1980 was an eventful year. Burnham was rigging away elections here so democracy “bit the dust”; a new constitution was written to legalise his dictatorship – so rule of law bit the dust and assassinating his main opponent, Walter Rodney – who literally bit the dust. That year the Rock group “Queen” prophetically released a massive hit – “Another one bites the dust”! And, since then Burnham also bit the dust – along with so many other dictators – like right in our hemisphere, Papa and Baby Doc, Trujillo; Pinochet etc.
Well, we just learnt that another dictator – Assad of Syria – has been ousted and?fled the jurisdiction. Queen’s (paraphrased) lyrics would’ve gone like this: “Abu al-Jolani (the rebel leader) walks warily down the street; With the Keffiyeh (head wear) pulled way down low; Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet (Assad never heard him coming); Machine guns ready to go; Are you ready? Hey…Are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat? Out of the doorway the bullets rip; To the sound of the beat, yeah; Another one bites the dust; Another one bites the dust; And another one gone, and another one gone; Another one bites the dust (yeah)!!”
So what really went down in Syria? We know that between the present Assad and his Dad, they’d clocked in 53 years of ruling Syria with an iron fist. This means two generations never knew any other ruler than the Assads!! Bashar Assad had been an eye doctor in London when he was forced to return to Syria to succeed his father after his brother died in a car crash in 1994. He explained their draconian rule over their religiously fractured – all Arabs but Christians, Druzes, Alawites, Sunni and Shias – who all felt they should rule – thusly: folks were commenting on the blood on the hands of the surgeon – but not at the patient he’d saved!! The Assads, not so incidentally were Alawites who were supported by Hezbollah and Iran -along with Russia.
So that means that Abu al-Jolani, who’s an Islamist Sunni and a member of Al Qaida – but has since renounced those ties – is sure to set off another round of violent religious infighting as everyone jockeys for power!! As far as the Yanks are concerned, Trump might have his hands full with new kink as he threads lightly to avoid backing another group that may turn on the West!! Your Eyewitness believes that the said west gotta quit trying to impose their view of what is “modernity”.
If folks say they wanna have women in purdah and in the home, who’s to say that’s worse that working 9 to 5 for peanuts??
…foot to fall?
Your Eyewitness had been pretty chuffed when the government introduced legislation – the Restorative Justice Bill – back in Nov 2022 for “repairing the harm caused by an offence”. Our justice system of course, is, guided “punitive justice” – derived from the old “eye for an eye” perspective: “if someone does the crime; he should do the time”. Now while punishing the perpetrator, the victim could possibly seek redress as a civil matter but the state system didn’t bother with that angle.
Of recent there’s been calls for this to be rectified so that victims of crimes could be made whole as far as possible through actions of the state. So your Eyewitness was thrown for a loop when he realized that this Bill on “Restorative Justice” was designed to “restore the PERPETRATOR” to the status quo ante as far as possible!! How does this repair “the harm of the offence”? After two years last month Magistrates were trained to implement this law.
Your Eyewitness is waiting to see where the victim fits in!!
…development bank
VP Jagdeo revealed that the government is mulling opening a development bank…the first after Burnham’s GNCB was established back in 1970. Well, we have a litany of woes that we should avoid, don’t we??
