Amnesia…

…on housing
Your Eyewitness had already rolled his eyes in disbelief when he heard the government – via that venerable ex-Mayor of our Garden City and now head of the CH&PA Hamilton Green OR – was planning to scrap the PPP government’s 1000 homes project on the East Bank and replace it with “condominiums, apartments and co-ops”.
Now some folks would remember the now 82-year-old Green was Minister of Housing in the 1970’s and 80’s and was taking care of (or was SUPPOSED to) the “house” part of Founder Leader Burnham’s promise to “feed, clothe and house the nation”. Well, Green didn’t get 1/10th of the job done… but every house in every scheme went to folks with party cards!
So when the incidental matter of money for the CH&PA’s new plans were announced at BILLION, your Eyewitness knew the Artful Dodger was up to his old tricks. But they did say you can’t teach old PNCites new tricks, didn’t they?! But you’d think that some of the sixty-plus year old younger fellas (as compared to Green!!) that now populate 80 per cent of the government’s top echelons would know in retrospect it wasn’t such a good move.
What happened is Green basically recreated the American experiment to place inner city folks – who were generally African Americans – into apartments called “Projects”. Pretty soon these descended into the worse slums in the history of America – a position they still occupy. Right now those projects are basically maximum security prisons under 24/7 electronic surveillance to ensure the rapes and murders and drugs are kept WITHIN the Projects.
So Green wants to replicate this on a grander scale in Guyana? Your Eyewitness is tempted to ask, “What did PNC voters do to this man to deserve such a fate?” Was it because they allowed Desmond Hoyte to kick him out of the Party and then neuter him? So that three different female Town Clerks could bitch-slap him silly?
Every study in every developed country that tried to provide housing for low income folks has shown that you can’t herd them like rats into cages. Inevitably they’ll become stir crazy and start going after each other. The PPP government had the right idea… give people house lots, arrange with banks to give them low interest loans, give them tax write-offs so they earn their own homes… But for goodness sake don’t give them “free houses” in what will definitely become ghettos.
They’ll just be free to destroy themselves.

…on sugar CoI
So there it was… highlighted in the Chronic… the “future” of sugar was being discussed. The Chairman of GuySuCo was there… and he gave his two cents worth. The CEO was there and he gave his one cent worth. (CEOs are worth less than Chairmen and so are their speeches). But then Prezzie spoke and pretty much delivered the requiem for the sugar industry.
The question that troubled your Eyewitness, however, was what the heck happened to the CoI Report into the Sugar Industry?? After all, the people of Guyana shelled out some $52 million for the consultants! Or is it the Chairman of GuySuCo who was also the Chairman of the CoI, spoke from both sides of his mouth?
Prezzie knocked the Skeldon Factory as the “worst investment in the history of Guyana”. Wow!! Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? Didn’t all the experts- including Tate and Lyle, hired by the PNC – agree that Skeldon Factory had to be modernised to bring down costs?
But then we all have collective amnesia now, don’t we?

…on African roots
Your Eyewitness was intrigued that for the celebration of the heritage of our pioneering village of Victoria, it was announced that there will be an “Indaba” or “conference”. Now this is a Zulu or Swazi word, from where none of our ancestors came.
Shouldn’t we use the Swahili word, “Mkutano?