digital age boon or bane essay

• Jun 19, 2020

Digital Age: A boon or a bane to Human Rights

By: Saachi Shukla & Apoorva Agarwal*  |

INTRODUCTION

The digital environment has marked a complete shift in our society, signalled a new revolution and has altered many aspects of our lives. The digital age has transformed modern life, bringing with it countless benefits of social connectivity, learning opportunities, flexibility and mobility, and increased productivity in various sectors of the economy. The shortcomings of the digital world are data security breach, malevolent operations of cyber terrorism, cyberbullying, online harassment, social media addiction, Intellectual Property and Copyright violations, complexities of digital media manipulation, complete reliance on digital gadgets, online banking frauds and surveillance, with the main focus on the invasion of privacy.

This immense collection, storage and distribution of data of personal information has posed a serious challenge to the universally recognised human rights in the digital age. It becomes pertinent to recognise that the digital revolution is one of the major issues affecting human rights. In order to curb human rights violations, International and domestic laws provide legal frameworks for the protection of rights of the individuals including the right to privacy, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association, freedom from any discrimination and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

APPROACHES BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES

The digital global environment is set out as a space for imagination, delegation, and knowledge that provides a platform for freedom of expression and undefined connectivity. Digital platforms are not only a tool to share, search and access information, but also a source of a well-defined and structured system of human rights, followed by the nations respective of the domestic as well as the international framework. While the digital era contributes infinite benefits to mankind, it also poses a serious threat to the framework of International Human Rights law.

For instance, in China, citizens are denied access to any ‘harmful’ content on foreign websites by blocking access to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. [i] The Chinese Government regulates and censors the internet which is an outright violation of human right. In China, access to the internet is not considered an absolute human right but rather a conditional right conferred on its citizens. As in November 2016, President Xi Jinping adopted the ‘Cyber Security Law’ to restrict internet freedom, strengthen surveillance and track bloggers and human right activists that protest the policies, thus infringing the human right laws.

With respect to the United States of America in 2013, Edward Snowden, a former US Government contractor leaked documents to media that showed the extent to which digital security, data of users and networks had been compromised in the name of protecting ‘national security.’ As a result of this disclosure, people around the world challenged surveillance in Courts and legislations debated them. [ii] In the landmark case of ACLU v Clapper , [iii] bulk collection of phone records surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency was ruled illegal. [iv]

In the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed to adopt an Age Appropriate Design Code of Practice in 2019 which provides 16 standards that must be followed while designing internet services accessible to children under 18 years of age. [v] This draft has been made to protect children under 18 years of age against the innumerable crimes of the internet. However, the proposal has been heavily criticised for its privacy policies and data sharing methods.

As for the agency protecting human rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a non-binding resolution in 2016 condemning nations that intentionally disrupt accessibility to the internet. The resolution binds the countries on freedom of expression secured under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirming that “the same rights people have offline must also be protected online.” [vi] However, many countries do not follow the laws made by the International agencies, mainly due to the fact that most such laws lack sanction/authorities. For instance, the United States of America admitted that they observed protests in Egypt in 2011 by digital means and committed a major violation of International framework of fundamental rights of free expression, assembly and association; including breach of privacy. [vii]

There are various recent examples as to the effect of the internet in undermining human right laws. For example, a criminal court of Tehran held Soheil Arabi for the death sentence for “insulting the Prophet Muhammad” [viii] on Facebook. In another case, Turkey Prime Minister Tayyib Erdogan banned social media platform Twitter for its citizens. Therefore, the Digital environment has become a platform for both exercises and violate human rights at a global level.

INDIA’S LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK

In India, digital technology has not only become a tool to monitor and track personal data but to influence and instil hatred or extremism between communities. Digital platforms and artificial intelligence is not only shaping our ideas but also manipulating and controlling our activities, ultimately violating human rights. Invasion of this fundamental right is a serious punishable offence.

In April 2012, Ambikesh Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta were arrested for forwarding a cartoon in an email that ridiculed West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. [ix] In November 2012, Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan were arrested for posting a Facebook status update that questioned the shutdown of Mumbai following the death of Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray. [x] A friend who had “liked” her post was also arrested. In March 2015, Uttar Pradesh Police officers arrested a Class XI student in Rampur for making offensive remarks against UP Minister, Azam Khan, on Facebook. [xi] These arrests were made in the backdrop of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. However, the Supreme Court quashed this section in the leading case of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India [xii] on the ground that it was arbitrary and unconstitutional, thereby upholding the freedom of speech and expression.

The Supreme Court has declared that the Right to Privacy is intertwined and correlated with the fundamental right to life and personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Apex Court has identified the encroachment upon individuals’ privacy with national programmes such as the 12-digit UID (Unique Identity Number) scheme, DNA profiling, the National Encryption Policy in a number of cases. In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India struck down portions of the Aadhaar Act which did not fulfil the triple test of proportionality, legality and necessity in the landmark case of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v Union of India and Ors. [xiii] As part of the authentication process, the individual was required to provide their biometric information which was recorded at a central database, arguably building a defined framework for a surveillance state. Therefore, the Supreme Court denied the use of individual Aadhaar numbers by any private entities for establishing the identity of the individual concerned for any purpose on the sole ground of infringement of the right to privacy.

In another case of Faheema Shirin RK v. State of Kerala and Others , [xiv] the High Court of Kerala declared that the right to access ‘Internet is a fundamental right to education as well as the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution’. [xv] However, citing ‘national security’ as reason, 80 shutdowns were imposed in India in 2019. [xvi] Internet shutdowns are a ‘blatant violation of human rights law’ [xvii] promoting to build a totalitarian state. The Central Government has a right to impose reasonable restrictions on the Right to Freedom of Expression in circumstances provided under Article 19 (2) of the Indian Constitution. However, in the light of the shutdowns in the state of Jammu and Kashmir lasting for almost 10 months, internet shutdowns have become a common tool to curb debates, oppositions and protests against the Government.

During the challenging times of COVID-19 lockdown, latest news related to breach of privacy, cyberbullying and social media harassment emerged on the digital platform. In the recent “Boys Locker room” incident, a group chat was made on the social platform of Instagram where a bunch of male students from different premium schools of Delhi shared objectionable pictures of underage girls, body shaming them and passing comments about gang-raping them. These group chats, promoting rape culture, went viral on the digital platform ultimately violating the rights of these minor girls. However, the Delhi Police Cyber Cell identified and held almost all the members associated with the group and examined them after the Delhi Commission of Women issued legal notices to the police and Instagram over the incident. [xviii] These are the few instances in which the Government, State agencies and individuals have invaded the rights of another individual by violating their privacy either by harassment or cyberbullying, curtailed freedom of speech and expression by making arrests over social media posts, the denial of access to the internet for criticising government policies like in the cases of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and The National Register of Citizens (NRC).

All human rights are “indivisible, interdependent and interrelated,” [xix] and the development of one right facilitates the progress of the others while the deprivation of one deteriorates the others. In the present digital age, good governance cannot be achieved without the proper implementation of digital service. The first steps to address the challenges of digital age could be an approach to view people as an individual holder of rights, empowering individuals to voice their opinions, and creating a solid legal environment to enforce rights and seek redressal in case of any abuse of a right. It must be ensured that every digital medium complies with principles of transparency, fairness, accountability and redress. With the collective efforts of the Government, International Organisations, social media platforms, private and public sectors, judiciary and NGOs, a robust mechanism can be adopted to protect human rights against any misuse of personal data and information.

* The authors are the students at New Law College, BVP, Pune.

