…our divisions?
With the politicians in full battle mode for the elections due next year, their rhetoric reveals the ways they see our society through the ways they choose to mobilize our people. And these have their own consequences. From where your Eyewitness sits, it’s clear all the politicians accept that our society is ethnically divided. Now, while this might’ve been obvious to most of us, let’s not forget that, for decades and decades, the politicians had been telling us that wasn’t REALLY so!!
For us ordinary folks to say we’re African, Indian, Amerindian or Portuguese Guyanese was because we were deluded by “false consciousness”. The old politicians felt they were above all of this, and were enlightened souls because they’d read a book written by a German fella named Karl Marx, who discovered “true consciousness”. He said the only real division was between the rich and the poor!! But even though THEY said we weren’t REALLY divided by our race or ethnicity, that’s the way WE see ourselves, and that’s the only way we could be mobilized!!
So, for FIFTY years, we had to put up with politicians contorting themselves into pretzels to hypocritically speak from one side of their mouths, to tell us that we were really only the rich and the poor; while, from the other side, they talked the “race talk” we all understood!! Well, to cut to the (present) chase, your Eyewitness was tickled purple (he’s highly pigmented, thank you!!) when recently the PPP finally followed the PNC to accept that old Karl Marx wasn’t relevant to us!!
So, now that the politicians have accepted our ethnic reality, the next question is: how are they dealing with it, now that they don’t have to speak from both sides of their mouths?!! Let’s listen to their rhetoric. The PPP’s insisting that, in all their programmes: housing, roads, bridges, jobs, contracts, whatever, they’re treating everybody and every ethnic group the same; and they’re going after the African and Amerindian votes!! The PNC says, no!! THEY were the ones who’d treated everyone the same! And, as such, while they accept that their base is mostly African-Guyanese, they’d like Indian- and Amerindian-Guyanese to know they have a home there also.
The smaller party – the AFC, which had attracted some 11% of the vote in 2011 – are also pushing for votes from all quarters; insisting they have no historical baggage of favouring any one side. Then finally there’s the rump WPA, preaching that the 20% Mixed demographic actually see their interests with the 29% African-Guyanese, and as such, they only need a top-up from some Amerindians to form a government!!
The 35% Indian-Guyanese?? They’re left for the PPP in this scenario – in the Opposition!!
…Haiti’s Inferno
Dante described Hell (“Inferno” in Italian) in such graphic terms that, 700 years later, it still gives your Eyewitness the creeps and keeps him on the straight and narrow!! If we wanna know what happens when things fall apart on Earth, then we only need to look at Haiti ever since they won “independence” more than 200 years ago. Like they say, be careful with what you wish for!! But we shouldn’t snicker. After twenty-eight years of PNC rule, we were brought to hover just above the hellish conditions of Haiti by Burnham.
And may return if some in the Opposition have their way. The latest turn on their sad saga was Kenyan police being brought in to keep the peace following the installation of a new President. Meanwhile, the gangs continue controlling the capital Port au Prince, and have gotten stronger, making the lives of the citizenry more hellish – if that were possible.
Isn’t Caricom concerned enough to send some troops to save our own??
…ganja business
From reports about the daily busts, looks like market incentives have already worked to create a very lucrative ganja agri sector!! Isn’t it time we work on getting legislation in place to legalise cultivation – like the US has done??
