…the suffering they created
In the old days, folks had “outside” latrines, where they’d dump their “doo-doo”. But after a couple minutes of holding their noses, they’d ‘throw-back”, and even read the newspapers! Maybe that’s why latrines are also called “out-houses”?!
Your Eyewitness was reminded about this phenomenon as he observed the nonchalance of the PNC-led Opposition in gearing up for the 2025 elections while ignoring the destruction they dumped on the ordinary folks of this country. We can start with the tragedy dumped on the entire West Bank of Demerara in general, and Wales in particular. Their then Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, was honest enough – or was he too squeamish? – to stand the stench to go among the sugar folks whose lives he’d destroyed. But surely, the whiffs from the putrefying dreams they caused by closing the single largest employment entity must’ve reached their air-conditioned offices in Georgetown? Yet today they’re inventing all sorts of reasons why the gas-to-shore project – which the PPP created to revive the area – ain’t “feasible”!!
Your Eyewitness is reminded of the poem “Dreams Deferred” by Harlem poet Langston Hughes: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up/ Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—/ And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over—/ like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags/ like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”
This was just about the same time MLK discovered Gandhi’s work on “Satyagraha”, or Civil Disobedience, and honed it into a peaceful, potent weapon to launch the Civil Rights struggle for oppressed Africans. But, a decade later, the sore DID explode, when a fella named Malcolm X decided King’s method was too uncertain. With the slogan, “Burn baby, burn!”, almost every major American city went up in flames. And they got attention!
Well, the PPP ousted the PNC coalition at the polls within three years of the Wales’ closure, and immediately came up with the master plan for the development of Wales. They prevented the folks – who, as sugar workers, struggled to have 3 meals a day, and were now not even getting a single meal– from creating a Malcolm X explosion!!
And it wasn’t just Wales, but all the other sugar estates they shuttered, especially Rose Hall, Canje – where there were no immediate alternative employment opportunities – like those available in Georgetown and the East Bank to folks from Wales. The PPP Government moved some of the workers to Albion and gave cash grants to the others. The PPP also prevented a conflagration there.
So, when Nov 2025 rolls around, the PNC and their motley crew of opportunists shouldn’t be surprised when they get dumped like the waste they are!!
…Amaila’s virtues
Another egregious dumping on the dreams of Guyanese by the PNC-led Opposition was their spiteful derailment of the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project (AFHEP). The endemic “blackouts” of Burnham’s PNC had driven everyone to the edge of madness – but had gradually been whittled down by the PPP. Even though some big businesses had to deploy their own expensive generators to get a reliable supply of electricity, which AFHEP could’ve solved.
But the PNC, in Opposition, destroyed AFHEP’s viability with their opposition to the project – using a number of specious excuses. And we fast-forward to the present. All of their objections – and then some – were addressed by an independent Norwegian consulting firm, which concluded AFHEP was the most viable option for Guyana. And yet, in Government, they not only balked, but deliberately misstated the findings and recommendations of the consultancy!
Well, the PPP came back and immediately announced that AFHEP’s on the cards once again – to not only help with the anticipated electricity shortfall – but have us fulfil our “green goals”!!
Take that, PNC!!
…genocide
Talking about “holding one’s nose”, what could be a more fitting description of those countries that are refusing to support South Africa’s case to the ICJ: that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza??
