…at “ancestral” lands
Well, the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into “ancestral lands” looks like it’s determined to plough ahead into an area of national life that’s sure to create scads of tension. We’d all better watch out – and duck when the sparks fly!! Established by President Granger to fulfil one of the APNU/AFC’s Manifesto promises, he included even the lands of our Indigenous Peoples in the CoI’s mandate!!
Not surprisingly, the latter folks cried “foul!!” and the CoI backed off. Your Eyewitness isn’t sure what “backed off”, means legally, and suspects it was just a feint for the CoI to get going — and down the road, the Indigenous Peoples’ land ownership issue will be reopened. And that’s when sparks will fly!
Indigenous Peoples’ lands issue, after all, isn’t just a matter for Guyana and Indigenous Peoples. When the British agreed to give Guyana independence, Stephen Campbell, the Indigenous Peoples leader, was there with Burnham to negotiate in 1965. The right of Amerindians to the lands they were inhabiting was part and parcel of the Independence Agreement – “Annex C”. Just as how the British is a party to the 1966 Geneva Agreement on Venezuela’s Border controversy, so it’s a party to the Indigenous Peoples’ land rights. If the present Guyana Government decides to mess with those rights, the Indigenous peoples can appeal to the British.
And while they’re at it, they can also go to the UN, where a host of resolutions have sanctified Indigenous Land Rights. In fact, in seeking to clarify the land rights of the descendants of African ex-slaves by using the term “ancestral lands”, the Government may’ve just done an injustice to those folks — who just happen to be their most strident supporters.
“Ancestral lands” is what the legal folks call a “term of art”; that is, it has a very specific definition. And it sure doesn’t include lands that were BOUGHT by folks’ ancestors – even though that might’ve been done over a century ago!
“Ancestral lands”, or “ancestral domain”, or “ancestral rights” PREDATE the coming of the White man and his colonial enterprise when he introduced the notion of “land titles” and “real property” and so on. The Africans who bought land after slavery did so under the latter legal regime, and all rights as well as obligations flow from that. They just can’t arbitrarily (and conveniently) baptise their present claims as “ancestral” and derive rights pursuant to that legal notion.
What the CoI can do is to determine who actually owns the lands bought after slavery — which is quite disputed, since the lands were sold jointly; and the descendants are legion — and dispersed.
…at youth
While you, dear reader, might have some problems picturing your Eyewitness as a dissolute youth; indeed, he was. And that’s why he’s forced to rise to the defence of that unfortunate demographic during this “Youth Day” being observed. And the adjective “unfortunate” is deliberate. The point of the matter is that while all and sundry concede that it’s the duty of parents and the other societal institutions to socialise youths to become right-acting citizens, it’s the youths who get blamed when they act up.
Hey!! When that happens, all it means is the societal institutions have FAILED; and to blame youths is to blame the victims! Let’s consider ONE of the objected-to youth (mis)behaviour — those pants that’re worn so low on the hips one can see the crack/crevice/fissure of the wearer. Now, during your Eyewitness’s “disco days”, his parents just refused to buy him the shiny, gaudy, nylon tight pants then in demand!!
When he bought one from his allowance, they locked him out of the house!!
…at garbage promise
Yup! Your Eyewitness isn’t talking about the “promise on garbage”. Even before the present pile-up, he knew the Town Clerk’s promise to use three new garbage collectors plus city sanitation workers was worse than a “cack”.
It was garbage.
