…the contrafactual
There are some folks who spend a lot of time thinking about contrafactuals. What’s this, you ask, Dear Reader? Well, we’ve all done it at one time or another – like when we spend hours thinking about how we could’ve aced that test – if only we’d just gotten some more studies in rather than hanging out with the gang. Or what would’ve happened if we hadn’t been daydreaming and crashed our car into that GPL post.
It all has to do with “What if” scenarios about things that happened in the past. Now some folks would say, “What’s the point? Isn’t that just wasting time? You can’t change what happened. That is done and gone!” But contrafactual thinking can be positive if it’s about events that can happen to us again in the future. We can change the way we act and not make the same “mistake”. But this is not the case with one-time events.
And this brings us to the contrafactual that Eric Philips made recently when he wrote: “If the British had treated the freed Africans with dignity and fairness in 1834, the Guyana of 1966, the year of Independence would have seen a nation of 3 Peoples and with a fundamentally different ownership of the economy. In essence, Guyana today would be essentially a nation of Amerindians and Africans who would have owned most of the businesses and who today would be the inheritors of oil and all the wealth in this beautiful nation of ours.”
What exactly is the point Mr Philips is making? He certainly isn’t expecting a “back to the future” scenario in which he goes back to 1834 to change history, is he? In fact, Philips gives us the answer: “…denying the descendants of Africans in Guyana their just reparations in terms of lands is simply another ‘crime against humanity’ by those who came after them and by those who disproportionally benefit today from the murder of 450,000 Africans.”
And here it is your Eyewitness thought the claims for reparations as articulated by Caricom and Dr Hilary Beckles were against Britain! But no siree Bob! Philips is mobilising Africans for lands by the Government of Guyana! But this still doesn’t explain why he drags in the indentured servants that were brought in by the British after Emancipation. Guyana has enough lands to dole out to everyone deserving.
But, Dear Reader, contrafactual arguments have been shown to be effective when used by activists mobilising for collective action.
It pits “us” against “them” who did us in back then. It’s retribution time against “them”! Or as Baldwin said, “The fire next time.”
…jobs
The Government’s desperately trying to get its feet (yes,..both of them!) out of its mouth on the question of providing jobs for Guyanese in general, and its supporters in particular. During the hustings – and solemnised in its manifesto – they promised to create “thousands of jobs” to address the unemployment challenge, which everyone conceded was “dread”.
But a year and more down the pike, the tune has now changed radically. