New Year… old sores

Well, here we are… We made it to 2026!! Happy New Year!! Or is it?? As your Eyewitness looks around, even though the saying is “out with the old and in with the new”, seems like we’re gonna be dealing with the same ole, same ole sores. Sanction Man has kept his promise to drag out his extradition order by filing a constitutional objection in the High Court! This is even though Magistrate Judy had ruled that the objection had already been dealt with in that court – and dismissed by none other than our new Chancellor (ag). So through this year, we can expect pleas to the Appellate Court and then to the CCJ. Your Eyewitness hopes that because of the public interest and importance of the case, matters gonna be concluded expeditiously before year-end. So that Sanction Man’s gonna be enjoying the hospitality of the US Government in federal facilities in the Sunshine State, Florida – decked out in his orange jumpsuit!!
Another sore is the GT Mayor’s intervention to contravene a court order which mandated the removal of vendors in front of a private business – Yhip’s Bakery. These Mayoral interventions have been one of the major reasons for GT being transformed from the “Garden City” it had been for a hundred years and sinking into and remaining as a garbage city – all because of politics. In this case, your Eyewitness believes the Mayor ought to be held in contempt of the court and thrown into the clinker for a couple of weeks to meditate on his responsibilities to the good citizens of the city!!
Flooding’s another constant – which perhaps shouldn’t be surprising since we started out on the coast five feet under the sea level – with the latter rising because of global warming!! It doesn’t need rocket scientists to tell us that our only “solution” is to move to higher ground!! As we build more than 50,000 homes annually on the Coastland, have you realised this entails filling in more and more drainage canals; building more and more concrete and asphalted roads; and more concreted yards – all turning the said Coastland into a massive trench between the seawall and the backdam??
Stories of corruption show no sign of letting up – but this has been so ever since Eve bit into that apple, no? However, if present trends continue, it looks like there might be one big change in the new year – the demise of the PNC!! After its horrendous drubbing at the September 1 polls by Sanction Man’s WIN, your Eyewitness expected the present leadership to do the honourable thing and fall on their swords!!
But with Norton determined to continue with his failed strategy, he’s guaranteeing the PNC going the way of all dinosaurs!!

…anomaly
With our chequered history of election manipulations, which the PNC under Burnham took to new heights – which his protégé, the Sanctimonious Gangster, tried (unsuccessfully) to emulate – your Eyewitness is very alert to the practice at home and abroad!! It’s a big part of his jaundiced view of politics and politicians as a species – which has evolved so many practices to hold on to power!! Well, he just noticed that over in Honduras, presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla has formally challenged the results of the country’s recent election.
He’d finished second to conservative candidate Nasry Asfura – who was backed by US President Trump and declared the winner on Christmas Eve – more than three weeks after the elections. With less than 1 per cent of votes separating the two candidates, according to the CNE – Honduras’ electoral authority – they’re gonna have to maybe follow us in a recount??
One interesting factoid is that both Nasralla and Asfura are of Syrian descent – in a country with a mere 0.3 per cent Arabs!!

…hair dye
Your Eyewitness hopes Pressie’s gonna take care of the request from that sprightly Granny who complained that the cost of her hair dye keeps getting raised by greedy shopkeepers!!
Or it’ll wipe out next year’s pension increase!!