[i] Marina Svensson, Human Rights Online: Chinese Perspectives and Global Developments , Institute for Security & Development Policy, (Mar. 29, 2017), https://isdp.eu/internet-human-rights-china/ [ii] Dinah PoKempner, The Internet is Not the Enemy, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/the-internet-is-not-the-enemy [iii] ACLU v. Clapper, No. 14-42 (2d Cir.2015) [iv] Eileen Donahoe, Human Rights in the Digital Age , HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, (Dec. 23, 2014, 5:54 PM EST), https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/23/human-rights-digital-age [v] Josephine Jay, Lore Leitner, Laura Brodahl, UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code Pending , THE WSGR DATA ADVISOR, (Nov. 1, 2019), https://www.wsgrdataadvisor.com/2019/11/uks-age-appropriate-design-code-pending/ [vi] James Vincent, UN condemns internet access disruption as a human rights violation , THE VERGE, (Jul. 4, 2016, 4:33 AM), https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/7/4/12092740/un-resolution-condemns-disrupting-internet-access [vii] Eileen Donahoe, Michael Posner, Brett Solomon, Richard Allan, Peter Barron, Internet Freedom: Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Age- A Panel Discussion , U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, (Mar. 4, 2011), https://geneva.usmission.gov/2011/03/08/internet-freedom_hrc/ [viii] NA, Iran: Death Sentence for Facebook Posts , HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, (Dec. 2, 2014, 12:00 AM EST), https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/02/iran-death-sentence-facebook-posts [ix] Global Network Initiative and The Internet and Mobile Association of India, Interactive Slideshow Explores Impact of India’s Internet Laws , GNI IAMAI, (Jul. 17, 2014), https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/india-intenet-law/ [x] Mumbai Bureau, ‘Mumbai shuts down due to fear, not respect’ , THE HINDU, (Nov. 19, 2012, 17:41 IST), https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/Mumbai-shuts-down-due-to-fear-not-respect/article15618967.ece/amp/ [xi] IndiaToday.in, 13 infamous cases in which Section 66A was misused , INDIA TODAY, (Mar. 24, 2015, 10:03 IST) https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/section-66a-cases-how-it-curbed-245739-2015-03-24 [xii] Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2013) 12 SCC 73 [xiii] K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of india and Ors (2017) 10 SCC 1 [xiv] Faheema Shirin RK v. State of Kerala and others, WP (C) No. 19716 of 2019 (L) [xv] Special Correspondent, Access to Internet is a basic right, says Kerala High Court , THE HINDU, (Sep. 20, 2019), https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/access-to-internet-is-a-basic-right-says-kerala-high-court/article29462339.ece [xvi] Binaifer Nowrojee, Asia’s internet shutdowns are a violation of human rights , FINANCIAL TIMES, (Mar. 17, 2020, 6:00 AM), https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/6a656de5-6031-4d97-b9cf-f683440b7915 [xvii] Ibid [xviii] Outlook Web Bureau, Schoolboy Held For Posting Photos in ‘Boys Locker Room’, Police Identify 21 Other Members, Outlook, (May 5, 2020), https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.outlookindia.com/website/amp/india-news-schoolboy-held-for-posting-phtos-in-boys-locker-room-police-identify-21-other-members/352081 [xix] Dunstan Allison Hope , Protecting Human Rights in the Digital Age: Understanding Evolving Freedom of Expression and Privacy Risks in the Information and Communications Technology Industry , BSR, (Feb. 2011), www.bsr.org

Image Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/lina-ashar/is-technology-a-boon-or-bane-for-teenagers_a_21485123/

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Digitalisation - A Boon Or Bane?

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Is Technology a Boon or a Bane? An Essay

Through neocolonial trade relations, globalization has caused a world-wide division of labor, resources, and consumption—between former colonizers and the colonized. Technology—the latest in the choir of idols worshipped by the modern West—exacerbates this schism even as it reduces it. This article explores the implications of the products of technology for work, class, and caste in this last phase of neocolonialism. Technological devices that de-class us, by replacing human and animal workers, can also re-class us by dividing owners from the operators of machines.

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Ameerudheen , TA . 2018 . “ Kerala engineers who developed robot to clean manholes are on a mission to end manual scavenging .” Scroll.In . Feb 27 . ( https://scroll.in/article/869900/kerala-engineers-who-developed-robot-to-clean-manholes-are-on-a-mission-to-end-manual-scavenging ).

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Heidegger , Martin . 1977 . The Question Concerning Technology and other Essays . NY : Harper & Row Publishers, Inc .

Nkrumah , Kwame . 1974 . Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism . London : Panaf Books Limited .

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Social Media Boon or Bane Essay – Short Essay, 10 Lines, 500 & 1000 Words

Social Media Boon or Bane Essay: Explore the dichotomy of social media’s impact on society with this thought-provoking Social Media Boon or Bane Essay. Delve into the positive aspects that have transformed communication, connectivity, and information dissemination, while also examining the potential drawbacks and challenges posed by the pervasive influence of social media.

This article of Social Media Boon or Bane Essay critically analyzes the role of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in shaping our social landscape, discussing both the empowering possibilities and the concerns surrounding issues such as privacy, misinformation, and mental health.

Table of Contents

Social Media Boon or Bane Essay in 10 Lines in English

Explore the dual nature of social media’s impact on society, weighing its benefits in communication and connectivity against potential drawbacks like privacy concerns and misinformation, in this concise Social Media Boon or Bane Essay .

• Social media serves as a powerful tool for global communication and connection.
• It facilitates instant sharing of information, ideas, and opinions.
• Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram enhance social interactions and relationships.
• The accessibility of information promotes awareness and activism.
• However, social media’s ubiquitous presence raises concerns about privacy invasion.
• Misinformation and fake news can spread rapidly, impacting public perception.
• Excessive use of social media may contribute to mental health issues.
• Cyberbullying is a growing concern, affecting individuals, especially the younger generation.
• Social media’s role in shaping political narratives raises questions about democracy and manipulation.
• Ultimately, the essay explores whether social media is a boon by fostering connections or a bane with its potential negative consequences.

Also See – Help Ever Hurt Never Essay – Short Essay, 10 Lines, 500 & 1000 Words

Social Media Boon or Bane Short Essay

This Social Media Boon or Bane Essay delves into the dual nature of social media, examining its positive impact on global connectivity and communication, juxtaposed against potential pitfalls like privacy infringement, the rapid spread of misinformation, and adverse effects on mental health, ultimately questioning whether it is a boon or a bane in shaping our societal landscape.

Social media has transformed communication, fostering global connectivity and instant information sharing. It acts as a boon by facilitating awareness, activism, and strengthening social ties.

However, concerns arise with privacy invasion, the rampant spread of misinformation, and its contribution to mental health issues through excessive use. Cyberbullying, especially impacting the younger generation, is another challenge.

The essay critically explores whether social media’s positive aspects of fostering connections and democratizing information outweigh its potential negatives, questioning its role as either a boon that enriches society or a bane that poses risks to privacy, mental well-being, and the reliability of shared information.

Social Media Boon or Bane Essay in English in 500 Words

This Social Media Boon or Bane Essay provides a comprehensive analysis of social media’s impact, examining its positive aspects like global connectivity and information sharing alongside potential drawbacks such as privacy concerns, misinformation, and mental health implications, to ultimately explore whether social media is a boon or a bane in shaping contemporary society.

In the contemporary digital age, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, profoundly influencing the way we communicate, connect, and consume information. This essay critically explores the multifaceted impact of social media, weighing its positive contributions against potential drawbacks.

On the positive side, social media serves as a powerful tool for global connectivity. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram enable individuals to connect with friends, family, and like-minded individuals across the globe.

It facilitates real-time communication, breaking down geographical barriers and fostering a sense of a global community. The instant sharing of information has transformed the way news is disseminated, making it accessible to a vast audience in seconds.

Moreover, social media has proven instrumental in promoting awareness and activism. Campaigns and movements gain momentum through the viral spread of information, enabling individuals to engage in social and political issues. This democratization of information empowers people, giving a voice to the marginalized and creating platforms for discussions on crucial societal issues.

However, the pervasive nature of social media also raises significant concerns. One major issue is the compromise of privacy. Users willingly share personal details, preferences, and locations, often without fully understanding the potential consequences.

