No one can accuse Aubrey Norton of being coy about his ambitions for power. “Aubrey” was a Germanic king of the elves and we know from “Lord of the Rings”, those elves were real bruisers – as is our Aubrey! With the newly-anointed Senior Counsel – courtesy of David Granger – Roysdale Forde openly declaring his intention to challenge Aubrey for his crown, it wasn’t no surprise that the latter would come out swinging to defend his turf!! The second challenger – another lawyer, Amanza Desir – however, was coy when asked about her plans: she claims because of her “humility”, she’d wait for the delegates at Congress to call on her!!
This weekend Aubrey declared pugnaciously, “In 2021, I was elected by the members of the party in a landslide victory and the members felt I was best suited. When I was elected, it was on the promise to engage them across the country… They thought then I was the most experienced and best suited. I can list more, but it is on that basis, I will be re-elected…You are also looking at a possible presidential candidate who has to know national and international politics. I don’t think there is anyone in the party who is more qualified than me to deal with national and international politics.” Well, that’s throwing down the gauntlet, innit?
And Forde – donning his lawyer’s hat – came right back to quote the PNC’s constitution, Article 15, Section I, which speaks to the authority vested in the Biennial Delegates Congress, specifically Section 4 which gives the Congress the authority to elect a party leader and the Central Executive Committee. In other words, he was telling Aubrey this wasn’t like the old days when Founder Leader Burnham was beyond challenge and selected himself for life!!
And that wasn’t all. Forde – who appears desperately trying to channel Burnham but hasn’t gotten past the goatee – actually launched what has to be his manifesto for his assault on the leadership summit. Echoing Obama’s 2008 successful run for the US Presidency, Forde felt that the Guyanese people needed to be given “hope” at this critical juncture. To engender this, he promised to motivate Guyanese to show “unity, strength, collectivism, integrity and patriotism.” Back to 1953?? And to achieve this, he announced, “we must regroup, refocus and rebuild.” Quite a mouthful of Burnhamite alliterations, innit??
Aubrey came right back. He one-upped Forde by pointing to concrete “accomplishments” since he became PNC leader! Sadly these weren’t that impressive after three years at the helm: engaging the international community; starting to rebuild Congress Place and canvassing the country. Signalling his outreach to non-traditional voters, he let drop he was visiting Black Bush Polder!!
The battle has been joined!!
…for modernity
Looks like the government has finally conceded that with all its beautifying projects from Albouystown to the Seawall, Georgetown’s a lost cause!! After all, aside from the projections that the city will be beyond drainage in a decade because of rising seas…it’s clear that the good burghers of the once Garden City are quite satisfied to live in filth!! So we look at the launch of Silica City up on the hills of the Linden highway where an ancient sea had once lapped and left its pristine white sands as evidence.
We’re told they’re starting with the first one hundred homes for Young Professionals. Now your Eyewitness doesn’t see professionals taking up residence at a location that simply adds more than an hour commute to join the horror of the East Bank traffic to Georgetown. So he figures the Government’s gonna have to guarantee employment to the said Young Professionals. And that can only be guaranteed if they start relocating its governmental offices!!
Bye, bye, GT!! Hello, Silica City!!
…with California
NY and California are always competing — but this is ridiculous. New York claims they were hit with an EARTHQUAKE — when not even a single glass was broken?? In 2019, over in California one person died with US$5 billion in damages!!
