…Security Minister
Quick now…when was the last time you heard the Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan in his role of Minister of Public Security say something to the people of Guyana who are reeling from crimes that are seemingly committed at will? Aha! Go to the head of the class, dear reader. You’re right – it was that time he regaled us with statistics to assure us that he and his Police Force had everything under control.
Serious crimes are decreasing he insisted again and he pulled a number of stats from his folder. The ordinary citizen could be excused for thinking he was pulling the said numbers from a hat – because they had as much contact with their reality as the rabbits that are usually pulled out by “magicians”!!
What Ramjattan must answer is if his police are so efficient in CATCHING criminals – why have the attacks become ever more brazen? One answer has to be that the police aren’t proving to be a strong deterrent.
But the loss of confidence in Ramjattan was brought out rather starkly when the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) most recently invited the just departed Chief of Staff of the Army, Phillips, to discuss the crime situation. And the latter explained the discrepancy between the statistics and the reality:
“Every day our citizens are exposed to more and more violent robberies at their places of business – be it shops, factories, delivery vehicles, rice fields, night clubs, churches and other places of worship and even in the sanctity of their homes. No one is safe from violent crimes and criminal activities in our urban and rural areas today. It’s just a matter of time when the criminals will attack any one of us.” It’s the UBIQUITY of the crimes – not their OCCURRENCE that’s frightening.
Now no citizen expects Ramjattan to rush into some phone booth, rip off his clothes and glasses (the mind boggles!!!) and flying “up, up and away”, nab all the bad guys. But surely he has at least to become more of a presence with his police in the public’’ eye that they’re not just seen as a bunch of panhandlers always on the lookout for a fry-rice or money.
Ramjattan should’ve been in the audience listening to Phillips, who pointed out: “Notwithstanding the statistics that speak to a reduction in crime – and here I am not hitting at the police force – it is my firm belief, as a citizen of Guyana, that the high incidence of gun-related crimes is today the most pressing problem in our Guyanese society.”
So how did that gun amnesty work, Ramjattan? Apart from denying some Indigenous Peoples their protein!
…climate change in US debate
Was it only your Eyewitness who noticed that in every one of the three debates between Trump and Clinton, the moderator NEVER brought up climate change?!! That’s right…while Clinton might’ve mumbled a few non-sequiturs about pollution, the ticking time bombing that’s under us all wasn’t important enough to an American audience to discuss for five minutes!! Your Eyewitness won’t even touch with a ten foot pole the topics that were deemed “earth shattering” enough to discuss.
And it wasn’t as if there wasn’t a reminder that Climate Change’s already kicking in. Even if the candidates or the moderators hadn’t been listening to newscasts announcing ad nauseum that September was THE HOTTEST SEPTEMBER recorded ever since mankind started recording temperatures, didn’t they feel it?!
Well, ummm…no, they didn’t feel – not in their air-conditioned jets and cars! Their elision of Climate Change shows the arrogance of the developed north.
We’ll soak up the emissions for them, no?
…the sugar
Could CY Thomas explain why they’ve stopped that second centrifugal extraction of sugar crystals from molasses in at least one factory?
Apart from giving DDL a windfall in enriched molasses, aren’t the farmers being screwed on their POL extraction percentages?