…Rodney
Today marks 40 years since Walter Rodney was assassinated by Burnham and the PNC. Imagine that!! The man was only 38 years old when he died, but he’d already achieved more than what most people can only dream to accomplish in several lifetimes. Earning a PhD at the age of 24; teaching at UWI, and almost precipitating a revolution in Jamaica when the government banned him from entering; revolutionising the way Africans saw their relationship with Europe; and finally, taking on Burnham in Guyana when the latter was at the height (depths?) of his despotic rule.
He was one of the few politicians who were able to convince the Guyanese people that they were above racism – even as he made it pellucid that he was proudly African and Pan African while being Guyanese. He could do so because he insisted that the various ethnic groups in Guyana could respect each other only when they respected themselves for who they were; because an integral part of our individual identity is our ethnic origin.
A lot of folks have wondered how Rodney might’ve viewed today’s political situation – especially with the fiasco following the March 2 elections. That isn’t too difficult to figure out: he would’ve applied the principles he lived by to the present situation. Firstly, he would have denounced the PNC for blatantly using their African-Guyanese base to entrench themselves in power.
The obscene use of Mingo and others in GECOM, while destroying their reputations to rig the elections, would’ve attracted the same language he used against the PNC to appeal to the moral sensibilities of African-Guyanese when Burnham had assumed they’d convict Arnold Rampersaud for a trumped-up murder charge.
What language? “Our language must express not only ridicule, but anger and disgust. The dictatorship has reduced us all to such a level that the situation can be described only in terms befitting filth, pollution and excrement. Even our deep-rooted sense of modesty in Guyana cannot stand in the way of rough words to describe the nation’s shame. That is why the WPA repeats the legend of King Midas, who was said to have been able to touch anything and turn it into gold. That was called the “Midas Touch”. Now Guyana has seen the “Burnham Touch” — anything he touches turns to shit!”
What would’ve been his “false” name for Granger, to match the one he was given by Caribbean leaders – “Sanctimonious Gangster”?!! What name “befitting filth, pollution and excrement” can fit Granger for making us the laughing stock of the Caribbean once again.
If “Baby Doc” succeeded “Papa Doc”, then surely Granger must be “Prince Midas”! Everything he touches turns to ka-ka!
…one’s place
Owen Arthur, ex-PM of Barbados, is clearly old school. He has a clear idea as to how a leader of a country ought to conduct himself, and how he ought to be treated. Donald Trump certainly wouldn’t be his role model!! As head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission, he didn’t mince any words when Caretaker Foreign Minister Cummings dared to threaten him and a roomful of other ambassadors and observers with expulsion after they commented on Mingo’s sleight of hand with the SOPs.
After CEO of the NTCF, Joseph Harmon, had laced into incoming Chairman of CariCom, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, for telling Granger to suck it up and take his loss “like a man”, and that CariCom wouldn’t sit around while they try to steal the elections, Arthur weighed in once again in his acerbic style to (literally) put Harmon in his place.
Directing his remarks at Granger, he declared Harmon “a mere utensil” who “cannot be allowed to indulge his appetite to be attacking leaders.”
In so many words, he told Granger to grow a pair, and not be led by Harmon!!
…oppressors
Someone wrote that we ought to follow “foreign” and haul down Victoria’s statue, since she was our oppressor. Agreed.
And we should also drop the name of “Victoria” Village and all our slave names.
