When the Yanks were beginning their fight against the Brits of George III for their independence, there’s the story – immortalised in the poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” – in which Paul warned the citizenry of the Boston area, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” Well, today, continuing the tradition of fighting against injustice, we gotta ring bells across the country – or trumpet over social media! – “The Yanks are coming!! The Yanks are coming!!” to help us repel the bullyism of Mad Maduro, who would gobble up two-thirds of our national territory!!
First, we heard that Daniel P. Erikson, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for the THIRTY-FOUR countries in the Western Hemisphere at the U.S. Department of Defense, was here for the last two days!! In a dry but potent message, the US explained his mission was to “to bolster (our) alliance and partnership by improving interoperability, deepening information-sharing and planning, and conducting complex joint and combined exercises.” More specifically, he’d discuss the modalities of “bilateral defense and security partnership as the GDF continues to grow, in the short-term with robust military to military engagements, and in the long-term as the nation continues to modernize its defense institutions.” He met with Governmental leaders from the President down, leaders of the GDF, and Caricom, “to discuss the U.S. defense and security partnership with Guyana and regional partners.”
Whew!! Let’s break that down a wee bit, shall we, dear reader?? “Bolster our alliance and partnership”?? Well, looks like we HAVE that alliance with the States that your Eyewitness was pushing for so long – to hold off the big, bad Mad Maduro, who’s been huffing and puffing out west!!! And how shall we do that?? Well, we’ll be “growing our GDF” – obviously with equipment and training provided by the US – “robust military to military engagements”!! Take that, Mad Maduro; let’s see what you’ll do now to top your hysteria when the Brits sent a lone patrol boat off Georgetown! It was heartening that Erikson also met with Caricom, which should mean not only the bureaucrats at the Secretariat at Liliendaal, but also Pres Ali, who’s the Chair for the year!! So, the message will definitely be passed on to those PMs chumming up with Mad Maduro: that they better quit straying!!
But before Erikson could fly out, in came no other than former Secretary of State “Big” Mike Pompeo, on what Pres Ali described was a “private” visit!! Well, OK…your Eyewitness will go along, since he saw that (Retd) Gen Wesley Clark’s visit was also “private”!!
So, looks like our Government’s covering their bases on both sides of the US divide to take on Mad Maduro!!
…for crime?
Your Eyewitness is a sucker for Police shows. And with Netflix streaming them from across the globe – even Thailand – invariably, your Eyewitness would wonder how come their Police stations are so modernistic, while ours continue to look like something out of Rudyard Kipling!! So, he was pretty chuffed when he saw that the burnt-out Brickdam Police Station – oldest in the country – will now be replaced with a TWELVE-STOREY edifice!!
Well, welcome to the 21st century, GPF!! But we hope this is only the beginning of root and branch reform in the institution standing between us, the citizens of Mudland, and the criminals who’d have us revert to the law of the jungle! But the building can only be the beginning of modernization. Since our GPF was launched in 1839 – to protect the Whites from the newly freed Africans! – the world of policing’s come a long way.
We gotta professionalize the ENTIRE Force – and then pay them so they don’t hafta bilk citizens for fried-rice money!!
…to commute?
We’re told there’s soon gonna be “free movement of Caricom citizens”. But it seems the ferry service that’s supposed to ply between Guyana, T&T and Barbados is stuttering to get off the wharf!! They can’t even get the company registered!!
