airport were nice and in good shape.
Getting closer to the city center, however, it became clear that this was a city in the midst of a rapid evolution. Construction cranes loomed everywhere and each roadside lot contained sacks of concrete and other materials.
This city was rapidly developing.
It’s quite the turnaround from 2015. Back then, Guyana would have ranked towards the bottom of just about every desirable metric. Education. Healthcare. Infrastructure.
One area where it topped the charts was the saddest. It had the highest suicide rate. Morale was really low.
Guyana did have something going for it, though. Something it’s always had. An incredible environment.
It’s on the northern edge of the Amazon Rainforest, and so the biodiversity was extremely diverse. Many tree and animal species thrived. It was a birder’s paradise and if you were outside the continent, that would have been a likely reason to pay attention to Guyana.
Its ecotourism potential could surpass Costa Rica’s, and locally, most people really valued their nature.
While 2015 was a low point for most Guyanese, the year also marked a major turning point for the country.
Oil was discovered just off the coast.
A few years ago I made an explainer about how Qatar got extremely wealthy from the discovery of an oil reserve in just the right spot. Guyana almost immediately took a similar trajectory. The oil companies went after those products hard.
Whenever I’d stay at a hotel or order at a restaurant, I’d be asked what oil company I work for. The presence of foreigners is so strongly linked to oil right now that its almost anticipated. I guess a lot of oil workers just keep a running tab.
(I really wonder how long, if at all, I could’ve gotten away with having a bunch of chicken curry courtesy of Chevron)
Economically, the oil has been very beneficial for Guyana. At least at the surface level.
If you pay attention to different countries since 2020, you’ll notice the majority have struggled to grow. There are a few that buck the trend, but none to the extent that Guyana has. The country has surged to the top of growing economies, growing at 4x the rate of the next country on the rise, Fiji.
Of course, you can see where there’s a bit of tension between the different elements that define Guyana. This is a country that has so much to teach the world about environmental stewardship. The indigenous peoples of Guyana are incredibly aligned with nature.
But Guyana is supplying the world with more fossil fuels than just about anyone else. At a time where the world needs to be decarbonizing. Where every reduction matters, where every month matters.
This tension, however, was not strongly felt among the Guyanese. In fact, trying to talk to people about that apparent tension proved to be difficult. What tension? The country has a chance to really improve. In fact people have been directly witnessing that improvement.
And many of Guyana’s leaders have maintained that this is all part of Guyana’s low carbon development strategy. To ride the wave of economic growth oil brings in the short term, then use that to invest in cleaner infrastructure.
Coming from where I’m coming from, it’s easy to tag that as greenwashing. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where it doesn’t actually play out like that.
And yet…
I don’t feel entirely easy critiquing it. Many of the comforts I enjoy in my daily life are the indirect result of my country exploiting humans and nature. My horse is too high to see objectively.
There are other valid reasons to be concerned for the Guyanese, though.
For one, global interest in oil is on the decline and that trend is here to stay. While Guyana is taking a lion’s share of the industry, it’s not a particularly promising industry.
Another item: the resource curse. It’s totally possible for a country to find access to a resource and to market it, but to have that not benefit its own people at all. You just have to go next door to oil-rich Venezuela to find where that isn’t the case.
I had a moment to visit the Essequibo. The river flows into the Amazon. It was great to get lost in the embrace of its trees. To strip down and wade in the river a little bit.
I had no definitive conclusion to my encounters in Guyana. Something remained hanging. It felt unfinished.
Now what?
Sometimes nature tells us, just be here.
I had a blast talking with guys like my driver Chezi, who grew up on the outside of Georgetown. Despite all the changes, he insists that the locals for the most part prefer life to be simple, and while they enjoy the growth, they don’t want their area to be more hectic.
He told me this, of course, against the backdrop of construction cranes and cement mixers.
For what it’s worth, I’m glad I visited Guyana at this current moment. As it feels like it’s on the cusp of something. In what direction things move in the future? Time will only tell.
On the whole, Guyana wouldn’t be too high on my list of countries begging a return trip. The nature is splendid and the food scene is fascinating. But getting around was a chore, and often cost-prohibitive.
I’m curious if that’s different five years from now, though.