When your Eyewitness was in school, during the short pants’ years, he always forgot to write the year correctly when he returned following the Christmas Holidays. Well, he still gotta be reminded, because he just had to change the year on this piece!! Is it because he’s back in short pants?!!
OK…we actually made it into another year, so let’s be thankful that we weren’t one of the 122 persons, or about the same number, killed in vehicular accidents on our Wild West roadways.
Now, this is the time for making resolutions, right?? So, your Eyewitness wants to know what resolution he can make so he doesn’t get murdered or run over by some maniac when he steps out on the roads?? What he thinks is that the Police should be making some resolutions to put away criminals and deter others who might have murderous thoughts! And, for sure, stop giving out driver’s licences to folks who at best are used to driving cattle!! And then, to compound matters, they allow all sorts of unlawful behaviours on the roads, once they collect a Granger or two when they demand to see your (unlawfully obtained?) driver’s licence!!
But seriously, folks, all this nonsense – and a whole heap of other unhealthy shenanigans – would stop if the political elites sit down and act like statesmen and women. Meaning, act for the good of the country! Ironically, such actions would also redound to their benefit – cause every man, woman and child just wants his/her life to be improved. Now, the PPP are right now just doing their darndest to do that, because they realise that’s the road to being elected again and again. True, they’ve got the advantage of incumbency, so they’re doling out the goodies – not just handouts, but houses and house lots! – to create a whole new generation who’ll now have something to protect, and so would not riot!!
The Opposition know this, and that’s why your Eyewitness is pretty sure they’ll try to get their licks in sooner rather than later. That decision, of course, would further deal their chances of ever getting back into office another death blow!! They inflicted the first one themselves when they got into office with some votes from the AFC, and then proceeded to not only treat the AFC like dirt – but also crapped all over them. The crap, of course, was the unilateral closure of the sugar estates, when their own CoI advised them not to do that!!
Anyhow, your Eyewitness would advise Norton to ignore the fellas snorting fire and demanding he does the same. As a seasoned politician, Norton knows all incumbents have an Achilles heel of unfulfilled expectations from their own base. Just exploit that for 2024!!
…and sugar
Well, in this New Year, we’re also carrying along a woeful piece of news that’s gonna have repercussions. The Sugar Union, GAWU, just issued a critical statement informing the nation that the sugar industry couldn’t even make its tremendously modest (shameful?) annual production target of 64,889 tonnes!! Seems that the season – the “big crop” – closed off at 47,011 tonnes, a full 17,898 tonnes (27%) in shortfall.
GAWU educated your Eyewitness by pointing out that the shortfall can’t entirely be blamed on excessive rainfall, since the target is set by the amount of cane to be cut and processed; and this was done. So, what happened? Was the cane not up to scratch with its sucrose content?? Was the recovery rate of extraction lower than the standard?? Once again, GAWU took a shot at “management”.
All in all, it’s clear that we’re transitioning into a new, modern, oil-fuelled (in more ways than one!) economy; but we know we gotta keep that economy diversified. We gotta make some decisions in 2023!!
…lower inflation
Your Eyewitness’s last wish is that the inflation rate be brought under control. That it’s a global problem won’t cut any ice with the 58% living in precarity. They’ll be voting in 2024. In anger!!
