Quality…of life

The cash grant fallout has raised a lot of questions in your Eyewitness’ (wandering? empty?) mind!! And not just what he would’ve spent it on… but wider and deeper questions!! Imagine deep thoughts while performing quality control checks for the missus on her black cake!! Clearly money doesn’t just make the world go round – it does the same for the mind!! As Pressie pointed out – over almost three hours! – all the other things his Government plans to do for the next five years to develop our country – on top of what he’s done in his first five – it dawned on your Eyewitness that he and the average Tom, Qwacy and Harilall out there were operating on different wavelengths!!
Pressie was talking about improving the quality of life for ALL Guyanese, while the average Guyanese was only thinking about getting money into his OWN pockets!! Take for instance that potable water – not “portable water”, the TV fella used to talk about, but the one you can drink straight from the tap – is now available to one and sundry!! Doesn’t cut any ice – even to put into the water to make it cool – with most!! The same citizen who couldn’t get a drop of water to drip from the faucet is now complaining to the heavens that sometimes the pressure ain’t high enough to get it into his upstairs shower!!
Or who complains that he can’t “eat” roads and bridges when just a couple of years ago, the potholes and bridge openings made his life such a living hell that the standing joke was if a gynaecologist wanted to deal with a troublesome delivery – all he had to do was encourage the husband to take his pregnant wife for a drive!! Your Eyewitness could go on and on with more examples, but he knows y’all get the point, right? While most folks can get used to the smell in a pit latrine after a few minutes to be able to comfortably read a magazine… Isn’t it better if they read it in a “flush toilet”??
But there’s a more profound question we Guyanese must grapple with and answer in the next few years – which has to do with our premises on life as a whole!! How’s a life based on a certain amount of handouts from the Government stack up to one in which you earn the same amount of money by holding down a job that’s available because of the Government making it possible through the creation of infrastructure such as roads and bridges plus tax incentives??
Your Eyewitness believes that you receive greater satisfaction when you pay for what you enjoy through your own efforts!! But that’s just HIS perspective – no?? The hand that gives can always withhold!!

…of Opposition
There’s a lotta talk about the Government mistreating the Opposition!! He came across a piece where he read that at the end of the Winter Session of the Indian Lower House, the top-tier leaders of the various parties were invited by the Speaker to tea!! And there they were – after months of acrimonious arguments punctuated by walkouts even!! – all, including PM Modi and Priyanka Gandhi, daintily sipping tea and cracking jokes with each other!!
Now, some might call the institution of “tea” a British imposition – but while true, isn’t Parliament itself of the same provenance?? Here, however, we had an opposition – now cut down to size! – who refused to shake the President’s hand!! So sadly, politics in Guyana ain’t no tea party played in no rose garden – especially when the Opposition are such easy targets!! Imagine Sanction Man complaining about the Government’s policy to reduce taxes on ALL double cabs – when he’s enmeshed in tax evasions on his luxury imports??
He›s just askin’ for it!!

…of connections
The old DHB has served us well…and long beyond its predicted life span!! It seems that there are plans to prolong its life even longer – by using parts to bridge Leguan and Wakenaam and other river crossings!!