Aren’t we… Independent

Well, here we are celebrating the milestone of SIXTY YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE!! Aren’t you walking with that swagger and joie de vivre that signal you’re the master of your fate and the captain of your destiny?? And that by golly…nobody can tell you what to do?? You aren’t?? Well, maybe you didn’t get the message. We’ve been independent since 1966 – SIXTY years ago – and your Eyewitness will count some of the ways by which you should’ve known.
Before independence, the Brits used to be able to tell us what was “good” for us – and had done so for hundreds of years cause they insisted we didn’t know better. Left to our own devices, we’d be hacking away at each other at the least disagreement – and life would be nasty, brutish and short!! You murmer we’re still doing that, dear reader?? Well…OK. But look at it this way, we’re hacking away all on our own… doing it “our way”!! That’s being independent, innit??
Another way we can tell we’re independent is to look how we’re getting the benefit of our resources all to ourselves. No furriners exploiting the bounty Mother Nature gave us, using our labour to produce “primary goods” like sugar and bauxite and sending it to “foreign” for THEM to make huge profits while we earn pittances!! Are you quibbling that the same thing’s going on with our newfound oil – now that nobody wants our sugar, no mo?? Haven’t you been listening to all those noble, nationalist environmentalists that we’d be polluting our dear mudland by refining the oil and some such?? Haven’t you been following the news about their virtuous opposition to the gas-to shore project?? That’s independence, Baby!!
And then look at culture. In the pre-independence days, we’d we aping all the manners and mannerisms of the colonials. Look how far we’ve come in food, drink and dress!! Haven’t we thrown away sliced bread for cassava bread?? Piwari for beer? Shirt Jacs for suit and tie?? We haven’t?? Well…we DID do it for a couple of years after 1966!! And independence means doing what WE want – even if it’s the same thing we used to do under the big, bad imperialists!! WE’RE making the choice and the heck with those who say we have a “colonial mentality”!!
You can also tell we’re independent cause we’re able to trade and do business with whichever country we want to!! We’re not tied to the whims and fancies of the old colonials as far as foreign affairs’ concerned!! Didn’t we kick out the Canuks from our Linden Bauxite and the Yanks from our Berbice ores??
Ooops!! They were replaced by the Chinks at Linden and closure in Berbice!! Well, we’re independent, innit??

…celebrating families?
In 1993 the UN decided we need to be reminded to commemorate the “International Day for Families” every May 15. But you didn’t notice any “commemoration” here, did you dear reader?? Doesn’t look like we care much about families does it?? Somewhere along the line seems we’ve lost the plot about families. To a large extent that’s because parents seem to’ve forgotten they’re supposed to socialize their offsprings to be responsible members of society. Seems parents now wanna remain infantilized more than their children!!
So, the next time you feel like complaining about crime, or bad drivers, or bad anything that’s done by people – remember much of it goes back to the failure of the family and their heads – old Mom and Dad!! They used to say that “it takes a village to raise a child” – but that’s tough when the parents are absentee! Some of this estrangement comes from the newfangled ideas about “parenting” that forbids disciplining children.
Now your Eyewitness sez kids gotta know society got rules!! promised!

…fixin’ airport road??
Back in the day B.M. (Before Money!) a running gag was gynaecologists sending women with problematical deliveries for a drive up the East Bank Road to Timehri!! Voila!! Bouncing baby!!
Shouldn’t we end this now??