Opening up…

…Guyana
Well, here we go!! Guyanese better brace themselves… ‘cause it looks like our new President and his administration are ready to open up Guyana so fast — we might just become jet lagged!! We already were told that the East Coast-East Bank bypass highway, which had been initiated by the previous PPP Government is going ahead – after the PNC sat on it for five years.
The word “sat” was used advisedly since they saw the highway – which was sorely needed to ease the congestion into Georgetown – as a nest egg to fill the pockets of their friends and family! Imagine President Donald Ramotar had secured US$50M from India for the road, but the PNC increased that price tag to US$175M – just so that there’d be more land next to the highway that their friends and family could buy up lands at insider prices and sell for millions of US!! It didn’t take the new Government long to reverse that scam! They simply brought back the original design and lopped off US$125M to back the price to US$50M. It’s already allocated and so expect the new highway in a couple of years!
And expect also that all those folks who’re fighting to squat on GuySuCo’s land – and holding up the drive to bring back sugar as a viable industry – to have more land available for housing than they can ever imagine. The PNC won’t have the house lots issue to stir up trouble any longer, though! But don’t worry, they’ll find something else…or more likely, invent something else to divide our people!
The PNC had also sat on the plans for completing the Highway from Linden to Lethem…for the same reasons – unjust enrichment. Just check the news in the same timeframe that they were trying to rig the elections and you’ll see who got land at “Millie’s Hideout”!! But on the other hand, look how open President Ali was two days ago when he announced that his Administration will be constructing a four-lane highway on the West Coast Demerara connecting the new DHB from La Grange all the way to Parika!
He didn’t futz around about the route – in fact he and his work team scouted the terrain and promised to have it graded WITHIN TWO MONTHS!! Now this will be a twelve-mile Highway opening up vast swathes of land for all sorts of development and housing. Not to mention employment and a shot in the arm for the construction industry!
The PPP is making its development plans transparent so that all Guyanese have an equal opportunity of participating in the coming boom.
As they say, “a rising tide lifts all ships!!”

…the political space
Have you noticed that the PNC seems determined to make itself extinct?? Well, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution – which happens to also apply to institutions – if an organism doesn’t adapt to a changing environment, then it will soon get crushed by those that did. He called it “survival of the fittest”! So how do we apply the great man’s insight to the political milieu in dear old mudland?
Well, think about it. As some bright bulbs have been pointing it out ad nauseam — the demographics in our voting population have irreversibly changed the political environment. No party can get into government unless they attract voters from across the political spectrum. Whether that spectrum is made up of class, colour, race, ethnicity, or gender or whatever.
But with Harmon and Granger holding on to their old “brute force and ignorance” approach, it’s clear they don’t understand the new kinder and gentler way to win friends and influence people.
Is Volda gonna be the one to rise from the ashes?

…to a changed USA
OK, say what you want, but you gotta accept that Donald Trump has irretrievably altered the trajectory of American politics. And with it, world politics.
So, today as America goes to the polls, stay tuned as to what’s ahead.