Tomorrow will be 39 years since Burnham passed on to the land of the ancestors. Imagine that!! More than half of our population weren’t around when the man ran roughshod over the country and forever etched into our national consciousness the image of “DICTATOR”!! He’d wielded that power to grind us all into the dirt just to satisfy his insane compulsions to “remould” us in his image!! Guess his image was folks going around hungry, homeless and naked – which his “doublespeak” dubbed “feed, clothe and house” the nation!!
It was the supreme irony that Burnham passed just a few days after “Emancipation Day”. The irony being that by that time, he’d taken Guyanese almost back to the days of slavery – when life was nasty, brutish and short! The man even invoked slavery by riding around the city on his (high) horse decked out in jodhpurs, and wielding a riding crop would lash folks to get out of his way!! He took particular pleasure in hauling hoity-toity civil servants to Hope Estate – “hope”….get it?? – and have them jump out of the way into canals – which they had to clean!! Yep…he had this fantasy of being an Overseer of slaves!!
By the time he’d given up the ghost, he’d banned most imports that constituted the staples on which we’d been socialised to exist. Bread and roti specifically became verboten after he banned wheat!! “Buy local!!” he shouted – looked down on the masses passing by on the East Coast Road from his verandah at the Big Manja house at Belfield!! Yet when it became clear to him, he was gonna go, his last request was for a can of imported condensed milk for him to savour!! After all his pretensions on swirling cognac and nibbling on canapes, he had to lick some condensed milk!!
Tomorrow, as his successors will pay tribute to their “Founder Leader”, they should reflect on the irony of that designation. That he was the “founder” of the PNC all on his lonesome – it was a one-man show!! Now we know there were a host of others who joined him and the bunch who’d departed from the PPP – like the racists from the League of Coloured People. As Rodney pointed out, “Burnham encourages around himself individuals who are weak or corrupt because he then exercises vicious control over them.” We can now understand why the Sanctimonious Granger was one of his favourites!!
Burnham’s epitaph is also best summarised by Rodney, who advised that “Our language must express not only ridicule but anger and disgust” when it comes to Burnham. And that’s why he IRONICALLY dubbed Burnham, “King Midas: “anything he touches turns to shit!” Let’s understand that those who extol his “legacy” would have us repeat it!!
…St Lucia’s achievements
Like us, Britain acquired St Lucia during the Napoleonic Wars – at the beginning of the 19th century. They used to be French owned while we were Dutch. But for some reason they’ve retained more of French culture than us with Dutch – especially with their patois!! But in modern times, even though they’re a tiny slip of an island with barely 180,000 people, they’ve been punching above their weight in so many areas of life.
In Economics, they’ve produced the Nobel Prize-winning Sir Arthur Lewis while in Literature, there’s Dereck Walcott, the other Nobel Prize winner. In sports, there’s WI Cricket Captain Daren Sammy and now the newest fastest woman in the world – Julien Alfred!
She grew up wanting to be the next Usain Bolt – and last week, crossed the line in the Paris Olympics for the 100m gold in 10.72sec!! She beat world champion, race favourite and Netflix star the USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson – who took silver.
How sweet it is for St Lucia!!
…sugar
There’s no question that we face great challenges in sugar. Especially as we transition into a high-income economy, getting the necessary manpower will become impossible and the increased rains will hinder transitioning into mechanisation.
Quo vadis??
