Return… of the Stabber?

Well…well…well!! As the world turns, history repeats itself – but hopefully not as Marx predicted – as farce!! The Stabber, which shuttered last month, had been launched 40 years ago (in 1966) with a (for then) HUGE A US$100,000 grant from the US Government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED)!! It was supposed to be a softer, gentler face for the CIA – which used to fund newspapers and other propaganda outfits to fulfil its mission “to keep the world safe for democracy”!! The Yanks under Reagan wanted to ensure Desmond Hoyte didn’t continue with Burnham’s “socialist” adventurism!!
The Stabber’s Editor and some of his staff just announced that they’d be doing a Lazarus and raising the Stabber from the dead, under a new name – the Kiskadee Watch!! The Editor had become quite visible – and voluble!! – after the closing on social media, which he’d earlier blamed as the cause of the Stabber’s demise!! Your Eyewitness figures the fella’s following the hoary – and sometimes whorey!! – principle of “If you can’t beat them, you might as well join them!!” He’d continued the Stabber’s unrelentingly hostile attacks on the PPP Government, which he’d facilitated through a coterie of “woke” know-it-alls!!
The funding, however, is different this time around, maybe because Musk’s DODGE had put the brakes on the NED’s activities?? In a statement issued under what looks like the new rag’s Board of Directors (all part of the aforementioned woke coterie) we’re told a hard copy gonna soon follow the social media platform, and they’ll adopt the “Guardian” funding model!! That is, there ain’t gonna be any paywall as the Stabber had imposed – but which clearly was unsurmountable!! They’ll instead count on handouts from well-wishers who like their output!!
And that output?? In their statement – which reinforces their insistence of being a superior lot to the great Guyanese unwashed – they smirked: “The vision for Kiskadee Watch is the re-establishing in Guyana of a trusted, independent, fact-based news institution that safeguards editorial freedom and strengthens democratic discourse!!” They offered a tedious analogy of their “mission” to the life of the Kisskadee.
Well, your Eyewitness learnt about that bird since he was a little tyke in short pants in Lil’ ABC!! “Hey, little kiskadee, where have you been?/Up in a mango tree,/or in the village green??/Hey little kiskadee, what did you see?/A monkey apple/or a star apple tree??/Good morning little Kiskadee, what will you do today?/Will you search the pepper tree,/to pick the worms away??” But sadly, the Kiskadee seemed to’ve disappeared along with the afore-mentioned fruit trees that gave it sustenance – because all yards are now concreted over!!
Hope Kiskadee Watch doesn’t suffer the same fate!!

…of the development bank
With the Government announcing the launch of a development bank, the Opposition spokespersons are crawling out of the woodwork to condemn the initiative for one reason or another. Your Eyewitness ain’t surprised!! After all, the abysmal failure of the PNC with the Guyana National Co-operative Bank (GNCB) – created in 1970 as a development bank – had to’ve left scars they just cannot get rid of. And so they’re actually “projecting” their failures onto the PPP!! As we Guyanese say, they’re taking their doody and rubbing it on the PPP’s bamsie!!
The loan portfolio dictates the profitability of any bank, and the demise of GNCB was due mainly to the huge amount of bad debts since massive loans were extended to “party hacks”. The latter’s political line overrode the principles of banking – since the party was defined as paramount over all other institutions – and by definition knew better!!
The PPP has hedged its exposure – and risk of failure – by making the individual loans quite modest!!

…of Opera?
The EU Ambassador launched a “Euro-Guyanese Classical Music and Opera Association” with classical music and opera Monday evening at St George’s Cathedral!
Your Eyewitness figures Europe’s “civilising mission” is never complete!! How lucky we natives are!!