Uncle Ramesh Doodnauth, 67, retired civil servant, Brooklyn, NY. Back at the phone on Monday morning.

Bai, I barely finish me roti and me already have to defend me country from de Brief again.

First: de flooding. Yes, it flood. It always flood when it rain dat hard. You know what they doing about it? BUILDING. Roads, drainage infrastructure, whole new housing schemes. You cyah fix 200 years of Dutch drainage engineering in five years. But dem trying. De Brief prefer to make a joke. Uncle Ramesh prefer to look at de big picture.

Now: de handrails. De Brief acting like dis is some kind of national embarrassment. Let me ask you something. Before de oil, what contract Guyanese companies getting on ANY offshore FPSO anywhere in de world? ZERO. Now dem getting contracts — yes, starting with fabrication work, yes, starting with handrails — but you have to START somewhere. Every supply chain in every oil economy in de world start at de bottom and work up. De local content framework is YOUNG. Give it time.

And Guyoil raising gas prices 12%? You know what DIDN’T raise? De cost of natural gas from our own production that is COMING when Gas-to-Energy done. When dat come online, prices go DOWN. We building toward something. De AFC complaining about profits is de AFC doing what it always do — talk without a plan.

De field hospital in Essequibo is a BIG DEAL. You know how long people in de Essequibo been waiting for proper medical facilities? Dat is real, tangible government reaching people where dey live. But de Brief put it in two sentences and move on.

De Harpy Eagles defending dey championship. DEFENDING. Champions, bai.

And 100+ young entrepreneurs at de GYEC mixer? Dis is EXACTLY what de country need — young people plugged into de economy, meeting ministers, meeting IDB, networking. De future building itself right there in dat room and de Brief more interested in making jokes about handrails.

Handrails today. Pipelines tomorrow. Watch.

— Uncle Ramesh, Brooklyn, since 1987

Uncle Ramesh’s Take is a satirical pro-government response feature. Uncle Ramesh is a fictional character.