With all those symposia and panel discussions following Emancipation Day, our Eyewitness is very disappointed – but not really surprised – about the continuous harping on “race” to explain any perceived negative happening in Guyana.
In fact, if these accounts are to be believed, race isn’t a variable any longer in our dear mudland, but a constant! Fella gets robbed as he staggers home from the rum shop? Race! Cocaine discovered in saltfish? Race! New captain of the Warriors gets selected…Race!! Never mind about cocaine in the vagina.
And we arrive at some of the dismissals and disavowals extracted from the PPP ever since they were ALLOWED – with great reluctance – to take office five months after they were legally voted in. Not only race, but this time “Racial Apartheid” was the cry!!! Your Eyewitness knows we don’t have much experience with the changes of Government in Guyana and the ensuing transitions – after all, the PNC under Burnham and Hoyte rigged their way into power for almost three decades, until “free and fair” elections. But Jeez…isn’t it time they get with the (democratic) programme??
In 1992, even before the election was called, Hamilton Green insisted that the “White Man” Jimmy Carter was bent on ousting the PNC. Why? Well, duh – race! Carter was just another “Redneck” from the US Deep South who had it in for Blacks! He’s been repeating this bilge ever since – and did so again most vehemently in 2020! And once again, as the PPP attempted to govern during the past three years and were forced to get rid of some of the “square pegs in round holes” that had accumulated over the previous 5 years, there came the cries of “ethnic cleansing”!! Race! Never mind that the 92% of one ethnic group in the Bertrand Collins Public Service College signals that any house cleaning will unavoidably affect that ethnic group inordinately!!
And never mind that Granger had fired more than 7000 mostly Indian Guyanese sugar workers – that wasn’t race! Could you imagine if the PPP had done the same in the Bauxite Industry at Linden? House lots allocation to fulfill their campaign promise of 50,000? “Race!” Never mind that Prime Minister Phillips released figures to show that 50% of the awardees were African Guyanese!! And of course, these justified beatings, of Indian Guyanese at Mon Repos!! How dare they support the “racist” PPP? And, even more invidiously, individuals who called out racial attacks against Indian Guyanese are dubbed “slave catchers”!
The fact of the matter is that all this stridency is working against the PNC, since it turns off even members of their base, who know they need to become more accommodative of “outsiders” to win elections – and should quit painting all of them with the same brush.
Isn’t that the race the PNC should focus on?
…Cricket
You don’t have to be reminded, dear reader, that your Eyewitness wears his cricket mania on his sleeves. “What do they know of cricket that only cricket knows?” asked CLR James. For us West Indians, we know cricket’s influence goes way “beyond the boundary”, and indeed permeates our very soul. Your Eyewitness is skeptical of the loyalty of anyone who claims to be “West Indian” but isn’t besotted by cricket – in all its glorious contradictions!
He feels that, in terms of Guyana’s role in the regional game, we’ve arrived at a crossroads – and he hopes the powers that be don’t muck it up because of their egos. He’s talking, of course, about the need for a complete overhaul of our cricket administration. From the experience of the other cricketing nations – think India especially! – the success, and even the survival, of the game depends on its administration!
…labour
With Guyana open for business and finally having something for the multi-national corporations (MNCs) to oppose, shouldn’t the umbrella trade union bodies bury the hatchet and form a united front?
What is that about “divided we fall”?
