…mo’ problems
The debate continues to swirl around Clive Thomas’s suggestion that the Government dole out some of the funds from the coming oil bonanza as cash payments directly to Guyanese citizens. He’d give $1 million annually to each family. The suggestion was accepted by his party – the WPA – a member of the APNU combine, as its official position. Those members said they’ll be canvassing people – especially the “poor and the powerless” — on the suggestion!!
Canvassing poor folks to find out what they think about getting a million dollar paycheck every year for doing absolutely nothing?? What the heck do they expect those people to tell them?? That they don’t think it’s such a good idea?? It just shows you how unrealistic these ivory tower types are!! What they should do is look at studies that have been conducted on the subject – and not by academic types, but by those that experienced the experience of suddenly getting cash injections.
The best study your Eyewitness saw – actually heard, since it was set to music – was done and presented by Notorious B.I.G, the Brooklyn rapper. He summarised his findings in the title to his song “Mo Money; Mo problems”! And this is what your Eyewitness would like to expand on today, since it’s clear that Thomas and crew don’t have the slightest clue about what’s it like to have come into money.
Let’s sample Notorious’s observation on the downside of affluence: “Now, who’s hot, who not?/ You tell me who flopped, who copped the blue drop?/ Whose jewels got rocks?/ Who’s mostly Dolce down to the tube sock?/ The same old pimp, Mace” The most potent message, of course, is that the song was released and became a mega-hit AFTER Notorious was gunned down on the West Coast in a rapper war!
The money, according to B.I.G., will be blown on all the bling and luxuries the advertising world convinces us we MUST have to be SOMEBODY. And that’s what the poor want, don’t they? If it was Dolce back in ’97, it’s still them in 2018, even if they just used drones to carry their handbags down the runway this year! And they, or their replacement “pimps” – will still be calling the shots!
What Thomas and crew refuse to acknowledge is the role of culture in determining what we’ll do with the windfall. Have our poor been exposed to the notion of “deferred gratification” beyond just telling them “don’t spend it all in one place”??
What incentive will the poor have to engage in the drudgery that is their “work” when they know another $1 million is in the mail to buy more Dolce and Gabbana??
…but no power
Imagine you’re manager of a furniture store, but you’re told you’re in charge of just barstools while another fella handles household, office and all other furniture. What does that say about what your boss thinks of you? Well, Raphael Trotman’s just been told he’s still Minister of Natural Resources – even though the new OIL sector – which dwarfs every other “natural resource” – has been snatched from him and given to a fella with even less experience in oil!! What does that say about what Granger thinks of Trotman?
After the elections, Trotman appeared to be Granger’s fair-haired boy – explained by the former’s revelation of a discussion in “Nassau” between him, the leader of the AFC, and the latter as leader of the PNC. But it would seem this may not have gone down well with the die-hard PNC types, who wouldn’t have forgotten the “presumptuousness” of Trotman – who was recruited into the PNC by Desmond Hoyte – to walk out when he wasn’t made leader!!
…denied to public servants!
Government workers were stung when they got a measly 1-10% raise after the elections, compared to 50% for Ministers. The Government’s now making up by issuing a dress code for them.
Your Eyewitness understands it’ll be pyjamas!! RIP!!
