…on Social Cohesion
If there was ever was a time for the Social Cohesion Ministry to show it could do something positive about its mandate – the time is now! But in the midst of a cacophony of strident claims and counter claims about whether Opposition Leader Jagdeo made “race baiting” remarks in New York, the Ministry’s been struck dumb. And society becomes even further torn asunder socially.
For starters: how can the office of the PM – under which Information falls – issue the response it did to the Opposition Leader on such a sensitive subject affecting Social Cohesion and not involve the Social Cohesion Ministry? Especially when they all operate out of the Ministry of the Presidency. And imagine while the PM’s vitriolic statement was being circulated like wildfire on social media, the SC Minister was locked in a conclave of “experts” crafting a five-year strategic plan for “social cohesion”!!
Is the plan to “fight fire with fire”?? If the Government’s serious about increasing social cohesion, it has to get its act together and not get stuck into the “one step forward and three steps backward” syndrome into which it seems to have fallen. Everyone knows the biggest barrier to social cohesion in Guyana is the political manipulation of racial-ethnic sentiments to garner support for one or the other party to get into office.
But even though the political parties that form the Government didn’t even secure 51% of the vote, they have to govern on behalf of ALL the people. As such, they have a responsibility not to get into tit-for-tat responses that exacerbate social tensions. Rather than acting as if “social cohesion” can be created from behind four walls, the Ministry has to become proactive – especially when it comes to actions by the Government that can exacerbate social tensions.
One way to get the process going is for them to implement the proposal in the APNU/AFC Manifesto to issue “Ethnic Impact Statements” on policies, plans and utterances issued by the Government – and of the Opposition. Before the Ministry can purport to tell the ordinary people of the country how to increase social cohesion, they’ve got to root out to the source of much of the dissension – the politicians.
Unless this is done, the citizenry can be forgiven for concluding that the Ministry of Social Cohesion was created just to please some foreign donors who’ve been complaining their funding’s going into a black hole when directed to Guyana.
Excepting for the UNDP that spends most of their funding on their staff that’s been pushing “Social Cohesion” since 2003.
Without any success.
…on flooding
What’s going on in this country? 50 years after independence we brought some engineering STUDENTS from Holland to tell us how to fix our drainage problems in Georgetown? What the heck does that say about “independence”? Is it any surprise that UG’s in crisis? If this “tertiary” institution that produces God knows how many graduates annually can’t deliver a dozen civil engineers to advise the mandarins at City Hall about flooding, isn’t it time to chuck it in? And return to the ministrations of UWI by paying our fees like the other territories?
Anyhow the Dutch students aren’t the only Dutchmen we flew in on the flooding problem. There’s also a “Dutch Risk Reduction Team” that spent a month or so moseying around and then delivered their “recommendation”: build two-storey houses!!
Can you believe this? Three centuries after their forefathers told us to build our houses on stilts the present Dutch lot just echoes them?
Maybe we need someone to tell us to come out of the rain when it’s pouring?
…on patient care
Harry Potter introduced us to the notion of “apparating” – objects being made to appear out of thin air without any trail. Evidently the technique has now reached Guyana.
Someone apparated a Deputy CEO at the GPHC.