This data becomes a commodity for advertisers and can be exploited, raising ethical questions about the boundaries between personal and public information.

The rampant spread of misinformation is another critical challenge. False narratives, rumors, and fake news can circulate rapidly, influencing public opinion and, at times, leading to real-world consequences. The lack of gatekeepers on social media platforms makes it challenging to control the flow of inaccurate information, posing a threat to the reliability of news and information.

Additionally, the impact of social media on mental health has come under scrutiny. The constant exposure to curated and idealized versions of others’ lives can contribute to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

The addictive nature of social media platforms, designed to keep users engaged, has been linked to anxiety and depression, especially among younger demographics. Cyberbullying is also a growing concern, with individuals facing harassment and abuse in the digital realm.

In the political arena, social media’s role in shaping narratives and influencing elections is a subject of ongoing debate. The spread of fake news and the manipulation of public opinion through targeted campaigns raise questions about the integrity of democratic processes.

In conclusion, social media’s impact on society is undeniably profound, encompassing both positive and negative aspects. While it enhances global connectivity, promotes awareness, and democratizes information, it also poses risks to privacy, contributes to the spread of misinformation, and affects mental well-being.

Whether social media is a boon or a bane depends on how effectively society navigates and mitigates these challenges, emphasizing the need for responsible usage, digital literacy, and ethical considerations in the evolving landscape of social media.

Social Media Boon or Bane Essay in 1000 Words

This Social Media Boon or Bane Essay explores the multifaceted impact of social media, delving into its positive contributions such as global connectivity and awareness, while critically examining its drawbacks, including privacy concerns, misinformation, and mental health implications, offering a comprehensive analysis on whether social media is ultimately a boon or a bane for contemporary society.

Social Media: Boon or Bane

Introduction

In the digital age, social media has emerged as a dominant force shaping human interaction and information dissemination. This essay critically examines the dual nature of social media, weighing its positive contributions against potential drawbacks.

The Boons of social media

• Global Connectivity: Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have revolutionized communication, breaking down geographical barriers and connecting people across the globe. This global connectivity fosters a sense of community transcending physical boundaries.
• Information Dissemination: The instantaneous sharing of information on social media has transformed the way news is spread. It provides a platform for real-time updates on global events, making information accessible to a vast audience and enabling rapid response to emerging issues.
• Awareness and Activism: Social media serves as a catalyst for social and political movements, providing a space for individuals to voice their opinions, raise awareness, and mobilize support. Campaigns gain momentum through the viral nature of shared content, empowering individuals to engage in meaningful activism.

The Banes of social media

• Privacy Concerns: The widespread use of social media comes with a trade-off in privacy. Users often unwittingly share personal details, preferences, and locations, raising concerns about the ethical use of this data by advertisers and potential privacy breaches.
• Misinformation and Fake News: One of the most significant challenges is the unchecked spread of misinformation on social media. False narratives, rumors, and fake news can circulate rapidly, influencing public opinion and potentially leading to real-world consequences, undermining the reliability of information.
• Mental Health Implications: The curated nature of social media content, often presenting idealized versions of life, contributes to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. The addictive design of platforms and the constant comparison can lead to anxiety and depression, especially among the younger demographic. Cyberbullying is an additional concern affecting mental well-being.

Privacy in the Digital Age

• Voluntary Disclosure: Users willingly share personal information on social media platforms, but there’s a fine line between voluntary disclosure and unintended exposure. The consequences of this disclosure extend beyond individual users, impacting societal notions of privacy.
• Data Exploitation: The data collected by social media platforms become valuable commodities for advertisers. The ethical implications of using this data for targeted advertising and potential manipulation raise questions about the responsibility of platforms in safeguarding user information.

Combating Misinformation

• Challenges of Misinformation: The decentralized nature of social media, with minimal content moderation, poses challenges in controlling the spread of misinformation. Identifying and addressing false narratives becomes complex in an environment where information travels rapidly and lacks authoritative gatekeepers.
• Digital Literacy: Promoting digital literacy is crucial in combating misinformation. Educating users on how to critically evaluate information, fact-check, and discern credible sources can empower individuals to navigate the digital landscape responsibly.

Mental Health in the Digital Era

• Impact on Self-Esteem: The constant exposure to carefully curated and idealized representations of others’ lives can contribute to feelings of inadequacy and lower self-esteem. Understanding the curated nature of social media content is vital for maintaining a healthy self-image.
• Addiction and Well-being: The design of social media platforms, often employing features that encourage prolonged use, can lead to addiction. Monitoring screen time, promoting digital detoxes, and fostering a balanced approach to online engagement are essential for overall well-being.

Political Landscape and social media

• Influence on Elections: Social media’s role in shaping political narratives and influencing elections has become a subject of intense scrutiny. The spread of fake news and the potential manipulation of public opinion through targeted campaigns underscore the need for ethical considerations in the digital political landscape.
• Democracy and Manipulation: The democratization of information through social media can be both empowering and perilous. While it allows diverse voices to be heard, it also opens the door to the manipulation of public sentiment, raising questions about the integrity of democratic processes.

In conclusion, social media’s impact on society is a complex interplay of boons and banes. While it facilitates global connectivity, awareness, and activism, it also raises concerns about privacy, misinformation, and mental health. Navigating this digital landscape requires a concerted effort to strike a balance, promoting responsible use, digital literacy, and ethical considerations to harness the positive potential of social media while mitigating its potential drawbacks.

The social media Boon or Bane Essay illuminates the dichotomy of social media, presenting a nuanced perspective on its impact. While it serves as a powerful catalyst for global connectivity, awareness, and activism, the potential pitfalls of privacy infringement, misinformation, and adverse effects on mental health cannot be ignored.

Navigating this digital landscape demands a collective effort to harness the positive aspects of social media while addressing its challenges through responsible usage, digital literacy, and ethical considerations.

