Some…Independence!

The PNC boasts about Burnham securing “independence” for us back in ‘66!! But how come Hoyte had to go with a bowl in hand to the IMF (the guardian of western imperialism) 23 years later to bail us out from the crushing US$2.1 billion debt burden acquired after “independence”?? Weren’t the IMF’s “bailout conditionalities” tantamount to giving up our sovereignty?? Economic freedom’s the sine qua non of a state – much less an independent one! What did independence get us? More murders, more banditry, more domestic violence – not to mention leaving us hungry, naked and homeless!
The PNC sold out Guyanese who didn’t get a party card – just like those Chieftains in Africa who sold captured brothers and sisters to the White Pirates!! As Brother Bob said, “Old pirates, yes, they rob I; Sold I to the merchant ships.” Some folks wanna forget it was our own selling us into slavery and degradation – as our own prophet Walter Rodney showed. But then, Brother Bob also asked – as we should today – “How long shall they kill our prophets/While we stand aside and look?” Didn’t Burnham assassinate Rodney AFTER Independence!!
What’s the point of complaining about Parliament not meeting when Burnham wrote his own constitution giving him more powers than Kings!??  “Off with their heads!!” he’d mutter!! Wouldn’t it have been better to keep the British with their laws?? Look how they’re lecturing us on keeping the world safe for democracy and all that – while desperately trying to get a piece of our oil action from the Yanks?!!! Whose minds need to be emancipated?
Burnham said the British exploited us economically…which they did! But who trained lawyers of the highest calibre – albeit twisted – such as Ramphal, Shahabudeen et al., who could write the aforementioned constitution for Burnham? What have we produced AFTER Independence? Raphael Trotman?? He’s a shame and disgrace to the legal profession which the British bequeathed to us!! How’d you give away the store when you have such predecessors who showed Burnham how to nationalise the resources?? Even Burnham knew about the trap of “transfer pricing” when the Whites bought cheap and sold dear to their own subsidiaries!! But he delivered it right back into their hands when he turned everything into “sh*t”!!
But his importation and bequeathing of Trinidad’s Carnival takes the cake! He knew “independence” was a farce the Brits cooked up to throw out his nemesis Cheddi – so he stressed “Mash Day” – oops, Republic Day!!! Even Trinis complained about Calypso Tents being abandoned in favour of uninhibited alcohol-fuelled sexual displays and frolic.
Thank goodness Pressie revived Guyana Day to do our own thing!!!

… games!!
At around “Independence Day”, your Eyewitness remembers all the hoops he had to jump through as a kid back then!! There were the Mass Games Burnham introduced – just after his “sharper steel” killed Rodney?! He was inspired by North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung after he visited that country. According to the N Koreans, Guyana would now be “carrying out socialist construction under the banner of the Juche idea created by the great leader Comrade”. “Burnham’s “cooperativism” was analogous to the ‘Juche’ of dictator Kim Il-Sung!!
Mass games were made compulsory for all schoolchildren!! We were forced to march in the sun, perform the “lizard crawl”, etc. to repel “invaders”. No wonder our education system collapsed! What pleased Burnham more than anything was the excuse to introduce the “backdrop panorama” to the games on the field. Thousands of us schoolchildren would move perfectly synchronised coloured cards to produce a “scene”. In the first mass games of 1980 – with Rodney’s assassination in the offing – Burnham’s face was the first panorama!!
Right now, the PPP’s bigging up our own culture to show the North Koreans!!

…implosion!!
The implosion of leadership in the PNC’s been so intense we’ve got the equivalent of a “black hole” – no pun intended – formed. No one will go near them for fear of disappearing forever!!