There’s been a lot of kvetching and bitching by the Opposition and their myrmidons about the appointment of the Integrity Commission by Pres Ali. But you gotta understand where these folks are coming from. The word “integrity” to PNC people is like garlic to vampires!! It just sucks the lifeblood out of them!! But then, their party was founded by Burnham on the betrayal of the nationalist cause when he conspired with the Imperialists to split the movement for “pelf and power”!! Integrity?? Gwan da side!!
But they didn’t call his successor Granger the “Sanctimonious Gangster” for nothing!! After all, he was weaned by Burnham himself to betray the principles of military integrity!! Imagine going along with – and even being the point man – to promulgate the army’s swearing PERSONAL loyalty to King Kong! Anyhow, when he was handed the presidency by Corbin who worked out the coalition strategy – and even executed it – it was Granger who came up with a “Code of Conduct” to go with the Integrity Commission. Which the PNC had NEVER supported for decades. The Sanctimonious One was just the man to try rehabilitating the PNC in other areas than politics!!
Granger’s point man on the Code of Conduct was Raphael Trotman – his oleaginous clone from “Nassau” days!! You had to have hypocrites of this magnitude to say with a straight face that Ministers of Government are expected to practise accountability, dignity, diligence, duty, honour, integrity, loyalty, objectivity, responsibility, and transparency!! Takes a lotta brass balls!! When Trotman signed that “contract” with Exxon, he had to’ve broken every one of those guiding moral principles!! The best any of his defenders can say is he was “loyal” to the foundation principle of the PNC on betrayal!! Like the scorpion who bit the kind toad fetching him across the swollen river and drowned, “it was his nature”!!
The cynicism of the PNC on integrity in general and on the Commission in particular was exemplified by no one else than David Granger. Towards the end of November 2018, while promoting the Code of Conduct for his Ministers, he wrote: “…The Government remains in office only so long as it retains the confidence of the Parliament and all Ministers stand or fall together with the Government”.
Less than a month later, when the PNC coalition was defeated in Parliament on a No-Confidence Motion 33-32 – the same majority that had delivered the Government to them – Granger and his Cabinet refused to resign as commanded by the Constitution!! So much for integrity!! But some might say that the Integrity Commission is more about financial transparency and not just “values”.
Financial propriety is the modern test of those values!!
…on Environment Day
Your Eyewitness just happened to be in “town” on Sunday and saw the large bands of coloured T-Shirters marching around for “World Environment Day”. Not that he’s cynical or anything, but he saw that all the oil majors drilling our oil in the Atlantic had sent their people out en masse!! Your Eyewitness knows how their hearts bleed for the environment!! But let him lay his cards on the table as far as oil and the environment go.
First of all, he doesn’t think they don’t mix figuratively – as they don’t physically!! Oil and all its related products, including natural gas are…well…natural!! They’re there in Mother Earth as part of the environment!! They’re part of the bounty she’s provided us to fulfil our destiny!! Do we blame her when she belches out billions of tons of noxious gases during volcanic eruptions?? That’s “natural” – as is us.
It’s just plain ignorance and arrogance to pretend we’re not part of the natural order in our environment!!
…on Land for GRA
It’s now decided to have the GRA remain on Camp St. Their planned move to deal with parking challenges had struck your Eyewitness as “lowering the river and not raising the Bridge” to solve a flooding problem!!
