The Rasheed Griffith Show
The most confounding feature of the Caribbean is its rapid decay into stagnation. Rasheed Griffith interviews industry experts and researchers to figure out how we got here and how to reverse the trend in favor of accelerating progress in the Caribbean.
The Rasheed Griffith Show
Guyana, Oil and the Resource Curse - Collin Constantine
Talent will make or break a band, a company, and even a country. We're joined by Dr Collin Constantine to explore the requirements for successful growth, primarily in the context of Guyana, the region's potential rising star economy. Does Georgetown possess the necessary talent to bolster its social and political institutions or will they languish beneath a wave of uneven wealth distribution, similar to the likes of West African oil states?
Guyana's political history and economy are in a complicated state of disrepair. Racial and class tensions have resulted in unsteady leadership as various interests jostle for control at every level of government. Collin argues that an influx of fortunes from the recently discovered oil reserves could widen the divide.
Will Guyana's newfound financial weight create a unifying voice within the union or further exacerbate its irrelevance? CARICOM's viability and utility have been brought into question, with Jamaica even threatening to abandon the initiative at the turn of the decade. A shift in power to any single state could undermine the balance and dynamic of the Caribbean Community.
What about the local currency? Surely the government would seek to address a weak Guyanese dollar given its nascent energy sector, poised to bring significant foreign exchange to the country. Dr Constantine explains that while the local currency should be replaced with USD it will be a mainstay for the foreseeable future. The coming decade will be an interesting period of development for Guyana and the greater Caribbean region.