…for development
On Wednesday evening, our parliamentarians FINALLY worked a full day…erm…night!! Your Eyewitness – who as you’d know, Dear Reader, works 365 FULL days a year – obviously wasn’t too impressed. After all, MPs earn a BASIC salary of $2.4 million annually for showing up some 20 times max for some four hours or so!! That works out to some $120,000 PER DAY – not to mention the $10 million or so for “snacks” and meals for each sitting.
That’s some $153,846 for each of the 65 Parliamentarians!! And when you add the fringe benefits for travelling, phones and housing, etc, – THAT’s living real high off the hog!!
Anyhow, it would seem that they pulled a late nighter since your Eyewitness just stayed up until 10:45 pm when they finished commenting on a $61 billion Supplementary Provision Bill presented by the Minister of Finance. Now, such bills are in addition (“supplementary”) to the amounts catered for in the last Budget – which totalled $782 billion!! As the aphorism attributed to Tip O’Neil, the old plain-spoken Speaker of the US House of Congress goes, “A billion here, a billion there…pretty soon it begins to add up to real money!”
As you could imagine, the PNC Opposition were beside themselves and it was clear their drawers were in a TIGHT knot. What with the shrieks and thumping of desks!! Fortunately, they didn’t resort to the whistle-blowing and seizing of the mace as they’d done last year!! The suspension of their Egregious Eight – without any pay to hit them where it hurts: their pockets!!! – must’ve acted as a salutary caution!! But they yet forgot the old English doggerel which goes: ”The more of mouth, the less of meat. The more of talk, the less of feat.”
After all, in a Supplementary Spending Bill, the Government gotta be very explicit as to what they are requesting the additional money for. As such, all that was necessary was to say if they agreed or not with the proposals! As the Minister of Education had to blurt out exasperatedly at one point when the same question was asked for the umpteenth time in different guises!! Stale Banga Marys – our Red Herrings – were regularly dragged across the trail of a straightforward debate.
They didn’t seem to mind they were approaching the midnight hour – and it wasn’t just because their luxurious carriages with their drivers were waiting outside! – but because they knew they were going off for a TWO-MONTH recess!!
Anyhow, the Supplementary Bill was eventually passed followed by the Petroleum Bill in the wee hours of Thursday. Maybe the MPs were so disoriented with the novelty of a full night’s work that they all yelled “AYE!!” to the Speaker.
…for the PNC
Your Eyewitness continues to be entertained by the PNC factions vying to rise to the top of the heap. Sadly, from the goings-on here in Mudland and in Region 11 (Brooklyn subregion), there seems to be a lot of “Jumbie Umbrellas” springing up. But then, that’s always the danger with heaps!! Asked why no Biennial Congress – due latest by this December – after hemming and hawing for months, the execs finally blurted out that they were broke!! Imagine that!! The PNC can’t come up with $2.4 million!!
And this is where we can tell that things na regulah up in Brooklyn. Normally they’d have sprung for that paltry sum without blinking an eye! So, what gives?? Obviously, they’ve got skin in the game and are using their fundraising ability to push their local agenda!! And with no CIA 303 Committee available to spring funding the party – as was done to Burnham back in the sixties – the PNC gotta suck granny with no mumma in sight!!
…and reversing scores
The Sanctimonious Gangster settled old scores when he shuttered four sugar estates. He couldn’t forget he’d worked as a scab during GAWU’s 1977 recognition strike. But for naught!!
Under new management, Rose Hall’s gonna hire 1100 workers!! Take that!!
