Since independence Guyana has been dysfunctional and neglected, the product of the colonial powers transporting hundreds of thousands of people from Asia and Africa to grow sugar for them. That might be about to change. In 2015, Exxonmobil announced that it had struck oil off the coast of Guyana. Since then, Exxon has found an average of 1.7 billion barrels per year, one of the biggest oil strikes in history, in a country of only 800,000 people. As of 2023, Guyana’s economy is three times larger than it was only three years ago and Guyana has more barrels of oil per person than any other country in the world. This video is about everything you need to know to understand Guyana, today.
Books
– John Gimlette, Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge, 2011
– John Hemming, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon, 2008
– Charles C. Mann, 1491: The Americas Before Columbus, 2005
– Charles C. Mann, 1493: How the Ecological Collision of Europe and the Americas Gave Rise to the Modern World, 2011
– McNeill, J. R, Mosquito Empires; Ecology and War in the Greater Carribbean, 2010
– English colonies in Guiana and on the Amazon, 1604-1668, James A. Williamson, 1923
00:00 Intro
01:13 Recap
02:45 Overview of Guyana
08:10 Georgetown
14:28 Modern Guyana
20:00 The Oil Question
25:50 Annai to Lethem
28:20 Reflections on Guyana
32:15 Next Series…
