For a credible… Opposition Leader

Some PPP partisans are gloating that the PNC appears to be going belly up. Seemingly agreeing with them, PNC partisans are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth at Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton. He was, after all, elected by the PNC after a long-drawn-out war of attrition against then leader David Granger. But was he??
Some say that the election was by a minority of delegates from PNC groups, but – like with Britain’s Liz Truss and “Dishy” Rishi Sunak – they’re at variance with the rank and file!!
But another loose end is that it wasn’t clear exactly why the Sanctimonious Gangster Granger was removed!! Was it because he wasn’t “gangster enough to stare down the US, EU, Britain, Caricom, the Commonwealth and the OAS?? Did PNC supporters hark back to their Founder Leader “talking back and giving lip” to the Yanks back in the day?? But hey!! Then, Burnham had Jagan as the US’ bogeyman to invoke whenever they tried to pressure him!! Ain’t no bogeyman around no mo to blackmail the US with!!
Was it because Granger was too “sanctimonious”?? While that pose got them elected as the “kinder, gentler PNC” in 2011 and 2015, did they now feel the PNC ought to get back to its old big-and-bad ways?? This, of course, had gotten them into office in the sixties, after they had pummelled the PPP and their supporters on behalf of the CIA – and then periodically henceforth for good measure!! But Granger had shown he was just as capable as Burnham and Hoyte to unleash violence against their old punching bags. Remember the West Berbice Riots?? Well, you can’t be blamed if you have, dear reader: the PPP Govt that promised an Inquiry seemed to have forgotten!!
Well, it could be that it was because they wanted a real “bad man” at their helm, one who just didn’t give a damn, in the tradition of Burnham – whose motto was “Back to back, belly to belly/Ah doan give a damn, ah done dead a’ready!!” – and they think they had found this in the personage of Aubrey Norton. But this is where your Eyewitness thinks such people don’t really have a handle on Norton. They may assume he’s a clone of Robert Corbin, but after the initial flareups, they should remember that Corbin toned down, and even went to law school to eventually enter the bar!!
He’d found out that the folks who fund politics don’t really want “Bad Johns”, as the Trinis call them; they want a leader who sees toughness as a means to an end – not just “brucking” up the place!!
Norton has long discovered this, and he ain’t about to be no bull in a China shop!!

…river crossing
If there was any reason to emphasise the need for a fixed-span bridge across the Demerara River, the latest collision of a river vessel with the old floating one (DHB) should do the job. Back in the day when the PPP took over in 1992, the DHB hadn’t even reached its expiration date – 25 years from 1978 – but portions would periodically float downstream with vehicles on them!! So, we gotta be thankful that the PPP’s spending billions in maintenance – beyond the tolls – and now the threat’s from errant sailors?

You’d think that with the owners having to pay for the repair costs, these accidents would’ve disappeared. But from the number of “accidents” that have occurred, it’s clear that the helmsmen – the fellas driving the vessels – aren’t the owners. Their mentality is similar to that of the mini- bus drivers, who don’t give a damn what happens to their vehicles!! We now have a mini-bus culture on the river!!
Ain’t nothing gonna change till we have that fixed-span at La Grange!!

…Carnival
Unlike many folks who’ve panned the local Cricket Carnival for its vulgarity, it’s more the Government’s involvement that got your Eyewitness’s goat. Isn’t Government-sponsored ‘culture’ a contradiction in terms, since culture’s the way of life of the people??