With us Mudlanders grabbing headlines in all the major news agencies about our massive oil finds and our touted “highest growth rate in the world”, your Eyewitness wonders why local businesses weren’t prepared for “carpetbaggers” and grifters to arrive like locusts!! Remember that term “carpetbagger”? After the North had defeated the South in the US Civil War, northern businessmen arrived with just their “carpetbags” – bags made from carpet material that contained their clothes – to make a killing rebuilding the South!! Today, with our backwardness and underdevelopment constantly emphasised, wouldn’t the modern carpetbaggers see us as Walter Raleigh did almost five hundred years ago: “like a virgin that had not as yet lost its maidenhead”!?!
In other words, all the hustlers in the world of business – and in business, “hustler”, of course, is quite redundant!! – have been informed we’re a prime candidate to be ravished. Which, with the dog-eat-dog morality in even the most famous multinationals – remember the contract Trotman brought back? – means we can be raped if we resist!! And Trotman didn’t even resist!! Ouch!!
But it would seem that locals bend over willingly once we’re approached by businesses from the “developed countries” – especially the US, and Britain. Chalk it up to the colonial mindset. They’re on a higher plane of business ethics than ours, aren’t they?? Aren’t they the ones who taught us the ropes, over the years, with all the rules and laws that they enacted?? Well, that’s the point, isn’t it?? Their con men – who exist in all societies – have been at it so much longer than we poor natives, who were just the other day exchanging cows for wives!!
Did you ever wonder how come Bill Clinton flew down with that Dominican Republic bunch of businessmen? Turns out that the fella who signed that contract to straighten out GPL management issues was an old college buddy of Slick Willie. He’s an Argentinian, hence the Spanish name – but attended Georgetown University, and clearly kept in touch. He credits Bill for his getting into the electricity business in DR – which is still plagued with blackouts. Their govt last year signed a World Bank loan to help them straighten out transmission issues, and your Eyewitness wonders how the fella didn’t bid for THAT contract!!
Whatever…it’s been a case of mutual backscratching, since the fella is a director on the Clinton Foundation – and when Hillary was running for President, made a US$100,000 contribution. So, Clinton must’ve collected his usual US$100,000 speaking fee – plus getting the opportunity to meet Pressie and other local bigwigs whom he’ll be connecting – for a fee!!
Now, there’s nothing wrong with all of this – just that we should know what’s really going on!!
…if you work on Good Friday
One of the charms of living in Guyana – the land of six peoples – is that we inherited a lot of stories and superstitions. And sometimes it’s pretty difficult to keep them apart! Good Friday is one of those days of the year that have generated all sorts of stories in Christian countries. And the one that’s most prevalent in Guyana is that you absolutely SHOULDN’T WORK on Good Friday!
This probably arose from the exhortation for Christians to spend the day reflecting on the significance of Jesus’s crucifixion on this day. But it was highly unlikely that our planters were particularly pious. Excepting for “saving the souls” of the poor Africans by enslaving and working them to death, of course! In that, they were most diligent! But, more prosaically, it was likely that, with accidents in the fields or factories occurring with greater frequency on Good Friday, correlation became causation.
Of the 30 countries designating Good Friday a public holiday – half of them are in the Caribbean!
…for EU visas
With France opening an Embassy here next year, we’ll now be able to apply for the “Schengen Visas” to visit Europe. With the oil money starting to circulate in the country, we just gotta visit gay Paris, no??
