Now, if you had to wonder “what agency?” your Eyewitness thinks today’s offering isn’t for you!! It means you’ve read neither the novels of Tom Clancy (eg “The Hunt for Red October” with Jack Ryan) nor even seen the Bourne movies. “The Agency”, dear reader, is the one and only “Central Intelligence Agency” (CIA), with its headquarters in Langley, West Virginia! Yeah…the same folks who did the dirty to start some riots back in the 60s and oust Cheddi and the PPP Government to install Burnham!! Nice guys.
So, you Eyewitness is picking up on the “National Intelligence and Security Agency” (NISA) – for which the Government wants to have legislative credentials, and just laid the necessary bill in Parliament. Unlike some of his Opposition members, the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, agreed that such an agency is necessary. He just has some concerns about its “sweeping powers” and its director being appointed by, and reporting to, the President. Fair enough…that’s what an Opposition’s all about. To suggest how the Government could perform its job better.
But when we’re venturing into new areas of Government, we should be looking at the experience of those who’ve gone there before – and see how they did things. The Yanks split their “intelligence” job into two parts – the FBI, which handles matters within the US, and the CIA outside. The Brits also did the same with MI5 (inside) and MI6 (outside). The latter, of course, are much suaver than their CIA counterparts across the pond!! As you’d know if you read those extraordinarily tedious novels by John Le Carre!!
But on operational remits, are we big enough to warrant a whole separate agency to gather foreign intelligence?? Or, like the USA, to create a third agency, the National Security Agency (NSA), to gather intelligence technologically?? Granger probably wanted to go in this direction, cause he picked “NSA” as the name of our spy agency. That one was so secretive at one time that it was called “No Such Agency”!! On appointing the head of the NISA, POTUS nominates but have him vetted by the Senate. Here our National Assembly might have to do.
Now, both the heads of the CIA and MI6 ultimately report to the head of their Executive – POTUS and the British PM. So, your Eyewitness doesn’t see what the fuss is all about our President “having too much powers”. Who’s the intelligence supposed to be sent to, if not Pressie?? The Opposition Leader?? Jeez!! It’s the Executive Branch of Government that’s in charge of all state institutions!! Are they gonna now complain that Pressie heads the Defence Board and is Commander of the Armed Forces??
While Burnham taught us we must circumscribe power, we also can’t hobble the President.
…Georgetown vendors
Looks like Mother Nature might just be the one to help us control the vending chaos in Georgetown. Your Eyewitness knows folks gotta make a living. And vending’s a much more honourable option than that other one chosen by some urban denizens – choke and rob. But even vendors would probably agree that they’re not doing the city – and themselves – any favours by creating obstacle courses for pedestrians.
It was very positive that they cooperated with the M&CC to clear the drains during the last deluge by removing their pallets over the drains. But we need a more lasting solution. It was tried some time ago, when the Government bought a prime Water St property and allocated vendors space on it. It was meant to take them off the street, but still allow them to make a living. How did that work out??
If the experiment was successful, maybe we could sprinkle other such spaces across the city??
…a functioning Parliament
At Monday’s sitting of the National Assembly, your Eyewitness was pleased that matters didn’t descend into whistle blowing and dildo waving!! While on occasion very sharp – as it ought to be – the exchanges demonstrated that Opposition can be positive.
