…Georgetown people
Your Eyewitness was one of the first to kvetch about the Parking Meter Contract – not long after the ‘Gang of Four’ had returned from their all-expenses paid trip to Mexico, Panama and other exotic Latin locales. The dead giveaway was the “all-expenses paid” info. Your Eyewitness’d long ago figured out nothing was free – especially in the world of business. They didn’t contest their motto “Caveat Emptor” – “Buyers Beware”, for nothing!!
But he must acknowledge the yeoman work done by Mark Jacobs to rip the veil of secrecy off the deal when he unfrocked the so-called “owner” of Smart City Solutions as a bona fife conman. But nobody listened to the fella – possibly with the exception of Sherwood Duncan…who took a sharp right turn from his leaders in the AFC. Early in the day, he refused to go along with the charade – said he didn’t see the need for the Gang of Four’s secrecy!
Your Eyewitness raises these matters in the wake of great expectations raised because of the quiche-eating fashionistas joining the rabble in the streets to protest the meters. That there were also lawyers present who usually charge hourly rates that match the MONTHLY salaries of your average Government worker, sealed the deal. Even the billing deferred for one hour is nothing to scoff at.
The expectation is this protest will swell into “something big”. Bigger than GUARD, one prognosticator predicted as he came up for air from his messing around the entrails of dead chickens! Now the GUARD phenom – for those in the majority who weren’t around in 1990 – helped push the PPP over the tape against the PNC in 1992. “Will history repeat itself?” asks the pundits who’re paid to ask these things.
Well, if you ask your Eyewitness, dear readers, his quick answer is, “Ain’t no way in hell this is gonna happen!” And why, you ask, persistent reader? Because what’s playing out at City Hall will not change anything fundamentally, that’s why. Even if the Mayor and her crew are booted out – the very next day, the same people protesting under umbrellas will follow the party line and vote their party come 2020!! That’s just the way the pinetart crumbles, in Guyana!
What happens at the local level has no relationship to what happens when it comes to national leadership. With all the sturm and drang by GUARD back in 1992, the PNC got the exact percentage of the votes they received in 1964. And imagine running against them was the WPA, pulling at the heartstrings by invoking the late, great Walter Rodney.
This time, even they’ve returned home!
…Mash?
With some of the big corporate sponsors of floats dropping out, there’s been some complaints that the celebration of Mash is being “downgraded”. But these folks should ponder why businesses that just LOOOOVE the publicity aren’t putting their hands up to wine down the streets of Georgetown. And the simple answer is business is so deep in the doldrums right now…they have to spend every dollar just trying to keep their heads above water.
Then there’s the symbolism about what they’re asked to do – celebrate. What’s to celebrate when the Government has declared war on the business community just for giving their opinion about the Government’s performance on the economy? And this is no hyperbole. Imagine the Government calling the business community “stool pigeons”!! That is, tattlers for the Opposition.
But this Government – stacked as it is with persons who’ve never even run a sweetie stand – will see even this cost-cutting measure as an “attack”!
But they’ll find out there’s only so much you can do with smoke and mirrors.
…GuySuCo salaries
Seems the best GuySuCo’s shill can do is attack the messenger on the super salaries he revealed being shelled out – $14.1/monthly! – to some geriatrics!!
Whatever happened to that “age” review for Government appointees?
