Oil deals. Now I have just heard that our GOB has rescinded the oil deal to Mr. Tony Zabaneh and Mr. Mike Duncker. Reportedly the parties are working on a new deal, one consistent with the new law on sharing petroleum wealth. Maybe the old deal (the one that caused hackles to raise all about) is done, but it is not buried. There are some aspects to the matter that need some airing. What thought processes were evident here? Was it, the deal, all bad?
I don’t think that the point made on “unnumbered” page in the Belize Times of October 21, 2007, that we should be glad for brothers Tony and Mike, is without merit. The unknown author on the unnumbered page wrote: “Hell, shouldn’t all Belizeans be proud when one of our own takes the risk of investing in a local industry and is assisted by the government in doing so?” The writer explained that if said investing parties “…were to find oil in blocks 15 and 16, then the money they earn will be re-invested in other Belizean industries. There is no guarantee that Lagoon (the foreign oil company that is reported to be upset about losing out on the deal) will invest one penny in Belize.”
These are valid comments. Love it or noh love it, Belize is a capitalist state, and that is the way the capitalist system works. It is better that we promote our own. But, there is such a thing as a limit. Should we promote our own to the detriment of the national good? I don’t think so. If the graphs reproduced in The El Guardian are on the money, re-sharing of the spoils, somebody might have bent over, helped too far. Yap, there might have been too much condensed milk at the bottom of that cup of cocoa.
According to The El Guardian graphs, if the two local companies strike the devil’s excrement (I read an excerpted story in the Amandala a couple weeks ago where a party from South America called oil the devil’s excrement because it is the cause of great strife in countries where it is found), that Belize would get 1.5 percent of the take for the first 25,000 barrels of oil sucked out of the ground per day, increasing to 15 percent for us if the companies suck out 225,000 barrels per day or more. But the foreign company that wanted in on the deal was reportedly complying with recommendations made by the Commonwealth Secretariat re-the sharing of oil profits. For the first 5,000 barrels sucked out of the ground, Belize nation would have been getting 15 percent if the deal had been given to Lagoon Resources Ltd., and if that company sucked out in excess of 30,000 barrels per day, we would have received 40 percent.
Government sources are reportedly saying that the reason why they gave our guys the obvious sweet deal is because the contracts were signed based on the old system, the same old system under which BNE, the company that is sucking oil at Spanish Lookout, is allowed to pay so little to national coffers. If we backtrack a little, we remember that the explanation for the sweet deal to BNE is that everyone had lost faith in Belize oil futures, and to attract and encourage BNE, our GOB had to bend over backwards, over a barrel, as incentive. Be that so, that does not fully explain why the two local companies that have emerged on the scene recently got the full sweetener.
I one hundred percent agree with giving the incentives to locals. But, if you go to the extreme end, 225,000 barrels per day, why, these gentlemen would have become millionaires many times over. Pray, why do multi-millionaires, even Belizean ones, need sweeteners? The proper mechanism, in the best interest of Belize, would have been for us to get our chunk of flesh when our good brothers’ oil businesses were well under way. I say, sweetener to get them off the ground, and due pound of flesh for us when the ship is under full sail.
My brothers and sisters, it is well and emphatically proven to us that we cannot depend on our wealthy business folk to take care of our needs. If we learned anything from the past decade or so, it is that when a businessman puts Belize’s wealth into his bank account, it is off limits to us. Heck, the Prime Minister has made comment that his government helped out certain businesses when we were going full steam ahead into growth economics, and they (our businessmen) didn’t step up, abandoned ship, when we went into haad time. Tell me, you know anywho, who step forward? It is like our leaders noh di laan a taal.
There is another matter about this oil deal we are yet to hear fully about. There is the story that one company (the foreigner) did all the work, and our people went in and got the sweets. Now we know that we traditionally bend over backwards, over a barrel, for foreigners who do business here. The way it works, I hear, is that foreign pirates pay shade money to local pirates, for license to run roughshod over us.
It’s rare indeed when we get the better of foreign oligarchs. The banker who bought the shares in the phone business tramples us. Remember how our Melinda got ripped off out there? Foreigners protect and encourage their own. Did we over protect our own in this instance? Hn, this twist might make an interesting dance. In time we will get the details about what really transpired here, to inform opinion. But until then…
Hey, Amandala’s Editor has just handed me a press release from the brothers down south, explaining their case. Look for comments on that elsewhere in this week’s paper.
Mayan victory. I do not know what all will follow the bold decision by Chief Justice Conteh to give rights to the Mayan brothers and sisters in the South. For those of us who are having difficulty with the decision, I must point out again the case of our brothers and sisters, the Mennonites of Spanish Lookout, Barton Creek Springfield, Little Belize, Blue Creek (Orange Walk) and Shipyard. I cannot recall the exact date, but sometime in the fifties a group of Mennonites purchased many thousands of acres of land in the Spanish Lookout Area. More or less the rights the Mennonites purchased in the fifties, is what the Belize Maya who have lived here from “time immemorial” and a few just come who share their way of life, earned in the courts last week.
If you go to Pueblo Viejo or any other roots Mayan village in Toledo, you experience the pure Mayan culture. If you go to Spanish Lookout, or any other of the enclaves controlled by the Mennonites, you experience the pure Mennonite culture. Not all Mennonites live on land where Mennonite law rules; not every Mayan person lives in the villages of Toledo. But in the areas where they live as a group, the cultures are pure. The important difference between the two groups is that previous to the CJ’s ruling in the Supreme Court, one had rights (the Mennonites), and the other (the Maya) had none.
P.S. The parents of Carlos Beardall, the young boy who needs a bone marrow transplant in Chetumal, informs all persons who have an interest in assisting their cause that they can do so at Scotia Bank, Account Number 1800974.