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January 2023

Class: ix-d, st. anne''s conv, class; vii-a, bhavans vidya mandir- elamakkara, kochi, dishita sohana, class: viii-a, st. francis de sales public school icse&isc, frinna rozeen, class: viii-b, st. francis de sales public school,electronic city, varnika mantripragada, class: x-d, d.a.v. public school, kukatpally, shrestha sharma, class viii-d, the orbis school, pradyuth ravi k, class ix-a, st francis de sales public school icsest, samriddha biswas, techno india group public school garia, rhea anilprasad, xi-b,dps east,bangalore., viii-a, st. francis de sales public school icse&isc, vii-e, st. francis de sales public school,electronic city, standard: x-d,carmel high school,bangalore., gargi bhargave, ,standard: x-b,sri sri ravi shankar,mumbai., ,standard: xii-a,bds,vadodara/baroda., aditya shroff, standard: ix-e,st.josephs boys high school,bangalore., saranya sistla, ,standard: viii-a,st francis de sales public school icse,bangalore., aishaani basu, ,standard: ix-a,calcutta girls high school,kolkata., hansini indoori, standard: vii-a,p.b.d.a.v. model school,hyderabad., vaishnavi pateriya, ,standard: x-b,st. peter''s convent school,delhi., standard: xii-a,bds,vadodara/baroda., prachi d.kamble, ,standard: ix-a,sardar dastur nosherwan girls high school,pune., drishya mohan, xii-a,n.c.l- jr college,pune., xii-c, velammal bodhi campus / maxworth,chennai., ,standard: viii-d,queen valley''''s sec-8 dwarka,delhi., likhith gowda, ,standard: xi-a,vyasa international school,bangalore., ritisha roy, ,standard: x-g,amity school (gurgaon sec_46),delhi., tanisha bose, ,standard: vi-b,deens academy,bangalore., samedh bhat, ,standard: viii-b,notre dame academy,bangalore., narayani sharma, ,standard: ix-a,who,jammu., chetan jain, ,standard: vi-b,jamnabai narsi monji - gift city,ahmedabad., ,standard: ix-b,sri sri ravi shankar,mumbai., vaibhav mudgil, ,standard: x-d,gmsss-19c,chandigarh., ,standard: ix-d,dav public school, kukatpally,hyderabad, k saketha nambiar, ,standard: ii-a,bhavans adarsha kakkanad,kochi., standard: ix-a,who,jammu., abhishek kumar, ,standard: x-c,aksips 41 smart school,chandigarh., ,standard: xi-c,sri ramakrishna matric higher secondary school,coimbatore., dhruv jain,, standard: vi-a,jamnabai narsi monji - gift city,ahmedabad., ,standard: ix-d,dav public school, kukatpally,hyderabad., aakash darda, ,standard: x-d,hutchings high school & junior college,pune., khyaati saraogi, class xi, st. mary''s school, pune., standard: ii-a,bhavans adarsha kakkanad,kochi., umang badhwar, ,standard: xii-a,lotus valley school(noida),delhi., priya likhi, ,standard: ix-d,delhi public school bangalore east,bangalore., anvi sharma, ,standard: viii-a,the indian heights school,delhi., ramya raghu k,, standard: vi-g,euroschool wakad,pune., ,standard: xi-a,ncl jr. college,pune., ninaada r adiga, , viii c, innisfree house school, yuvika kandari, ,standard: x-b,laxman public sch(hauz khas encl),delhi., ,standard: vii-a,the indian heights school,delhi., ,standard: viii-a,new horizon thane,mumbai., anya mehrotra,, class vii-d, delhi public school bangalore east, bangalore, samriddhi dhankhar, , class vii, army public school, kamraj road, bengaluru, pamanpreet kaur, class vii, kalam mris mohali, varun prasath r, , xi a, bethel matriculation higher secondary school, saahil shaikh, standard: xii-a,the bishops co-ed school,pune., class viii d, dav public school, kukatpally, hyderabad, pranavi nagavolu, , class vii, delhi school of excellence, attapur, hyderabad, anrinee nandi, , class vi-c, delhi public school megacity, kolkata, class viii-d, dav public school, kukatpally, kanakdeep kaur sohal, class ix-a, the orbis school, pune, prachi d kamble, class ix-a, sardar dastur nosherwan girls high school, pune, class ix-a, sardar dastur nosherwan girls high school, pune, junet mary paul, st peter’s senior secondary school, kavya rathi, dav public school sector-14, gurugram, anya mehrotra, abhishek kumar,, class ix-c, aksips 41 smart school, chandigarh, shefali bansali, , class x, billabong high international school, kanchipuram, hasika mantripragada, , class viii c, dav public school kukatpally, , class ix-a, sardar dastur nosherwan girls high school, pune, class xi, peace on green earth public school, chennai, class viii c, dav public school kukatpally, priyal garg, viii-d, apeejay school panchsheel park, delhi, inayat kapoor, class xii-d, bhavan vidyalaya panchkula, chandigarh, tanish manem, , class xi-c, p obul reddy public school, hyderabad, aarav raman ashutosh, , class v, sgvp school, ahmedabad, sharayu pathare, class x, air force school, class vii, dav ideal school, vellore, nikshep raman,, class v, gd goenka public school, lucknow, ananya sharma,, class vii, euro-school, undri, ritika maan,, class ix, dav model school, yusuf sarai, delhi, , class iv, delhi school of excellence, attapur, pranavi nagavolu,, vii, delhi school of excellence, attapur, nikshep raman, class vii d, dps bangalore east, shreya nimbali, class xii, delhi public school, rk puram, delhi, fiona merin philipose, class viii-b, mar thoma public school, kochi, manushree rawat, , ix b, st kabir school, ahmedabad, ishan sejush, class v, the global edge school, kokapet, joeliyn n soni, class x, carmel convent school, delhi, gayathridevi jayachandran, class vii a, the orbis school, pune, class x, dc model sr sec school, shanofi somani, class xi-b, delhi public school bopal, ahmedabad, class viii-b, pathways world school aravali, gurgaon, ritika maan, class ix-b, dav model school (yusuf sarai), delhi, ix, aksips-41, chandigarh, divyam agrawal, class ix, apeejay school (pitampura), delhi, class vii-c, global edge school, kukatpally, hyderabad, class xii, dps, rk puram, delhi, , class vi, assisi vidyaniketan public school, kochi, preet jhaveri,, class x, ryan international school, mumbai, standard: xi-a,the bishops co-ed school,pune., snigddha mehta, standard: ix-a,holy child sch pkl-sec-2,chandigarh., saksham sahu,, class v, air force school, avadi, saloni shevde, class xi-a, air force school chandan nagar, pune, class vi, assisi vidyaniketan public school, kochi, class vii, delhi school of excellence, attapur, hyderabad, class v-a, presidency school, bengaluru, sanjeev t.s, ix-c,spring days school, ,vellore., swara mishra shankra, class i-e, the hdfc school, pune, siva sankari iyappan, class viii, the orbis school, pune, ajiteh vishwanath,, class x-b, laxman public school, hauz khas enclave, delhi, rishi reddy, class vii, air force school, bengaluru, class vii, air force school, bengaluru, dhatri singh, class viii, dps, gomti nagar, lucknow, soumilee bhattacharyya, class xi, apeejay school, kolkata, anjaneya bajaj,, class x, nps hsr, bengaluru, aarna malot, standard: viii, lake montfort school, bengaluru., teshi sharma, standard: x, giis chinchwad, pune, himanshu kumar,, class xii, new green field school, alaknanda, new delhi, ix-a, bgs public school,bangalore., anagha bhat, viii-c, ramsheth thakur public school, kharghar , navi mum,mumbai., class vii, nps hsr, bengaluru, neha chhabria,, standard: xi-b, green fields school(dilshad garden), delhi, siddhant gadodia, class vii, jankidevi public school, mumbai, harshita gupta, class x, mahadevi birla world academy, kolkata, mehvesh shabab khan, standard: x-a, yashwantrao chavan english high school, navi mumb, standard: xii-b, b.d.m. international, kolkata, aditi bhosle, standard: ix-a, girton high school(grant rd), mumbai, keerthana.c, standard: xi-a,shrishti vidhyashram,vellore, shalom keshet, standard: iii-b,vibgyor high, yerwada, mahak goyal, salwan public school(rajinder nagar, sunidhi sudhir, class x, dps e-city, bengaluru, anika singh bhati, standard: x-a,delhi public school gurgaon sec45 d,delhi, vaidehi rajesh, standard: viii-b,akshara international school,pune., shaikh ayesha, class ix, guru gobind singh education academy, nerul, kenia & anchor english school (secondary section), asish singh, class xi, st. augustine''s day school (barrackpore), west bengal, prabhleen kaur, jaspal kaur public school, new delhi, kenia & anchor english school, shreyas baloni, standard: ix-b,cambrian hall,dehradun., laavanya rajput, standard: x-e,mount carmel school(dwarka),delhi., ritika jyala, class x, dav public school, nerul, navi mumbai, ambika khachi, class ix, bhavan vidyalaya, panchkula, pavana. p. karanth, sadvidya high school, mysore, r . nikhil . m, standard: xii-g,shri tp bhatia college of science,mumbai., bhoomi bhimani, new horizon public school - airoli, navi mumbai, roma ramcoumar, bethel mat hr sec school, srijeet r chivate, army public school kirkee, sunidhi sampige, class x, the brigade school, malleswaram, gayathri devi jayachandran, standard: vii-a,the orbis school,pune, misbah fathima, standard: vi-a,hmr international school,bangalore., satwik baramal, vikhe patil memorial school,lohegaon, aleena s raj, class xii, holy innocents public school, thiruvananthapuram, standard: x-a,yashwantrao chavan english high school - navi mumb,mumbai, ayushi shelke, standard: x-d,the orbis school,pune, punya malhotra, class xi, bbps, pitampura, standard: x-a,yashwantrao chavan english high school - navi mumb,mumbai., standard: xi-a,maxfort school,delhi., shabrina khan, standard: vi-a,yashwantrao chavan english high school - navi mumb,mumbai, yashwantrao chavan english high school - navi mumb, neha varadharajan, standard: viii-d,the orbis school,pune, standard: xii-c,lions public school,gurgaon, mohammad aves, class xii, vivekananda school, jogiwala, the orbis school, raunak kumar, d.v.m.public school, sainik school balachadi, jamnagar, lakshmi bharathi, saandipini hitech school, sriharshaa padmakumar, psbb learning leadership academy, pranav deshpande, class ix, gundecha education academy, mumbai, priyanshi saraogi, class ix, lakshmipat singhania academy, kolkata, neetidnya phadke, city pride school, namitha bhat, carmel high school, tanishq chugh, standard: xi-d,delhi public school,meerut., standard: ix-a, global international school,delhi., vishnu vardhan, new baldwin international school, j. mohith kumar, standard: vi-a,alwin international public school,chennai., standard: x-a,the bishops co-ed school,pune., shwetha shree, r carmel high school, mehul joshi, class xi, dav public school, panvel.

