…of Venezuela’s barefacedness
The Government decided that we oughta become more aware of the controversy Venezuela created over where our border falls. Now, your Eyewitness has been aware of this bit of eyepass since he was a tyke in short pants trudging over to Lil ABC!! He still remembers he had to do the “Lizard Crawl” – along with all the rest of the rascals who connived every day to drive poor Miss Walton to distraction!! Doing the lizard crawl meant that, when he got home, he didn’t need to invent an excuse as to why his clothes were so filthy!! “Teacher mek me do de lizard crawl again, Maa!!!” Nine times outta ten, he just got that way playing “Bow! Bow!” – or what some call “Cowboy and Indians”!!
Anyhow, the fella from the Guyana National Service who came to teach the Lizard Crawl explained this was how we’d take on the Venezuelans when they invaded us to take over our Essequibo!! Your Eyewitness and his friends were more than WILLING to throw their crawling bodies against those Venezies!! As to whether they were “able” was another story they didn’t give much mind to. All they knew was that instead of the twigs they used in “Bow Bow”, they’d be given real guns that would go “Bang! Bang!!”
So, yes, as he got older, his generation became quite aware of the Venezuelan threat…and he fully supports the idea that today’s young’uns oughta know the facts.
And what are those facts, you ask, Young Padawan?? Simply that Essequibo’s ours, because way back in the early 1600s, the Dutch were the ones who settled up the Essequibo River!! And they struck treaties with Amerindian tribes who lived and roamed all over what is now the eastern part of Venezuela for millennia!! If truth be told, the Spanish only SAID they owned the Essequibo region – but they NEVER ever possessed it by living there!! Possession, as they say in international law, is nine-tenths of the law!!
But we ain’t really gotta go back to those days, ‘cause there was an arbitration panel on which Venezuela sat via their representatives, who signed along the dotted line on what the Arbitral Panel decided in 1899!! And in international law, the most fundamental law is “agreements must be kept”!! They even have a fancy Latin expression for it – pacta sunt servanda!! Take THAT, Mad Maduro!! And that’s all we gotta remember!
Backing that up, when Venezuela was whinging “we wuz robbed” – just before we got independence – the Brits had them sign the “Geneva Agreement”, which set out the procedure to settle the controversy they created.
And that’s why we took the matter to the ICJ. They’ll have the final word!!
…of our fighting force
Some Opposition Neanderthals are going on about “only one race” is in the army being sent to hold off the Venezuelans – in case they’re rash enough to actually cross the border. But such a retort is rich, innit?? Here it was – as a condition for getting independence – Burnham and his merry PNC riggers were told to “balance armed forces” from the historic African Guyanese preponderance. No less than the ICJ told them to do it!!
To illustrate, the Governor in 1964 recruited a Special Services Unit (SSU) with equal numbers of African and Indian Guyanese. So, there’s no question the latter “didn’t wanna enlist”!! But as soon as Burnham got independence, he disbanded the SSU and formed an army that was more African Guyanese than ever. And went on to form a People’s Militia that was just as skewed.
Now, if the PPP had actually tried getting more Indian Guyanese into the Army, can you imagine the stink (and riots) that woulda been precipitated??
…of our commonality
While there are some Opposition scorpions who just can’t help stinging with their divisive remarks – as above – most Guyanese have rallied around our One Guyana. Let’s remember THAT, after this storm has passed!
