Dear Editor,
I am pleased to announce the formation of a new Civil Society Organisation, “Citizens Against New Things” or CANT. As it says in the name, we are against new things; No bridge will ever be good enough for any of Guyana’s rivers; No power plant can be environmentally friendly enough; No project will create enough benefit to be worth the effort. You get our drift, it is no! No! No to anything new (except new organs of civil society)
I quite expect to be joined by the usual Doubting Thomases who form and join organisations to give weight to their agendas. I look forward with eagerness to a call from Chris Ram, the doyen of dubious doubters everywhere, he who proclaimed the Marriott would fail; The Hope Canal was in the wrong place, etc. etc. CANT expects, the ponytailed Yog Mahadeo would also sign up to press for an end to oil as will Jerry Jailall, assorted Rambos, Yearwoods and Singh/Persauds/Smiths who want more for every Guyanese but not by doing or building anything new.
Editor, CANT cannot fail, for if we do, Guyana will become a very different place; one with enough cheap electrical power from Amaila Hydro and the gas-to-shore plant to make unthinkable industries viable; new hotels will dominate the skyline; free flow of traffic over high-span bridges; new highways to ease commuter traffic jam woes, why, we may even see the demise of the backyard clothesline as dryers enter the affordable home appliance field.
We urge you to urge others to join this new organisation against new things and preserve our image as a backward people from a proud backwater country. Retrorsum In Aeternum.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh
