…for sugar
f there was any doubt this Government has absolutely no intention of “saving” the sugar industry, the appointment of Tony Vieira as “Director of Field Operations” should clear that up! Here’s a man who’s been out of sugar since 1976 – exactly 40 years ago – going to lead the most challenged industry today in 2016, to the promised land of profitability? He’ll part the sea of red ink that’s drowning sugar and turn it into black?
What the heck’s going on here? First of all, Tony Vieira only got a job in sugar at Versailles because his father and family owned the estate. The Chronic reported that Vieira got a “diploma in plant anatomy and physiology” from UWI and UG in 1965. Really? At that time UG was still “Jagan’s Night School” meeting in QC classrooms. They were certainly NOT doing Botany at night. And why didn’t Vieira complete his degree at UWI?
This Eyewitness will tell you why: he just couldn’t hack it through the thickets of Agricultural Science! But even if Vieira was Norman Borlaug – father of the green revolution – knowledge gleaned 51 years ago in 1965 – is pretty passé by now. At the time when Vieira was in the cane fields, all the cane varieties being used were different from today’s. Then, also, labour was abundant and cultivation was labour intensive. It’s a whole new ball game today. Even the climate has changed! Has the Govt given the man a test to find out if he knows “sugar cane” from “wild cane”? Even if Vieira COULD remember anything…remember he’d quit sugar for TV where he also failed.
It has to be clear to anyone who’s been following the travails of the sugar industry, Vieira’s the Trojan Horse being injected inside the walls of GuySuCo to land the coup de grace on the wounded corporation. This Eyewitness can just see Vieira coming up with all sorts of cockamamie ideas just to show “he knows” cane. And to frustrate those in the management structure who honestly believe the company can be turned around.
If the Government wants to close the industry down, it should have the guts to tell it like it is. Its Vieira gambit to accomplish that goal will just drag out the closure into a slow and painful death because of his incompetence. And bleed the treasury unnecessarily.
One thing it could do is to return Vieira to the place where he started – Versailles. If he knows so much about sugar in general, then he would know the most about sugar in particular at Versailles.
Let him save Versailles, a pillar of the old Vieira empire.
…on spending
With every review of the APNU/AFC first year panning their performance, you’d think they’d hire some PR folks to bail them out. Problem is, the revelations are coming so fast and furious and from so many directions they probably need someone to cover them with Teflon so the muck doesn’t stick till 2020.
Take the news they’re “abusing” the Contingencies Fund. Not fulfilling their promises might be one thing – there’s always a possibility of a slip between the cup and the lip! And they could always say the big, bad perfidious PPP sabotaged their plans. But the Contingencies Fund is supposed to be just that – to meet “contingent” expenses that are “urgent, unavoidable and unforeseen”.
$799M worth of “contingent” goods and services were “urgently” needed between September 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015??? This is gross abuse of the process.
Didn’t the present Min of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan threaten Ashni Singh with “sanctions” for similar alleged abuse?
Why doesn’t he haul Jordan to Camp St?
…incarceration
But nowadays…who’s afraid of 12 Camp St? With inmates pretty much running things after Ramjattan caved in to their demands – not those inside! And they, in any case, might just be OUTSIDE after Ramjattan recommends their release.
Like he did with the Port Mourant recidivist.
