To say that each of us sees the world through our own eyes is a truism; and that’s been analogized to claim, equivalently, that we also see the world through our individual minds. But unlike the eyes that form images of the world in a one-to-one manner – we see a pig and don’t call it a cow!! – our minds have been conditioned through all sorts of processes that make us see what we wanna see. This was brought out oh-so-clearly at the 4th Session of the UNs’ “Permanent Forum on People of African Descent” in NTC – where we were represented by a Government and an IDPADA-G delegation.
This forum is an activity of the “Second International Decade for People of African Descent”, which is being observed under the theme “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development.” The first Decade had begun in 2014, and Pres David “Sanctimonious Gangster” Granger of the APNU/AFC government had specifically initiated the formation of IDPADA-G in 2016 under the Chairmanship of PNC-GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander, who is also Chairman of the Burnham Foundation, to which Granger has given over his house!! He funded IDPADA-G, to the tune of $100 million annually, to draft a plan and execute it as they saw fit for the African-Guyanese community.
When the Government changed in 2020, they could see that very little was done by IDPADA-G, and even though it claimed a membership of 68 African groups, it was controlled by Alexander and a tight coterie that reflexively supported the PNC. Most of the funds were expended on “overhead expenses”!! So, the new Government halted the funding and started funding African-Guyanese groups directly.
Well, at the UN Forum, Alexander claimed African-Guyanese have been “systematically marginalised and (are) disproportionately at the bottom of the economic and social order.”
This after they were in power from 1964 to 1992 under Burnham/Hoyte, and then from 2015 to 2020 under the Sanctimonious Gangster!! What Alexander’s saying, therefore, is that the PNC did nothing for a community that’s supported it through thick and thin!! Imagine that!! Alexander illustrated his claim – which is also the PNC’s – by saying that “education, land rights, entrepreneurship and political representation all reflect this exclusion.”
Yet, an hour earlier, Minister of Labour, Joe Hamilton, representing the Govt, had pointed out that education from nursery to university is free to ALL – obviously including African- Guyanese; an Annual Cash Grant is given to EVERY child from nursery to secondary level; Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) – making citizens more skilled and employable – is free to ALL Guyanese at technical institutes; and the country is “moving towards the increased use of AI, including by establishing “A Digital Academy.” The online GOAL programme has made thousands of scholarships available to all Guyanese.
…Opposition mindset
It’s rather pathetic that the Opposition would play politics with the future of African-Guyanese – who, concededly because of slavery and its effects that linger through systemic and cultural transmission – are lagging. But, fundamentally, that’s because of their low economic participation, which makes their social condition to be adjudged negatively. But we’ve seen, for instance, that other ‘backward’ groups, like the Chinese, for instance, have now become positively assessed because of their economic performance.
Strategically, the PNC made a poor choice when Burnham chose the co-op model from Tanzania to merely try to substitute imports. It didn’t have the orientation to create the corporations to compete in the new globalizing economy – like, for instance, the Far Eastern Tigers did. Even the African- Guyanese who ran the nationalised economies weren’t trained for the jobs!!
In the present, rather than, for instance, IDPADA-G initiating and catalysing entrepreneurial activities in the African-Guyanese community, they’ve focused on the same ole, same ole hand-wringing and blame gaming.
…the speeding syndrome
The automatic ticketing for speeding on the roadways hasn’t kicked in for more than a week and already speeding’s been reportedly cut by half!! Clearly, there was something amiss with the police-enforced limits. Fried rice demands??
