Back in the day, Tom Wolfe wrote his magnificent, semi-autobiographical, novel “You Can’t Go Home Again” – which came to his mind when he heard that old, PNC ideologue Henry Jeffrey popped up on the PNC/APNU campaign stage!! Jeffrey clearly wanted to prove Wolf wrong!! You see, Dear Reader, Jeffrey began his political career in the PNC when “Fat Boy” Burnham was around – and was so highly regarded as a youthful, kindred (cooperative socialist) spirit that he was appointed Principal of the PNC’s Cuffy Ideological Institute!!
In the interval between then and now, Jeffrey lectured for donkey years at UG – since there was no place for him in the capitalist PNC politics of Desmond Hoyte, who saw him as part of Burnham’s leftist clique and had banished them all from his government. Then, “lo and behold!” – as they say biblically – when Cheddi the chastened, Simon-pure socialist was returned to office, there appeared Henry at Cheddi’s side in the PPP Government!! He was to remain in the PPP long after Cheddi’s passing – for a dozen years, circulating at the top of some four Ministries – until he finally quit in indignation in 2008. He saw a posting to Suriname as an infra dig banishment by Pres Jagdeo!!
A decade later, he popped up on your Eyewitness’s radar when he and blue-blood PPPite Ralph Ramkarran – who’d by then also decamped – formed a new party ANUG!! But for reasons that have escaped his aforementioned radar, your Eyewitness hasn’t been able to discover why Jeffrey jumped ship from ANUG practically the day after it was launched!! Well, now he knows – and knows why Wolfe was wrong. The writer posited if you returned home after a prolonged absence, conditions there would’ve changed so much, you would never feel really “at home”.
But from Henry’s maiden speech at the PNC rally at Plaisance – a stone’s throw from his home – he was so clearly in sync with the PNC – and at variance from the ANUG he left – that he was clearly “at home” like a pig in shit!!.In sync with the PNC of Norton – guided by the rabidly racial Afro-centric David Hinds – Jeffrey insisted African-Guyanese must vote “racially” for the PNC!! Calling Sanction Man a “drug dealer”, he said as an Indian he’ll support the PPP!! “Don’ split the vote!!” Jeffrey screamed. Providing no evidence for his assertion – and ignoring that to the contrary – Jeffrey bellowed that “the PPP impoverished Afro-Guyanese to get their votes”!! So Afro-Guyanese are masochists??
But that’s the APNU line – just expressed more crudely by David Hinds. Afro-Guyanese who accept the PPP’s done more for them in five years than the PNC has done in thirty-three – and vote for them – are “Batty Lickers”!!
…big stick
US President Teddy Roosevelt’s motto was, “Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far”. Dubbed “The Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, it described American foreign policy strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean!! The latter, of course, declared all countries in the aforementioned neck of the woods was in the US’s sphere of influence – and outsiders better keep their grubby paws off!!
Well, looks like one of President Trump’s legacies – and there will be multitudes!! – gonna be the “Trump Codicil” to the “Roosevelt Corollary”!! “Speak frankly and carry a big stick – to Make America Great Again (MAGA)!! Trump’s made no secret of his dislike of Mad Maduro – for all of the excesses he has committed against his own people and others in the hemisphere – such as neighbouring Guyana!!
Trump loudly condemned Mad Maduro’s utopian social and economic policies that’ve sent 8 million Venezuelans into exile – while getting rich through drug cartel shipments to the US!!
And sent a flotilla of warships as his stick!!
…easier from CJIA
Prezzie created quite a buzz with your Eyewitness when he opened the Buzz Bee Dam highway between Great Diamond to Craig enroute to CJIA. No more torture when traversing the old Public Road in Diamond and Grove!!