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Digital Advancement: Boon or Bane?

• Standard: XI-D,
• Bal Vikas School,
• Publish Date: May 30 2022 10:14AM
• Updated Date: May 30 2022 10:14AM

Look around yourself at the things you are surrounded by. You will be amazed to find out that anything or everything is technology. From the smartphone you are holding to the smartwatch you are wearing, from the LED TV to the voice-controlled LED lights in your room, the AC you are sitting in is what the digital world is. As of late, digital innovations have changed our lives in endless ways. Living without gadgets in the 21st century feels like a day without water. Back in the day, having a TV was a luxury, and it has changed into a necessity within no time. From the golden age to a toddler, there is nobody who isn't dependent on their cell phones. Like every coin has two sides, this digitalization, too, has its bane and boons. Beginning with childhood, young ones are so accustomed to automated devices that they have no desire to go out, play and make new friends. With COVID-19, they even attend their school, birthday parties, hobby classes, and virtually everything. Even if we look at the brighter side, it has helped children stay connected in these challenging times, but it does not account for their healthy growth as required. Following this is teenagers, who probably are the most significantly impacted bunch. They are so consumed by online games, social media, and the web world that they lose sight of the actual connections and the real world. The gadgets provided to them for their academic and related works are used for everything other than what they should be utilized for. This has hampered mental and actual turn of events, which is certainly not a great sign and results in uneasiness, sorrow, and numerous other medical problems. The adults, too, are hooked to their phones and laptop screens regardless of if it is related to work matters or personal use, diminishing the narrow line between a personal and professional life. By and by, the geniuses cannot be neglected. Examples include digital transactions, e-books, virtual shopping, food ordering, Real-time location sharing, online ticket bookings, video conferencing, etc. Our lives have become easy and trouble-free. One can extract any information they need with a solitary snap. By digitizing operations, governments can more efficiently process claims, applications resulting in transparency and improving citizens' experience. People with disabilities and the elderly in nursing homes also benefit to a large extent from this digital advancement. Science has given us one of the most unimaginable things, making our lives a bed of roses. At the end of the day, tools don't control us, we control them, and it's up to each of us to decide what we value and then use the tools we have been given to advance those values and not let them go futile.

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Gaming- a bane or a boon-a systematic review

Affiliations.

• 1 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), 560029, Bengaluru, Karnataka India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), 560029, Bengaluru, Karnataka India.
• PMID: 30939393
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2019.03.001

Recent trends show online/video games, have shifted from being just recreational in nature, to hazardous even resulting in the gamer's death like the blue whale game. The aim of the study is to examine associations between video/online gaming and its implication on the biopsychosocial domains of the user. Online databases were studied on gaming and its effect on behaviour, general and mental health from 1997-2017. The PICO guidelines, PRISMA flow diagram and the Rayyan software was used in identifying relevant studies. Cross referencing was done with the co-authors. A total of 41 studies were included in the final analysis. The choice of the video game is influenced by age, gender, parental mediation, as well as the players' and the game's characteristics. Excessive gaming affects both the individual himself and their interpersonal relationships, with 'internet addiction' being added as a diagnosis under DSM V. Despite its several negative consequences, over the past decade, researchers have now started to acknowledge the benefits of gamification in social, educational and even in the health sector, irrespective of the individual's age. There is a need to develop cross cultural database to understand the impact of addictive and/or promotive use of games on the biopsychosocial factors of the gamer.

Keywords: Consequences; Gaming; Gender; Influencing factors; Lifestyle; Psychosocial factor.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication types

• Systematic Review
• Behavior, Addictive* / epidemiology
• Child, Preschool
• Internet* / statistics & numerical data
• Life Style*
• Video Games* / statistics & numerical data
• Young Adult

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Is Guyana’s Oil a Blessing or a Curse?

More than any single country, Guyana demonstrates the struggle between the consequences of climate change and the lure of the oil economy.

With the discovery of offshore oil, Guyana is now building a natural gas pipeline to bring the byproducts of oil production to a planned energy plant. Credit...

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By Gaiutra Bahadur

Photographs by Keisha Scarville

• March 30, 2024

Basjit Mahabir won’t let me in.

I’m trying to persuade Mr. Mahabir to open the padlocked gate of the Wales Estate, where he guards the ramshackle remains of a factory surrounded by miles of fallow sugar cane fields. The growing and grinding of sugar on this plantation about 10 miles from Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, ended seven years ago, and parts of the complex, its weathered zinc walls the color of rust, have been sold for scrap.

I plead my case. “I lived here when I was a little girl,” I say. “My father used to manage the field lab.” Mr. Mahabir is friendly, but firm. I’m not getting in.

The ruins are the vestiges of a sugar industry that, after enriching British colonizers for centuries, was the measure of the nation’s wealth when it achieved independence.

Now the estate is slated to become part of Guyana’s latest boom, an oil rush that is reshaping the country’s future. This nation that lies off the beaten track, population 800,000, is at the forefront of a global paradox: Even as the world pledges to transition away from fossil fuels , developing countries have many short-term incentives to double down on them.

Before oil, outsiders mostly came to Guyana for eco-tourism, lured by rainforests that cover 87 percent of its land. In 2009, the effort to combat global warming turned this into a new kind of currency when Guyana sold carbon credits totaling $250 million, essentially promising to keep that carbon stored in trees. Guyana’s leadership was praised for this planet-saving effort.

Six years later, Exxon Mobil discovered a bounty of oil under Guyana’s coastal waters. Soon the company and its consortium partners, Hess and the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, began drilling with uncommon speed. The oil, now burned mostly in Europe, is enabling more global emissions — and producing colossal wealth.

The find is projected to become Exxon Mobil’s biggest revenue source by decade’s end. The deal that made it possible — and which gave Exxon Mobil the bulk of the proceeds — has been a point of public outcry and even a lawsuit, with a seeming consensus that Guyana got the short end of the stick. But the deal has nonetheless generated $3.5 billion so far for the country, more money than it has ever seen, significantly more than it gained from conserving trees. It’s enough to chart a new destiny.

The government has decided to pursue that destiny by investing even further in fossil fuels. Most of the oil windfall available in its treasury is going to construct roads and other infrastructure, most notably a 152-mile pipeline to carry ashore natural gas, released while extracting oil from Exxon Mobil’s fields, to generate electricity.

The pipeline will snake across the Wales Estate, carrying the gas to a proposed power plant and to a second plant that will use the byproducts to potentially produce cooking gas and fertilizer. With a price tag of more than $2 billion, it’s the most expensive public infrastructure project in the country’s history. The hope is that with a predictable, plentiful supply of cheap energy, the country can develop economically.

