Social scientist Kirtie Algoe states that Suriname is insufficiently prepared for the social consequences of the expected billions of US dollars in oil and gas revenues. She warns, in conversation with the True Timethat preparation for the new industry increasingly resembles “a race against time between workhorses and ornamental horses”.
Text Kevin Headley
Image private collection
Algoe is skeptical about oil and gas development, because, according to her, various signals point to the risk of a ‘resource curse’. “For example, we can think of the warnings of the International Monetary Fund, the president’s statements about our readiness for the sector, rising land prices in certain areas, the status of the so-called savings fund and the labor shortage.”
“Crisis teaches us to think with concentration, reflect and then create again”
Algoe states that for her the worst thing is that the middle and lower classes can ultimately suffer the biggest blows. After all, they are often the ultimate payers of hard decisions and non-transparent agreements made by a small elite. “Agriculture and tourism are certainly valuable sectors for development, although not new initiatives. We structurally ignore culture, nature and the knowledge industry. We should encourage them to get out of the valley,” says the sociologist.
Algoe further indicates that citizens are already having difficulty obtaining land, retaining sufficient teachers and quality of education, and gaining access to good healthcare. She says nothing yet about the self-evident backbone of a society – culture, knowledge and sport. In short: the country is imploding. That is why, according to her, the basis is currently too fragile to bear the weight of the industry in the future. “On the contrary, it makes us more vulnerable hebi that we have not yet solved, including corruption.”
Three challenges
A smart budget, strong legislation and various funds do not provide sufficient relief, because according to Algoe, Suriname faces three fundamental and historical challenges that are often ignored. “Firstly, our socio-economic dependency structure from before 1975 still continues, even in 2026. Our historical awareness of this is unfortunately low, except when a temporary financial interest is linked to it.”
According to the sociologist, the new industry can change the small achievements as a nation, despite colonial traces. “Consider the social structure and classes, our implicit codes of conduct in mutual interactions, language use and authority relationships in the workplace.”
Secondly, discontinuity within institutions in the country is the rule rather than the exception, Algoe explains. “Our political culture is characterized by selective enmities and camaraderie between people who must simultaneously govern and shape a society. This is often called pragmatism, while our comments are then dismissed as theoretical.”
Thirdly, Suriname has a very low realization rate of plans. “As a society, we are often accused of talking a lot but doing little. Look, for example, at the realization of only about 10 percent of the more than five hundred projects in the ‘Financial Annual Plan 2026’. That is incredibly low. This figure illustrates a larger, complicated problem: a culture of distrust, a continuous institutional erosion, in which we develop unwanted autoimmune diseases for the nation. Our own plans are falling apart from within.”
Working horses versus ornamental horses
Algoe believes that qualities such as perseverance, optimism, creativity, craftsmanship and protecting ideals seem increasingly difficult to implement within the current context. She calls the preparation for oil and gas developments “a race against time between workhorses and ornamental horses”, with the latter group appearing larger than the former. “The groups that have to implement and pull in practice often miss the mark.”
She talks about a recent consultation round of an international company in connection with an upcoming project and calls it shameful that government representatives participated poorly. “They left immediately after the first round of presentations with a snack in hand. That may be a coincidence. But their almost massive passivity during the discussion round was not. It was clear that many had insufficient command of the subject matter.”
According to her, the questions that the leader of the government delegation asked the international speakers and their local representatives were very basic. “If a hearing goes like this, how do you want to be a critical community that should help develop a new industry? The people who understand the matter and are actually committed are almost literally in a race against time.”
Yet Algoe also sees positive developments. She points to the regular critical reviews of the oil-driven plans. “The importance of sobriety and vigilance is being pointed out at various levels. That seems to me to be a good sign for the time being, especially given the great uncertainty on the world stage. There is increasingly an atmosphere of the ‘law of the strongest’. An important power factor is energy sources, something we can offer, but otherwise have relatively few strategic assets. Who are our allies? How do we strengthen our negotiating position with regard to our natural resources? From my ‘non-oil brain’ I try to continue to focus on the social perspective.”
Short-term goals
Algoe believes that Suriname must address two issues in the short term. First: corruption and forging a workable policy formula with passionate and disciplined leaders and implementers. “So no list of wishes or needs, but a well-thought-out policy that assumes greater coherence between policy areas, based on insight into the local culture and knowledge of proven successes and developed in collaboration with a small number of regional and international partners.”
“Government representatives left immediately after the first round of presentations with a snack in hand”
Secondly, she mentions the implementation of a strategy in which own capital in the broadest sense of the word is given priority. “Culture is our backbone; we must develop it further. Biodiversity has been given to us; we must utilize it, with knowledge and research as the leading driver. This is conditional on good governance, which prevents vulgar stealing or ‘legal’ disproportionate enrichment.”
Many resources, such as gas and oil, are temporary. They should therefore not become the focus, says Algoe. “The leverage function of income from this sector for other development areas must therefore be closely monitored. Crisis teaches us to think, reflect and then create again with concentration. A reset for healthy foundations, unless we throw in the towel en masse.
