Moving on…

…with the country’s business
Now that the “Independence” Carnival’s finally over, maybe it’s time to take stock as to what exactly went on…or went down – over the last week. The first thing that struck your Eyewitness was the irony of juxtaposing “Independence” with a festival that’s so imitative of the Trini experience, he wondered whether we’d just exchanged political colonialisation for cultural colonialism!!
When Barbados decided to import some of the Trini jump-up, they, at least, had the grace to call their variant “Crop Over”. That is, a replication of the celebration the slaves had when the sugar crop was done for the season and they were allowed to let off steam by dancing and singing – which was forbidden during “crop time”. But T&T’s Carnival has its origin from the French planters who brought their slaves with them after they fled the Haitian Revolution. And this adds another level of irony to our using T&T’s Carnival to celebrate our Independence – the Trini Carnival has its origin in an explicitly anti-reactionary freedom movement!!
Another thing that struck your Eyewitness was the crassness of the PNC using the entire series of activities as an extended election-campaign mobilisation exercise! They didn’t even pretend this might be about Guyanese appreciating becoming independent of Britain. But we should’ve suspected this was the plot all along – the fella heading the whole shebang being no other than ex-GDF Officer Larry London, who was behind the Jubilee Park at D’Urban Park where half-a-billion is still unaccounted for!!
Did you wonder where the PNC got $40 million to buy those tickets for Buju Banton’s concert at the National Stadium?? But figuring their average supporter would buy their version of Buju’s shout out to Roger Khan, “I is” Broomes had him record a message of support to President Granger, who he said, couldn’t fit him into his schedule. Broomes also took him on a tour of our ghetto neighbourhoods to press the flesh – and also to a Rasta community at Victoria. One wondered what the latter thought of their guest dealing with that sickness of Babylon – cocaine!!
Your Eyewitness would’ve preferred if someone from the PNC Government could’ve had the guts to reflect on their first 28 years at the wheel of state and identified where they’d gone wrong. Of course there were challenges – especially external ones like the Venezuelans blocking the Hydro Project in tandem with OPEC’s oil price jump. But weren’t there lessons from their policies that excluded half of the country?
Or the concentration of powers in the hands of the Executive Presidency custom created by Burnham?  Or the need not to fiddle with the electoral machinery?
Must we be doomed to repeat the PNC’s past??

…from the NCM
Your Eyewitness is getting very restive with the CCJ still not announcing its verdict on the NCM – even though they took submissions almost three weeks ago. After all, the President of the CCJ himself, Justice Adrian Saunders had very sharply informed the attorney representing GECOM about the need for an urgent resolution to the case: “If the vote of no-confidence was valid and if Parliament ought to be dissolved… with each passing day beyond that three-month period – a dagger is being thrown at the Constitution every day”.
Now that’s a very persuasive reason for a decision without further delay… not to mention that the CCJ had even berated the Appellate Court for throwing “delaying daggers” The concern, of course, is that now that the games (Carnival!) are literally over, folks are already feeling the tension in the air over the new game by GECOM to stick its middle finger at the Constitution.
To make a 2020 elections a fait accompli!

…on integrity
After the Integrity Commission was finally constituted, it took another year to get going. But hopes were raised when they announced a list of 176 defaulters. However, those hopes were dashed when the President confessed he was a defaulter – but his name wasn’t on the list.
Sacred integrity cows?