At the same time, climate change laps at Guyana’s shores; much of Georgetown is projected to be underwater by 2030.

Countries like Guyana are caught in a perfect storm where the consequences for extracting fossil fuels collide with the incentives to do so. Unlike wealthy countries, they aren’t responsible for most of the carbon emissions that now threaten the planet. “We’re obviously talking about developing countries here, and if there’s so much social and economic development that still needs to happen, then it’s hard to actually demand a complete ban on fossil fuels,” says Maria Antonia Tigre, a director at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. Still, she insists, “we’re in a moment in the climate crisis where no one can get a pass.”

This struggle between the existential threats of climate change and the material gains dangled by fossil fuels bedevils rich countries, too. The International Energy Agency predicts that oil demand will peak in five years as big economies transition to renewable sources. But it is a transition of indeterminate length, and in the meantime, the Biden administration approved drilling in the Alaska wilderness just last year, and the United States is producing more oil than ever in its history. A country like Guyana, with an emerging economy, has even more reason to jump at temptation.

The country has already been transformed. Next to its famously elegant but decaying colonial architecture, new houses, hotels, malls, gyms and offices of concrete and glass crop up constantly. Trucks carrying quartz sand for all this construction judder along the highways. While nearly half of Guyanese still live below the poverty line, the country is bustling with possibility, and newcomers arrive from around the world. During a five-month stay there, I met a logistics manager from Sri Lanka, a nightclub singer from Cuba, a Briton developing a shrimp farm and a Nigerian security guard who joked that a sure sign that Guyana had become a hustler’s paradise was that he was there.

As I survey the stranded assets of the sugar works on the Wales Estate, imagining the steel pipes to come, the gleaming future Guyana’s government promises feels haunted by its past as a colony cursed by its resources. The potential for the petroleum boom to implode is in plain sight next door, where Venezuela — which has recently resurrected old claims to much of Guyana’s territory — is a mess of corruption, authoritarian rule and economic volatility.

For centuries, foreign powers set the terms for this sliver of South America on the Atlantic Ocean. The British, who first took possession in 1796, treated the colony as a vast sugar factory. They trafficked enslaved Africans to labor on the plantations and then, after abolition, found a brutally effective substitute by contracting indentured servants, mainly from India. Mr. Mahabir, who worked cutting cane for most of his life, is descended from those indentured workers, as am I.

Fifty-seven years ago, the country shook off its imperial shackles, but genuine democracy took more time. On the eve of independence, foreign meddling installed a leader who swiftly became a dictator. Tensions between citizens of African and Indian descent, encouraged under colonialism, turned violent at independence and set off a bitter contest for governing supremacy that continues to this day. Indigenous groups have been courted by both sides in this political and ethnic rivalry.

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Guyana held its first free and fair elections. The moment was full of possibility. The institutions of democracy, such as an independent judiciary, began to emerge. And the legislature passed a series of robust environmental laws.

Now that Exxon Mobil has arrived to extract a new resource, some supporters of democracy and the environment see those protections as endangered. They criticize the fossil-fuel giant, with global revenue 10 times the size of Guyana’s gross domestic product, as a new kind of colonizer and have sued their government to press it to enforce its laws and regulations. The judge in one of those cases has rebuked the country’s Environmental Protection Agency as being “submissive” toward the oil industry.

Addressing some of these activists at a recent public hearing, Vickram Bharrat, the minister of natural resources, defended the government’s oversight of oil and gas. “There’s no evidence of bias toward any multinational corporations,” he said. Exxon Mobil, in an emailed statement, said its work on the natural gas project would “help provide lower-emissions, reliable, gas-powered electricity to Guyanese consumers.”

The world is at a critical juncture, and Guyana sits at the intersection. The country of my birth is a tiny speck on the planet, but the discovery of oil there has cracked open questions of giant significance. How can wealthy countries be held to account for their promises to move away from fossil fuels? Can the institutions of a fragile democracy keep large corporations in check? And what kind of future is Guyana promising its citizens as it places bets on commodities that much of the world is vowing to make obsolete?

A land of new possibilities

Oil has created a Guyana with pumpkin spice lattes. The first Starbucks store appeared outside the capital last year; it was such a big deal that the president and the American ambassador attended the opening. People still “lime” — hang out — with local Carib beer and boomboxes on the storied sea wall, but those with the cash can now go for karaoke and fancy cocktails at a new Hard Rock Cafe.

The influx of wealth has introduced new tensions along economic lines in an already racially divided country. Hyperinflation has made fish, vegetables and other staples costlier, and many Guyanese feel priced out of pleasures in their own country. A new rooftop restaurant, described to me as “pizza for Guyana’s 1 percent” by its consultant chef from Brooklyn, set off a backlash on social media for serving a cut of beef that costs $335, as much as a security guard in the capital earns in a month.

This aspirational consumerist playground is grafted onto a ragged infrastructure. Lexus S.U.V.s cruise new highways but must still gingerly wade through knee-deep floods in Georgetown when it rains, thanks to bad drainage. Electricity, the subject of much teeth-sucking and dark humor, is expensive and erratic. It’s also dirty, powered by heavy fuel, a tarlike residue from refining oil. In 2023, 96 blackouts halted activity across the country for an average of one hour each. A growing number of air-conditioners taxing aging generators are partly to blame, but the system has been tripped up by weeds entangling transmission lines, backhoes hitting power poles and once, infamously, a rat.

The country’s larger companies — makers of El Dorado rum, timber producers — generate their own electricity outside the power grid. Small companies, however, don’t have that option. This year, the Inter-American Development Bank cited electrical outages as a major obstacle to doing business in Guyana.

The government’s investment in a natural gas pipeline and power plant offers the prospect of steady and affordable power. The gas, a byproduct of Exxon Mobil’s drilling, tends not to be commercialized and is often flared off as waste, emitting greenhouse gases in the process. But at the government’s request, Exxon Mobil and its consortium partners agreed to send some of the natural gas to the Wales site. The consortium is supposed to supply it without cost, but no official sales agreement has been made public yet.

At international conferences, rich countries have pledged to help poorer, lower-emitting ones to raise their living standards sustainably with renewable energy, but the money has fallen short . Natural gas is cleaner than the heavy fuel Guyana now uses, and the country’s leaders claim that it will serve as an eventual bridge to renewable energy. The fact that it’s not as clean as solar or other renewable sources seems, to some local manufacturers, beside the point because the status quo is so challenging.

During blackouts, Upasna Mudlier, who runs Denmor Garments, a textile company that makes uniforms, fire safety jackets and lingerie, has to send home the two dozen seamstresses she employs. That means a big hit in productivity. A chemist in her late 30s, she inherited the company from her father. Ms. Mudlier was nervous about networking in the burly crush of the male-dominated local business elite, but she nonetheless attended an event hosted by a business development center funded by Exxon Mobil. She leaned in, and it paid off: She won a contract to make a thousand coveralls for workers building an oil production vessel headed for Guyana’s waters.

It was a bright spot nonetheless dimmed by her electric bill. An astounding 40 percent of her operating budget goes to paying for power. Ms. Mudlier is eager for the natural gas plant. Cheaper, reliable energy could allow her to price her products to compete internationally.

Textiles are a tiny niche in Guyana, but hers is the kind of manufacturing that experts say Guyana needs to avoid becoming a petroleum state. Ms. Mudlier agrees with the government’s messaging on the gas project. “It will create more jobs for people and bring more investments into our country and more diversity to our economy,” she said.

Widespread anxiety that the best new jobs would go to foreigners led to a law that sets quotas for oil and gas companies to hire and contract with locals. Komal Singh, a construction magnate in his mid-50s, has benefited from the law. Mr. Singh, who directs an influential government advisory body on business policy, works as a joint partner with international companies building the Wales pipeline and treating toxic waste from offshore oil production.

“We say to them, ‘It’s you, me and Guyanese,’” he told me. “If Guyanese are not part of the show, end of conversation.”

