When Beckett – Archbishop of the Church of England – became a thorn in the side of King Henry II, because he insisted that it was the responsibility of the Church to discipline errant priests, the exasperated King uttered the words that have reverberated through the ages: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” It became the cry of all later rulers – including elected ones – who refused to accept the evolving institutions that were meant to involve others in the use of power. Beckett, of course, was murdered – a tradition Burnham followed when he had Rodney assassinated!!
And this tendency doesn’t only play out in internal politics; it’s just as prevalent in international politics!! We know that during the 1945–1989 Cold War between the USA and the USSR (Russia), countless leaders were assassinated because they were considered “turbulent”!! The biggest of them all, of course, was Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, who stood up to defend the wealth of his country from being raped by those who came bearing “democracy” – including the colonial power Belgium. He was murdered: chopped into pieces and dissolved in acid!! Gotta makes sure, no?? A tooth that survived was kept by Belgium, and returned to his family in the Congo only last year — sixty-one years later!!
The Ruskies on the other side also did more than their fair share of executions to get rid of turbulent challengers. The 1930s “Great Purge” to decide who would succeed Lenin as the Top Dog wasn’t just doling out senna pod!! Hundreds of Stalin’s rival leaders were killed, and Trotsky had to flee to foreign!! But – like Joe Louis told his opponent – “you can run, but you can’t hide”!! Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City 6 years after fleeing!! But chickens do come home to roost: there were at least 4 assassination attempts on Stalin, and it’s now clear that JFK, who ordered quite a few assassinations in his day, was assassinated by the US deep state. And that ain’t just “the fevered imagination of conspiracy theorists”, which is trotted out to derail that train of thought!!
Today we see the principle being played out between Israel and Hamas, with the Israeli’s Mossad considered the best in the world in the assassination game. They’ve taken that game to a whole new level by using missiles to take out Hamas leaders. The six or so THOUSAND civilians killed are just “collateral damage”!! Hey, some shells gonna get broken when you’re making “assassination” omelettes to protect your power!!
So, can this happen in our neck of the woods after Cord assassinated Bishop and his entire Cabinet in Grenada to “protect the revolution”?? Hell, yes!! Even by agents of corporations!!
…on blackouts
The PPP Govt is caught between a rock and a hard place with the blackouts sweeping our mudland. Ultimately, nothing reminds us that we haven’t crawled out of our “shithole country” status like blackouts! To be modern, you gotta be able to switch on all the electrical appurtenances that are now necessities. Imagine the shame of being unable to pop your sliced bread into a toaster!! Gasp!!
Anyhow, the PPP knew what they were getting into, since from 1992 they had to extricate us from the blackout mess – along with the mountain of debt – that the PNC bequeathed. It’s no use pointing out that all this would’ve been of no consequence if the PNC and AFC hadn’t nixed the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Power project in 2013. This would’ve delivered 165MW to our electricity grid. Folks also don’t care it’ll take time for the Gas-to-shore to power us up. They want to be modern NOW!! Gotta blow dry our hair!!
Ignore those tree huggers and get diesel generators pronto!!
…on bullying
We’re still teaching kids that “Guyana’s 83,000 square miles”. Wrong!! Since Venezuela invaded us in 1966 and SEIZED our half of Ankoko Island, Guyana’s area has been reduced!! Guyana’s 82,997 square miles!! We gotta recover our 3 square miles… Not a blade of grass!!
