Your Eyewitness’ eye was caught by a letter in the press that bemoaned the social effects of all those Venezies pouring into our country. Up to now, he’d been focusing on the possible political ramifications of Mad Maduro’s revanchist campaign to annex our Essequibo. You know…one day finding out after the madman calls another elections for Governor and MP’s of “Guayana Essequiba”, thousands of his countrymen popping up in Essequibo to place their Xs and dip their fingers in inkwells. Don’t think it’s so farfetched – Essequibo’s got lots of remote villages that aren’t monitored by our authorities – and every Venezuelan, including those who hate Mad Maduro, has been indoctrinated to believe Essequibo is theirs!
But back to the social effects – which your Eyewitness had noticed but hadn’t realized their spread all the way to Berbice – as the letter writer detailed. It all boils down to the hedonistic lifestyle of the Venezies that seemingly single mindedly focuses on “wine, women/men and song”!! Sure the men work hard – just visit any building site that now defines our landscape and you’ll find out!! They’re willing to do whatever work that’s available – for lower wages than Guyanese.
But while the work ethic of the Venezuelan men is admirable, it leaves their women free to inhabit every bar in the land – and those have quadrupled in number and in variety the last few years! – to act as sirens for Guyanese men. A half-a-century ago, Sparrow had belted out the double entendre-laden “Ah never eat a white meat yet!” – set in Africa. But it would seem that the desire for “white meat” burns as carnally as ever in the loins of Guyanese men!! And so while the latter might now be doing quite well thank you with higher paychecks than Venezuelan men – they now blow it on the Venezuelan girls!! And stagger home to their beleaguered wives and squalling kids with empty pockets!!
To compound matters, your Eyewitness was informed that practically every bar now has a “Superbet” gambling outfit – where the drunken Guyanese marks now have another way of parting wih their cash!! And talking about “bars” – that term has now been stretched far beyond the “rum shops” that so well described our colonial-day adaptation of the British pub. Seems that every Chinese Supermarket out there – and as your Eyewitness has complained about bitterly they’ve sprouted like Jumbie Umbrellas on every street corner – they now double as make-shift bars. They are allowed to sell liquor – unlike the “grocery stores they replaced – and the said liquor is consumed in front of the premises – attracting the aforementioned Venezuelan floozies!!
And so with increased rum-drinking, the usual social pathologies have skyrocketed – alcoholism, domestic violence- and suicide!!
…prisoners’ votes
You gotta hand it to the Opposition – they’re really beating the bushes to scrounge up votes. The exodus from their ranks into the PPP’s (open and welcoming) arms has not surprisingly intensified the “bush-beating”! Their latest foray sees them arguing that – unlike what GECOM has announced – prisoners should be allowed to vote!! Ha!! You hadn’t thought about that – have you?? Behind the walls of our prisons are approximately 2500 adults – and going by newspapers reports on incarcerations – they seem to be from the group mostly inclined to support the Opposition!!
Now while the Constitution doesn’t EXPLICITLY prohibit prisoners from voting – it does appear amenable to such an interpretation as proffered by Gecom – because several other “inalienable” rights are restricted. Like free speech, for example!! The argument against prisoners voting – which is prevalent for felons in many countries such as the US – is they’ve forfeited that right by their anti-social act that got them incarcerated in the first place.
Can’t have the inmates running the institution, can you?
…coalition formations
Time’s running out for those opposing the government to form a coalition – which is the only way they have even a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the elections. But as usual “two man-crab cyaan live in one hole”!!
