…down on the farm
Fifty years ago, just as Burnham declared Guyana a “Republic” and cut all ties with Britain so we’d get “real” independence, “underdevelopment” was the going buzzword. Those nasty colonials had extracted all our wealth for centuries, then cast us aside like sucked oranges. Not only did they not build factories and such like, to “add value” to our products, but they hid the know-how for us to do it ourselves! Burnham promised he’d change all of that in his “Co-op Republic of Guyana!!
And boy, did he change things – for the worse!! As Rodney said, everything he touched “turned to shit”! He nationalised Bauxite in 1970, and ruined it. He nationalised sugar, and ruined it. He nationalised rice marketing, and ruined it. He nationalised Bookers (Guyana) Stores, and ruined it. He nationalised importation, and ruined all retail businesses. Think of a thing – ANY thing – and Burnham ruined it.
And yet, the PNC under Granger – who just made himself PNC-boss for life – has sworn to continue Burnham’s legacy!! A legacy of failure!!
Burnham’s greatest failures came out of his megalomania that he could reinvent the wheel!! Although the Marxists of his day had even accepted that capitalism was the most efficient regime to get development going – even though they complained about how it distributed the wealth – Burnham decided that he was going the “Co-op way”! And it wasn’t even the 40 acres and a mule that were promised freed slaves in the US. All his supporters got was collective ownership over vast lands, but without any direction as to what they’d cultivate and market to get out of poverty. Practically all co-ops were abandoned by 1989, when Hoyte decided capitalism was the better way, after all!!
Imitating his master Burnham, Granger organised a $2.6 billion loan/grant programme from the CDB to “re-develop” farming in four foundational African-Guyanese village: Buxton, BV, Ithaca and Mocha. After providing equipment; clearing and ploughing hundreds of acres of land; and digging canals, providing seedlings, training the resident farmers in modern farming techniques etc, it would be interesting for the new government to conduct a survey as to how the Burnhamite experiment fared this time around. Your Eyewitness is willing to bet dollars to donuts the results will be no different from what Burnham produced!!
Why? It has nothing to do with the people, and everything to do with their leaders in the PNC. Like Burnham, they separate themselves from the people, and live high off the hog with their super-salaries and perks. And they are never there to guide the ordinary supporters when they face problems.
For instance, did the GMC ever deliver the promised markets in CariCom for the produce??
Still underdeveloped after all these years!!
…all hot and sweaty
Your Eyewitness was quite flabbergasted to see the throng of PNC supporters who came out in support of Lowenfield when he appeared at the Magistrate Court to face the private criminal charges for his role in the blatant elections rigging-attempt by Granger and company. Are these folks willing to go against the rulings of courts at all three levels of the Judiciary, which concluded the recount results are LEGAL, and therefore Lowenfield was criminally liable for dereliction of his duties in producing that report from the illegal Mingo results??
That demonstrated to your Eyewitness that TT PM Rowley’s prediction: “This (the elections) will not end well” is still pertinent and relevant. And it’s all due to the PNC top brass cynically riling up their supporters with patently incendiary arguments. Even after the Sanctimonious Gangster accepted Claudette’s declaration from one side of his mouth, he declared that the results were still fraudulent, from the other side!
And then there is APNU/AFC General Secretary/PNC Executive, Harmon, insisting he should run the PPP’s OP!!
…with rings in their noses
Will Granger and Harmon – who came out of the army, and not the PNC – be allowed to take over the PNC??
Looks like it right now, since only one NY hustler’s opposing Granger!!
