It’s said that you can take the boy from the country — or wherever…take your pick!! Gutter? – but you can’t take the country – or wherever!! – out of the boy!! And from what’s been going on in the hallowed chambers of our Parliament, seems it’s also true for girls!! Imagine, centuries ago, after waging wars that sometimes lasted for a century – yep!! There was that Hundred Years War!! – the Europeans, who colonized us, decided to settle their differences inside their countries by having the people’s representatives sit in a big chamber called “Parliament” debating those differences.
What was good about the arrangement was that there were rules governing the debates. For one, you didn’t address your opponent directly, but through the Speaker. And when you did have cause to refer to folks in the Chamber, it was always “Honourable this…or honourable that”!! As to whether the identified folks were honourable or not was beside the point. The salutation defanged the sharp POINTS one may be making!
There’s a whole book about these rules of engagement for inside Parliament.
Now, the Europeans claimed the reason they colonized us was we were “uncivilized” and we needed to imbibe these “civilized” ways of settling differences. And boy, did we struggle mightily to acquire the necessary forms and savoir faire to prove we were fit and proper to govern ourselves. One didn’t shout, for instance; that was left to the fishmongers. We were taught “quiet speech is a form of refinement”.
We can do worse that to look at the career of Burnham – who was ambitious from childhood. When he went to England to study law, he practised all the intonations, pauses and tics etc of the arch imperialist Winston Churchill as his model!! The man was away for only FOUR years, and for the rest of his life – especially in Parliament – he was as English in speech as fish and chips!!
He was fond of needling his bete noir Cheddi, who had studied in the US and was more in tune with the more informal “aw shucks” mannerism of the frontier Yanks. But one of Cheddi’s execs – Boysie Ramkarran – demonstrated that one didn’t need a smarmy accent to make one’s point in Parliament – wit would trump accent any day of the week! Now, all of this is to remind our HONOURABLE MPs, from both sides of the aisle, that there’s no need to revert to the fish markets to buttress their vocabularies!!
For instance, when one female told Churchill, “Winston, if you were my husband, I’d put poison in your tea”, Churchill’s immediate response was, “Ma’am if you were my wife, I’d drink it!!” Now, even the recipient of the insult smiled, get it??
So, enough with the crudities!!
…over Pressie’s award
It gotta hurt more when you’re stabbed by your own, innit?? Well, from the outraged whelps emanating from several African Guyanese organizations, the hurt went to their heart when the African Prosperity Network (APN) headquartered in Ghana awarded their “Global Africa Leadership Award” to no other than our President, Irfaan Ali. One of the ironies is that among the protesting organizations was the Ghana Day Association (GDA) – that goes back through various incarnations to Ghana’s Independence Day in 1957!!
One other was Hamilton Green, who signed as “Former Guyana PM” and not “Elder” – as he is wont to do nowadays!! Your Eyewitness thought that title would’ve carried more weight in the motherland, no?? The others were the Pan African Development Foundation; ACDA; People of African Descent Farmers Association; 1823 ECD Revolution Committee; IDPADA-G; Coordinating Committee for the UN Association of Guyana; Cuffy 250 Committee; Pan African Movement; and First of August Movement.
So, what happened to the 65 members of IDPDA (G)?? They support the Award?
…in Brasilia?
By the time you read this, dear readers, we’ll know if Mad Maduro decided to throw in the towel and instruct his Foreign Minister to “beg pardon” to our delegation in Brasilia!! Not likely? Well, what exactly was “likely”?
