GUYANA | The Toll-Free Bridge That Chains Our Children to Debt

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Friday, August 29, 2025 - In the annals of political history, few spectacles rival the farce unfolding in Guyana today—a regime drunk on oil money, peddling "development" as if it were a carnival trick, while shackling our nation's future to a mountain of foreign debt.

This is not mere incompetence; it is a calculated betrayal by the PPP/C cabal, who treat our sovereignty like a pawn in their game of geopolitical chess. 

Take the new Demerara Harbour Bridge, hailed as a monument to progress, yet financed not through our overflowing oil revenues but via a staggering €160.8 million (roughly US$172 million) loan from the Bank of China. 

This is not innovation; it's indenture, a reckless plunge into dependency that mocks the very notion of fiscal sovereignty.

Now, let us strip away the propaganda and expose the raw truth: this loan was not drawn from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), that bloated piggy bank the PPP/C loves to parade as proof of their genius. 

No, it was borrowed outright, piling an additional US$172 million (plus undisclosed interest) onto our national ledger, even as ExxonMobil's black gold pumps billions into our coffers. The oil bonanza, which has swollen Guyana's GDP to unprecedented heights, should be a shield against such folly. 

Instead, it has become a smokescreen for profligacy. As barrels flow and revenues surge, why borrow from Beijing? Because this regime prioritises grandstanding over prudence, optics over obligation, leaving our children to foot the bill for their vanity projects.

And speaking of bills, the interest rate remains a state secret, a glaring omission in a government that preens about transparency. They have trumpeted the loan amount and the lender with fanfare, but when it comes to the cost Guyanese will bear, the punitive rates that could balloon this debt into an economic albatross, they clam up like thieves in the night. 

If good governance demands openness, this is outright deceit, a blatant assault on the public's right to know. How dare they proclaim the bridge "toll-free" as a benevolent gift, while hiding the chains of compound interest that will bind us for decades? This is not leadership; it is legerdemain, a con job wrapped in nationalist rhetoric.

The debt clock, meanwhile, ticks like a time bomb. As of December 31, 2024, Guyana's total Public and Publicly Guaranteed debt stood at US$5.993 billion, up from about US$4.5 billion the year prior. By mid-2025, projections show it climbing to over US$7.15 billion, a relentless escalation fueled by this regime's addiction to borrowing. 

External debt alone surged to US$2.25 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to recent economic indicators. That is billions in obligations heaped upon the backs of unborn generations, a moral outrage in a nation awash in resource wealth. The PPP/C apologists crow about a declining debt-to-GDP ratio—down to 24.3% by late 2024, and reportedly as low as 16% now, thanks to oil-driven GDP explosions. 

But this is statistical sleight-of-hand, a hollow boast that ignores the absolute debt burden. Skyrocketing GDP from volatile oil prices does not magically or automatically erase liabilities; it merely camouflages the danger. What happens when oil markets crash, or global demand shifts to renewables? Our debt remains, a fixed noose tightening around a fluctuating economy.

This is the essence of the resource curse, that insidious trap where windfall revenues breed complacency, corruption, and catastrophic borrowing. As Nobel laureate economist Jeffrey D. Sachs has warned, "poor countries fell into a persisting debt trap," ensnared by short-term gains that mortgage long-term stability. 

Guyana, once a poster child for potential, is hurtling toward this abyss under PPP/C stewardship. Instead of channeling oil proceeds into sovereign wealth funds, education, healthcare, or diversified industries, they squander it on debt-financed spectacles. 

The bridge exemplifies this: a shiny bauble built on borrowed time, its "toll-free" status nothing but a cynical ploy to buy votes.

Toll-free? What a sickening euphemism for taxpayer-funded extravagance. The PPP/C gloats about delivering "progress" without user fees, as if miracles pay for maintenance, staffing, and inevitable repairs. 

These costs won't evaporate; they'll be siphoned from general revenues, burdening every Guyanese through higher taxes or slashed services. It is free at the crossing, but paid for in perpetuity by the working class, the farmers, the small business owners who already strain under inflation and inequality. 

Meanwhile, the real beneficiaries, Chinese contractors and their enablers, reap profits while externalising the pain.

Worse still, this borrowing binge coincides with environmental devastation wrought by Chinese interests across Guyana. From gold mining that poisons our rivers and deforests our lungs of the earth, to infrastructure projects that disregard ecological safeguards. The PPP/C, caped as "developers," turns a blind eye, prioritising loans over legacy. Our lands scarred, communities displaced, biodiversity ravaged—all in the name of "growth." 

As another Nobel Prize-winning economist, Amartya Sen, astutely observes, "Economic growth without investment in human development is unsustainable - and unethical." Still, here we are, chasing GDP spikes at the expense of our people's well-being, our environment's health, and our fiscal sanity.

This is not mere mismanagement; it is willful sabotage, an authoritarian regime mortgaging tomorrow's prosperity to cling to power today. Obscuring loan terms, inflating debt amid abundance, and crowing about "free" infrastructure while our children inherit servitude: in reality it is a blueprint for disaster. 

Guyana deserves better than this cabal's theatrics, this parade of boondoggles that enrich the elite and impoverish the masses. We have seen it before in oil-rich nations like Venezuela or Nigeria, where resource wealth fueled corruption, not upliftment. Must we repeat their tragedies?

The oil era could be our renaissance, a chance to build resilient institutions, invest in human capital, and forge a diversified economy. Instead, the PPP/C squanders it on debt traps, environmental neglect, and opaque deals that smell of self-interest. Their "progress" is a pyramid scheme, built on the sands of borrowed billions, destined to collapse under its own weight.

There's nothing remotely amusing about this regime's charade, in fact, it is a national tragedy in slow motion. Guyanese, awaken to the peril: our future hangs in the balance. In mere days, the ballot box offers hope and redemption. 

Vote this corrupt, reckless cabal out before the next bridge, the next loan, the next environmental catastrophe becomes another millstone around our necks. Reclaim our destiny, reject the debt chains, and build a Guyana truly free—not toll-free in name, but liberated from the PPP/C who would sell it out.

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