…eat cake
Apocryphal or not, there’s the famous story told of Marie Antoinette, wife of the last of the French Kings – Louis XVI. She asked why the peasants were rioting in the streets of Paris. Told they were hungry and had no bread, the Queen exclaimed exasperatedly, “Then why don’t they eat cake?” This was the beginning of the “French Revolution”.
Against the background of Prezzie promising the 15,000 or so members of the GPSU before the elections a “substantial raise” – which was then quantified as 20 per cent right after he acceded to office – the story might be apropos? After all, no one would doubt – with all the talk about how the AFC got the coalition elected – the GPSU certainly delivered more votes than the AFC. So most folks were kinda taken aback when the Govt used the ole PPP five per cent gambit before Christmas, which they’d derided so recently . Even as they awarded themselves 50 per cent increases on their salaries which STARTED in the hundreds of thousands – and ended in the millions!
Then to rub salt into the GPSU’s wounds, Prezzie made an equivalent of Marie’s “let them eat cake” outburst: he wasn’t about to give no “lazy” public servants no raises! Productivity was gonna be the watchword, baby!! Now while the rest of the populace’s working assumption is public servants do in fact perform the least amount of work in their air-conditioned offices as they can get away with…it was kinda breathtaking for Prezzie to say it.
Some folks figure since the public service workers have nowhere else to place their XX’s than for the coalition, (PPP? Pleeeeease!! They’ve stood on their heads to please the public servants for decades, without any effect!) Prezzie could tell them some home truths. Well, apart from some squeals of indignation, the GPSU was silent so it looks as if this theory might, after all, describe what’s going on.
But this week will be the ultimate test. When the Govt had given the public servants short shrift on last year’s salary increases, they claimed they were gonna wait on a Commission of Inquiry to submit their findings after taking evidence on the state of affairs of the public servants. That Report’s in. The GPSU had to make its demands. They’ve already done so – 40 per cent for starters!
So what’ll it be? An irresistible force (GPSU) meeting an immovable object (Prezzie)? Or is the GPSU gonna fold like a wet noodle?
Your humble Eyewitness thinks this might be Patrick Yarde’s last chance for a last stand.
… catch fish
Another case of being taken for granted is unfolding tragically over in West Berbice. Doesn’t your heart bleed for those poor rural folks under water since APRIL?? That’s right…April. And it’s not just RURAL folks…its rural folks who voted for the APNU/AFC. All that was needed to alleviate their tragedy was to repair one of the massive pumps imported to solve the very same “flooding problem”.
Seems some mechanically proficient bandits decided to cannibalise the pump during the PPP waning days, and the APNU/AFC Government – even though informed and could’ve fixed the pump for $50 million – sat on their hands. Well technically, they didn’t actually sit on their hands – just when it came to fixing the pump.
Their hands doled out $201 million to “finish off” the Durban Park stands for the Jubilee Bash. Another $500 million was spent to clear Durban “Backlands”, and clean up Georgetown’s environs Jubilee visitors wouldn’t be flooded. But West Berbice remains under water.
“Let them catch fish??!!”
…or steal meters
Mayor Chase Green says she didn’t reveal plans for the parking meter deal because nefarious folks would’ve “stolen” the idea. So wouldn’t they have had to offer the deal to her and the Council, in any case?
Let them steal meters!!
