We’ve all heard the Italian exclamation “Mama Mia!!” – literally “my mother”, but colloquially equivalent to our “Oh boy!” or “my goodness!” – in all its intonations!! Well, it would seem that the expression was coined centuries ago to describe what just happened over in Bim – Barbados! How else can your Eyewitness react to the news that Mia Amore Mottley, the Prime Minister of that country, was just re-elected with a majority of 30 to zero seats in their Parliament!! That’s right…her Barbados Labour Party (BLP) secured all the seats in the general elections, with its “major opponent, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), getting zip!!
If there’s one election that won’t be challenged in the courts or elsewhere, it’s this one!! Not even the PNC would have the chutzpah to contest this!! Right? As it was, the DLP leader conceded, “No mas! No mas before the night was over!” And that’s one germane difference between Barbados and us that gives Mottley even more moral authority to’ve called out the Sanctimonious Gangster and his PNC rigging crew back in 2020!! Your Eyewitness noticed that the PNC, with its new leader, congratulated Mottley – right after President Ali did. He wondered whether the PNC apologised for cussing her out back then!! He doubts it. The PNC follows the maxim “all is fair in love and war”, and for that party, politics is war – and not even “by other means”!!
The Barbados election follows the decision, declaration and implementation by Mottley’s government to cut its almost 400-year link with the British Crown by declaring Barbados a Republic last November. Barbados now has a President, who, not incidentally, is also female and is the leader of the losing DLP!! Talk about female power!! Dubbed “Little England”, not just for its long relationship with England, but for its affectations of English “ways”, that’s over.
Mottley exemplifies a new determination to become independent by freeing our minds from mental slavery – without throwing out the baby with the bathwater. She proudly told the Caricom-Africa Union Summit that, while she was not in Africa, Africa was in her!! Would each of the leaders of the Caribbean – including Guyana – have the self-confidence to acknowledge their diverse heritages so resoundingly?! But while she fearlessly speaks “truth to power” in several global fora, she hasn’t called for any crude scrapping of our relations – as our Marxist ideologues used to promote!!
Closer to home, she’s earned a place in the hearts of most well-meaning Guyanese, after her bold stand in 2020. She and President Ali appear to have also hit it off personally – and this is important in the immediate future.
Barbados is going through a bad patch economically. We gotta lend a helping hand!
…PPP’s responsible for GT’s filth?
You could’ve knocked your Eyewitness over with a feather when he read ANUG’s insisting that the PPP Government is responsible for the city sinking into filth and squalor from its Garden City days! And why’s the Central Government responsible? Well, being led by a couple of lawyers – all other executives seem to’ve resigned or jumped ship – they raised a legal argument: They need to raise more funds through increased rates, but a valuation of city buildings must first be conducted by the Finance Ministry’s Valuation Department – controlled by the Govt!!
Sounds plausible. But Local Authorities gotta apply for such valuations!! Did City Hall ever make an application? Last your Eyewitness heard, Town Clerk Royston King was conducting just such an evaluation and APNU/AFC Communities Minister Bulkan was getting a Canadian company to assist him.
Whatever happened to that initiative? And shouldn’t City Hall comply with the Auditor General’s audit of their spending before the Government facilitates citizens throwing more good money down City Hall’s Black Hole?
…Chanderpaul’s back!
Your Eyewitness is quite chuffed that Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s been appointed Tallawahs’ Head Coach – along with Sir Curtly Ambrose as one of his assistants.
For too long, Chanderpaul’s been ill-served by the WI Board in terms of recognition.