Guyana has lost a greater share of its people than any other country, with two in five people born there living abroad. So the oil boom and the local partner requirement have set off something of a frenzy for passports and have fueled debate over who, exactly, is Guyanese. I met a British private equity manager with a Guyanese mother who obtained citizenship shortly after his second visit to the country. One local partner’s contested citizenship became a matter for the High Court.

With the value of land and housing skyrocketing, some local property owners have profited by becoming landlords to expats or by selling abandoned fields at Manhattan prices for commercial real estate. But to many Guyanese, it has seemed as if “comebackees,” the term for returning members of the diaspora, or the politically connected elite are the most poised to benefit from the boom.

Sharia Bacchus returned to Guyana after two decades living in Florida. Ms. Bacchus, who has family connections in the government and private sector, started her own real estate brokerage. She rents apartments and houses to expats for as much as $6,000 a month.

I shadowed her as she showed a prospective buyer — a retired U.S. Marine of Guyanese descent — a duplex condo in a coveted new gated community. She eagerly pointed out amenities that comebackees want: air-conditioning, a pool and, of course, an automatic backup generator.

“If you lose power at any time, you don’t have to worry about that,” she said, reassuringly.

The ghosts of the past

As glimpses of this new Guyana emerge, the ghosts of the past linger. A year ago, a Georgetown hotel, hustling like so many to take advantage of the new oil money, staged a $170-a-head rum-tasting event called “Night at the Estate House.” I’d been trying, unsuccessfully, to interview Exxon Mobil’s top brass in Guyana. When I heard rumors that its country manager would attend, I bought a ticket and, though he was a no-show, I found a seat with his inner circle.

As we sipped El Dorado rum in the garden of a colonial-style mansion, one of the event’s hosts gave a speech that invoked a time when “B.G.,” the insider’s shorthand for British Guiana, the country’s colonial name, also stood for Booker’s Guiana. Now, the speaker observed matter-of-factly, “it’s Exxon’s Guyana.”

Booker McConnell was a British multinational originally founded by two brothers who became rich on sugar and enslaved people. At one point, the company owned 80 percent of the sugar plantations in British Guiana, including the Wales Estate. The Exxon Mobil executive sitting next to me didn’t know any of this. His face reddened when I told him that the speaker had just placed his employer in a long line of corporate colonialism.

Independence came in 1966, but the U.S. and British governments engineered into power Guyana’s first leader, Forbes Burnham, a Black lawyer whom they deemed more pliable than Cheddi Jagan, a radical son of Indian plantation laborers, who was seen as a Marxist peril. But Burnham grew increasingly dictatorial as well as, in a twist of geopolitical fate, socialist.

Booker, which would later give its name to the Booker Prize in literature, still owned Wales at independence. But in the mid-1970s, Burnham took control of the country’s resources, nationalizing sugar production as well as bauxite mining. Like other former colonies, Guyana wanted to make its break with imperialism economic as well as political.

Burnham pushed the idea of economic independence to the breaking point, banning all imports. Staples from abroad, such as cooking oil, potatoes, wheat flour and split peas, had to be replaced with local substitutes. But Guyana didn’t have the farms and factories to meet the demand, so people turned to the black market, waited in ration lines and went hungry.

Guyana was 15 years free when my family arrived on the Wales Estate, by then part of the nationalized Guyana Sugar Company; my parents, then in their 20s, were young, too. My father, the son of plantation laborers, had just earned a natural sciences degree from the University of Guyana, founded at independence to educate the people who would build the new nation. As field lab manager, he tested sucrose in the cane to determine harvest time and oversaw the trapping of rats and snakes in the fields.

We lived in a former overseer’s house two doors from the estate’s main gate, where Mr. Mahabir now stands sentinel, and my mother taught high school in the guard’s village. My parents had only ever studied by kerosene lamp or gas lantern — but this house had electricity, generated on the estate by burning sugar cane trash.

I can remember at age 6 the cold delicacy of a refrigerated apple, a Christmas present from American aunts. It wouldn’t be long before we joined them.

Rigged elections kept Burnham in power for two decades of hardship and insecurity, both ethnic and economic. As soon as our long-awaited green cards allowing entry to the United States were approved, we left, participating in an exodus that created a “barrel economy,” with many communities sustained by money and care packages sent in barrels from relatives abroad. That exodus gutted Guyana: Today, less than 3 percent of the population is college educated.

Burnham’s death in 1985 touched off a series of events that began to change the country. Within seven years, Guyana held its first free and fair elections. Jagan, by then an old man, was elected president. Soon, a younger generation of his party took office and wholeheartedly embraced capitalism. Private companies could once again bid for Guyana’s vast resources. Corruption, endemic in the Burnham era, took new forms.

Then came proof of the dangers of unchecked extraction. In 1995, a dam at a Canadian-owned gold mine gave way. The 400 million gallons of cyanide-laced waste it had held back fouled two major rivers. Simone Mangal-Joly, now an environmental and international development specialist, was among the scientists on the ground testing cyanide levels in the river. The waters had turned red, and Indigenous villagers covered themselves in plastic to protect their skin. “It’s where they bathed,” Ms. Mangal-Joly recalled. “It was their drinking water, their cooking water, their transportation.”

The tragedy led to action. The next year, the government passed its first environmental protection law. Seven years later, the right to a healthy environment was added to the Constitution. Guyana managed to enshrine what the United States and Canada, for instance, have not.

For a moment, Guyana’s natural capital — the vast tropical rainforests that make it one of the very few countries that is a net carbon sink — was among its most prized assets. Bharrat Jagdeo, then president, sold the carbon stored in its forests to Norway to offset pollution from that country’s own petroleum production in 2009. Indigenous groups received $20 million from that deal to develop their villages and gain title to their ancestral lands, though some protested that they had little input. Mr. Jagdeo was hailed as a United Nations “Champion of the Earth.”

And then Exxon Mobil struck oil.

The vision of a green Guyana now vies with its fast-rising status as one of the largest new sources of oil in the world. The country’s sharply divided political parties stand in rare accord on drilling. Mr. Jagdeo, who is now Guyana’s vice president but still dictates much government policy, is a fervent supporter of the Wales project.

But a small, steadfast, multiracial movement of citizens is testing the power of the environmental laws. David Boyd, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, describes the country as a front line for litigation using innovative rights arguments to fight climate change. It includes the first constitutional climate change case in the region, brought by an Indigenous tour guide and a university lecturer.

Not all critics of the petroleum development are environmentalists. What unites them is the belief that the nation’s hard-won constitutional protections should be stronger than any corporation.

‘The rule of law is the rule of law.’

Liz Deane-Hughes comes from a prominent family. Her father founded one of Georgetown’s most respected law firms, and in the 1980s, back in Burnham’s time, he fought against repressive changes to the constitution. She remembers her parents taking her to rousing rallies led by a multiracial party battling Burnham’s rule. When she was 13, she came home one day to find police officers searching their home. “I lived through the 1980s in Guyana,” says Ms. Deane-Hughes, who practiced at the family firm before quitting the law. “So I do not want to go back there on any level.”

I talked to Ms. Deane-Hughes, now an artist and jewelry designer, on the sprawling veranda of a colonial-style house built on land that has been in her family for five generations. The government has claimed part of it for the natural gas pipeline, which crosses private property as well as the Wales Estate. But the issue, she told me, is bigger than her backyard.

Last month, Ms. Deane-Hughes joined other activists, virtually, at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, making the argument that oil companies have compromised environmental governance in Guyana. This coterie of activists have spoken out and filed suits to bring the corporation under the scrutiny of the country’s laws and regulations.

Ms. Mangal-Joly, who responded to the cyanide disaster that prompted those environmental laws, says the government has failed to fulfill its oversight duties. As part of her doctoral research at University College London, she found that Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency had waived the environmental assessments for every facility treating toxic waste or storing radioactive materials produced by offshore oil production.

