Hamilton Green says citizens are getting “crumbs” from oil and gold, urging national unity and stronger oversight to protect future gains.
A veteran statesman’s warning landed like a warning sign: Hamilton Green says the nation’s independence dreams are being chipped away, leaving citizens with “crumbs” instead of a fair return from natural wealth.
Speaking on the state of the nation 60 years after independence, Green framed the current direction as a mismatch with the hopes of the founding generation.. In his view, the way oil and gold are being handled contradicts the promise that resource riches would translate into broader prosperity at home.
Green’s central concern was how extraction decisions are affecting Guyanese people now and what they will lose later.. He argued that the country is allowing foreign interests to take minerals and oil, while citizens receive only a small slice of the benefits, if anything more than crumbs from the table.
The point he kept returning to was leverage over timing and control. It is not just about how much is taken, but about whether today’s pace is sacrificing tomorrow’s ability to build capacity and capture more value for those who come after.
Green also called for a strategic slowdown in extraction, invoking the idea that oil does not “spoil” and that the younger generation should have the chance to develop the technology and resources needed to harvest gold more effectively.. His argument leaned on the belief that value can be preserved until the country is better positioned to benefit from it.
He further raised alarms around oversight and transparency, criticizing how mineral declarations are handled. Green suggested there is no clear evidence that reported amounts match actual quantities, describing the situation as both a scandal and a disgrace.
On governance beyond resources, Green turned to the tug-of-war between the central government and Georgetown’s municipal functions.. He said efforts to take control of city streets and operations reflect a dangerous mindset he associated with historical dictators, warning that the approach is about control and optics rather than effective public service.
Green claimed the city was “starved” of funds to create justification for takeover, comparing it to removing a person from a situation while tying their hands, then presenting a rescue as proof of good intentions.. He also recalled initiatives from earlier years that, in his telling, were blocked or redirected after being proposed.
Even with a harsh assessment of the present, Green ended on a constructive note, calling for a renewed push toward national unity under the motto “One People, One Nation, One Destiny.” He pointed to earlier efforts to expand education and said today’s resource opportunities should be used to build “human infrastructure,” not just contracts that benefit friends.
The bigger message, though, is about bargaining power: when citizens are not united around shared outcomes, decisions about oil wealth and gold extraction can tilt toward outsiders and leave the public watching its potential shrink.