Your Eyewitness knows the saying is “counting chickens before they’re hatched”; meaning: to be getting way ahead of where you are, since there can be so many slips between the cup and the lip!! But in our Mudland – where we use the proper name “fowl” to refer to the domesticated birds we rear for their meat and eggs – we should more appropriately talk about “counting fowls”. That connotes the sentiment “foul” in the context that prompted this piece!!
To wit, a proposal by a busybody referring to herself as “Citizen Thomas” – obviously alluding to that 1940s movie “Citizen Kane” – which she probably saw as a young woman. Anyhow, she’s floating an initiative, “Campaign #How De Coalition Talks Coming?” – to advance the negotiations by opposition leaders on the said subject – to contest the elections that are around the corner.
Citizen Thomas had proffered herself as a presidential candidate last year, and had launched a ‘Give Audreyanna a Chance’ campaign. She (wisely!!) withdrew last January, and has now moved on to this new venture. The old backdoor manoeuvre??!
Anyhow, in her latest incarnation, the good Citizen’s focusing totally on divvying up the (expected) spoils as to who’ll get what positions in a new government – when the coalition wins!! For example, she begins by proposing “Aubrey Norton as President; Nigel Hughes as Prime Minister, First Vice President, and Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, with responsibility for constitutional reform”!! Nothing about HOW this motley collection of ambitious INDIVIDULALS would win by possibly putting together a manifesto that knocks the socks off the electorate!! Just an assumed star power of her selection!!
But let’s look at her selection – which, in the absence of a poll, was most likely gathered from her personal echo chamber. She claims it’s been gaining “positive feedback”. Aubrey has made a non-negotiable demand that he gotta be the Head Honcho in any Opposition coalition – and he’s been given his wish in this wish list. But will he be willing to give his arch-rival Nigel – who just landed from a tree (Norton’s words!!) – all that power”, Especially when he knows Nigel’s humongous demands for his party signal overweening ambition and ego?? But then again, Norton has Granger’s precedence when he “accepted” great powers for Nagamootoo to run as his PM candidate – but then kept him in a kennel and on a (very short) leash!!
However, in your Eyewitness’s estimate, all of this is just spinning wheels in mud – and won’t take the process anywhere. By her own earlier candidacy, the good citizen has already signaled that any Tom, Dick or Harilall can become the Opposition presidential candidate – and not giving the PNC it’s proven) due.
Norton’s gonna go it alone!!
…PNC’s accomplishments
Burnham, the megalomaniac, not surprisingly looooved spectacles – where he could command the adulation of the masses. Remember his Mass Games borrowed from N. Korea, where schoolkids created his portrait by holding up crowd-cards?? Well, when his disciple Granger became president, immediately after his inauguration at the National Stadium, he decided its 16,000-person capacity wasn’t enough to pay homage!! He announced plans for a “Jubilee Stadium” at Durban Park with double that capacity – and be closer to GT’s PNC faithful.
He tried to kill two birds with that one stone by awarding the contract to a private company controlled by a party funder and also Rupert Roopnaraine. The ramshackle, shoddy, wooden structure soon fell apart after Independence Jubilee 2016 – even though the Government had to step in with funding and manpower!! Over the years, the “Stadium” collapsed into ruins – with only the homeless taking refuge there.
The Govt just announced rehabilitation plans. Should be torn down and made into the Central Georgetown Bus Terminal and Car Park!!
…Popes
Imagine, there’ve been 266 Popes since Jesus’s disciple Peter established “The Church” in Rome in 30 AD. Since then, while his successors chose various names – including those of the apostles – they steered clear of “Peter” out of respect!!
