Sometimes Satiricus enjoyed his job as a newshound. Here it was he’d gotten the chance to see the future, and to be honest with himself, he rather enjoyed it. His editor had sent him to cover the Big “Oil Summit” at the Marriott, and right off the bat he was impressed: he had to be ‘accredited”!! Normally, when the local business big-wigs have their “summits”, you could just show up and – BINGO!! – you were in!
As he swaggered into the Back Street Bar, he was humming the tagline “Money in the land with the Yankee dollar bill!!” from the old Merrymen cover of “Big, Big Bamboo!”
“Eh! Eh! Sato bai!! Like yuh get lucky or wha?!” exclaimed Cappo as Satiricus dropped into his seat.
“Yankee dallah bill?” enquired Bungi. “Like yuh get money fram far-in or wha’??”
“Better than that, fellas!!” exclaimed Satiricus. “Better than that!!”
“What could be better than money from foreign?” asked Hari. “You win the Lotto?”
“Even better, fellas!” said Satiricus as he took a swig of his beer. “My leaders Nagga Man and Rum Jhaat, with the help of Trot Man, have brought the good life to Guyana!!”
“Like yuh run-aff again, Sato!” accused Bungi. “Yuh leadah dem fyah six t’ousan suga-worka and abee get “good life”??”
“Fellas, I just came back from the Oil Summit,” said Satiricus breathlessly. “And you should see all these big-time foreign executives with their PowerPoint presentations!! It’s like we’re in America!!”
“Oh!!” said Cappo. “Suh hummuch a dem guh hyaah Guyanese?”
“Yes!” exclaimed Bungi indignantly. “Las’ week abee bin a de Jaab Fair and 800 people put dong dem name. Yuh know how much a dem get wuk?”
“No!” admitted Satiricus.
“NONE!” said Bungi. “Suh me, too, wan’ fuh know if de Summit gat jab fuh abee!”
“Well, it’ll take time, you know,” said Satiricus slowly.
“Sato, my friend, these foreigners are here to get jobs for themselves,” said Hari. “Your leaders must make sure they create jobs for us.”
“Suh abee gat fuh wait fuh de “good life”, Sato?” asked Cappo.
Satiricus became quiet.
