…of politics?
Right after the Soviet empire collapsed ignominiously like Humpty Dumpty with the Berlin Wall’s fall in 1989, an American political scientist, Fukuyama, wrote a best-seller called “The end of History”!! Now you and I might object that as long as there are people around, doing their stuff, history will continue. But what’d we know?? These academic types are guided by “theory” and if their theory tells them so, it MUST be so!!
In Fukuyama’s case, he was following one long strand of European philosophy that insisted that in the “march of history”, Liberalism will sweep everything in its path and with no ideological competition, it will be the end of any future socio-political development, much less struggle!! The end of history!! Within a couple of decades, however, the liberal state with its market fundamentalism guiding its economy, collapsed as ignominiously as did the Soviet empire…and we’re still rummaging around for an alternative paradigm!!
This rather obscure detour, Dear Reader, was prompted by a letter in the press, which insisted that the search for a “third force” is an oxymoron since one – in the form of the AFC – had been formed in 2006 and consolidated in 2011 with 10% of the vote!! It had then coalesced with the PNC/APNU, bringing “citizens freedom from fear of ethnic insecurities by political domination”!! We were now practising “post-racial politics”.
“The Third Force, that is the AFC, understood the wishes of its supporters and ensured the wishes of its supporters were enacted in creating a coalition which the people elected to run the affairs of Guyana. The Third Force is continuing to exert the mandate of the people and its supporters by being in the APNU/AFC coalition!” (Exclamation point courtesy the letter writer, one Ronnie White!!)
It’s therefore obvious, if this fella is to be believed, that we, in our dear old mud land, have arrived at our end of politics – which is the struggle for power. Why struggle when the utopia has been delivered with the AFC joining up with the PNC??!! Unfortunately, like Fukuyama, this white fella is arguing from theoretical premises that are just not grounded in reality!! Yes…the AFC WAS a third force back in 2011. But did it really represent the block of voters – the 10% Indian segment – that made it into that force, after its coalition?? Is a “lamp” a lamp if it doesn’t give light??
Who did the AFC represent when Granger shuttered 4 sugar estates and fired 7000 workers?? Who did they represent when the remaining 10,000 workers didn’t get a raise since 2014??
What did that block signal in the 2018 LGE about the AFC??
Politics, like history, is moving inexorably to deliver a PPP victory!!
…Georgetown??
So we hear about NICIL trumpeting a 700-acre plot of land at Ogle – huffed from the shuttered LBI sugar estate – as the core of a new “city”. Now, this ain’t no small suburban development since 700 acres translates to more than one square mile!! Just about the size of the original Georgetown before they added on all those villages to create “Greater Georgetown”.
With heightened awareness of rising sea levels and with our coast already 5 feet below present sea levels, there have been serious recommendations about creating a new city on higher ground. Isn’t Director Heath London au fait with these concerns or he’s only listening to the carpetbaggers looking to make a quick buck?? The challenge to building up Ogle so densely is that the drainage that was handled by GuySuCo – because of its cane cultivation – is now no more and NDIA’s always a lost cause!!
Any ‘city’ at Ogle will demand an enormous hydraulic infrastructure to keep it from being submerged.
Will the carpetbaggers pay for it??
…the charade
Now that we’re down to the stretch and the PNC’s witnessed the ennui in voters, the mask of civility’s being pulled off.
When an incumbent’s down to ad hominem attacks, it means they can’t defend their record!!