The gas plant, too, has been given a pass. In January, the E.P.A. waived the environmental assessment for the proposed Wales plant because Exxon Mobil, although it isn’t building the plant, had done one for the pipeline.

The E.P.A. defended the decision. “It is good and common practice” to rely on existing environmental assessments “even when done by other project developers,” wrote an agency spokeswoman on behalf of its executive director. The agency asserted its right to waive assessments as it sees fit and noted that the courts hadn’t overturned its exemptions, saying, “This no doubt speaks to the E.P.A.’s high degree of technical competence and culture of compliance within the laws of Guyana.”

Ms. Mangal-Joly notes that the power plant sits above an aquifer that supplies drinking water to most of the country. “Our water table is shallow,” she says. “There’s a generation, and generations to come, that will not inherit clean water. We are despoiling a resource far more valuable than oil.”

The waiver infuriated Ms. Deane-Hughes. And the independence of the board that hears citizen concerns struck her as a sham. Its chairman, Mahender Sharma, heads Guyana’s energy agency, and his wife directs the new government company created to manage the power plant. At a hearing of the board, Ms. Deane-Hughes cited the mandate against conflicts of interest in the Environmental Protection Act and asked Mr. Sharma to recuse himself. “I would like you not to make a decision,” she told him.

Six weeks later, the board did make a decision: It allowed the power company to keep its environmental permit without doing an impact statement.

Mr. Sharma, the energy director, dismissed the critics as a privileged intellectual elite sheltered from the deprivations that have led many Guyanese to welcome the oil industry.

At the Inter-American commission meeting, Mr. Bharrat, the minister of natural resources, argued that it is his government’s right as well as its responsibility to balance economic growth with sustainability. “Our country’s development and environmental protection are not irreconcilable aims,” he told them. And he reminded them that they can turn to the courts with their complaints.

Guyana’s highest court has dealt the activists both setbacks and victories. In one of the more consequential cases, activists have thus far prevailed. Frederick Collins, who heads the local anti-corruption group Transparency Institute of Guyana, sued the E.P.A. for not requiring Exxon Mobil’s local subsidiaries to carry a more substantial insurance policy. Mr. Collins argued that the existing $600 million policy was inadequate in the extreme. Major oil spills aren’t rare — two happen worldwide every year. The biggest blowout ever, at BP’s Deepwater Horizon, cost that company $64 billion. The deepwater drilling in Guyana is the riskiest kind.

A retired insurance executive and Methodist preacher, Mr. Collins had been feeling pessimistic about the case ever since the judge allowed Exxon Mobil, with its daunting resources, to join the E.P.A. as a defendant a year ago. In legal filings, the defendants had dismissed him as a “meddlesome busybody” without legal standing to bring the suit.

But in May, the judge, Sandil Kissoon, pilloried the E.P.A. as “a derelict, pliant” agency whose “state of inertia and slumber” had “placed the nation, its citizens and the environment in grave peril.” He found that the insurance held by Exxon Mobil’s local subsidiary failed to meet international standards and ordered the parent company to guarantee its unlimited liability for all disaster costs — or stop drilling. The case is being appealed.

An Exxon Mobil spokesperson said by email that the company’s insurance is “adequate and appropriate” and that a $2 billion guarantee it recently provided, at the order of the court considering the appeal, “exceeds industry precedent and the estimate of potential liability.”

At a news conference, Mr. Jagdeo, the vice president, criticized the ruling and called on Guyana’s courts to make “predictable” decisions. “We are playing in the big leagues now,” he said. “We are not a backwater country where you can do whatever you want and get away with it.”

To Melinda Janki, the lawyer handling most of the activists’ suits and one of the few local lawyers willing to take on the oil companies, the question is whether Exxon Mobil can get away with doing whatever it wants. She helped shape some of Guyana’s strongest environmental laws. “Even though this is a massive oil company,” she said, “they still have to obey the law. The rule of law is the rule of law.”

The dissidents are deploying the law in their fight against the oil giant and the government, but with billions on the line, they’re also combating the currents of public opinion.

A fossil fuel economy in a changing world

For all the misery wrought by sugar during the colonial era, its legacy as an economic powerhouse lingers in local memory.

In Patentia, the village closest to Wales, where I attended first grade, laid-off sugar workers remember the estate as the center of the community. When its 1,000 workers lost their jobs, thousands more were sent reeling, as businesses from rum shops to mom-and-pop groceries folded.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation, then the country’s largest employer, eliminated a third of its work force, leaving about a fifth of the population coping with the effects of unemployment.

The timing of the closures, a year after the oil discovery, raised hopes that the petroleum industry might somehow fill the void. Seven years after the closures, however, most sugar workers haven’t found new jobs. Certainly, very few are employed by the petroleum industry.

Their struggle raises a crucial question for Guyana as it wrestles with the transition from the old economy to the new: How can Guyanese without the skills or education for petroleum jobs benefit? Nested within that quandary ticks another: What if the new economy isn’t so new? What if its petroleum-driven vision of progress is actually already outdated?

Thomas Singh, a behavioral economist who founded the University of Guyana’s Green Institute, has argued for transforming the still-active sugar industry’s waste into cellulosic ethanol, a cutting-edge biofuel. But Mr. Sharma, the energy agency head, says the industry is too small for its cane husks to power very much. Some of the jackpot from Norway for carbon offsets has been earmarked for eight small solar farms, but Mr. Sharma, who drives an electric car and has solar panels at his house, maintains that solar energy is too expensive to be a primary power source, despite arguments to the contrary . The giant hydroelectric project the Norway deal was supposed to fund, powered by a waterfall, has long been stalled.

What dominates the local imagination now is oil and gas. During my stay in Guyana, I kept hearing the calypso song “ Not a Blade of Grass ” on the radio. Written in the 1970s as a patriotic rallying cry and a stand against Venezuela, which threatened to annex two-thirds of Guyana, it has made a comeback with a new cover version. (So, too, have Venezuela’s threats .) The lyrics, to an outsider’s ear, sound like an anthem against Exxon Mobil: “When outside faces from foreign places talk about takin’ over, we ain’t backin’ down.” But in Guyana, it has been invoked recently to assert the nation’s right to pump its own oil. The voices against drilling, however outspoken, remain isolated; the more passionate debate is over whether Guyana should renegotiate its contract to get a bigger take of the oil proceeds.

Oil is seen as such a boon that even questioning how it’s regulated can be branded unpatriotic. Journalists, academics, lawyers, workers at nongovernmental organizations and even former E.P.A. employees confided their fear of being ostracized if they spoke against petroleum.

Since becoming an adult, I’ve returned to Guyana every few years to research the country’s past and its legacies. During this recent trip, an elder statesman I interviewed told me that it was time I moved back permanently. The thought points to a hope, reawakened by oil, that Guyana can reclaim its lost people. But from my recent trips back to the country, it’s hard to tell now what Guyana is becoming, and who will thrive there as it evolves.

The house my family lived in on the Wales Estate still stands. It has been freshly painted and refurbished, with a daunting sign outside threatening trespassers with closed-circuit television, dogs and drone surveillance. It has passed into private hands. Exactly who owns it is a matter of speculation. The rumor in Patentia? A former sugar worker from Wales repeated it to me: “Exxon owns that house.”

Do you have a connection to Guyana?

It’s still early days in Guyana’s transformation, and the events unfolding in Guyana will have a notable impact worldwide. We’d like to hear your perspectives on where the country is heading. We especially want to engage Guyanese people and those with family or ancestral connections to the country.

The Headway initiative is funded through grants from the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors serving as a fiscal sponsor. The Woodcock Foundation is a funder of Headway’s public square. Funders have no control over the selection, focus of stories or the editing process and do not review stories before publication. The Times retains full editorial control of the Headway initiative.

Gaiutra Bahadur is the author of “Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture.” She teaches English and journalism as an associate professor at Rutgers University in Newark.

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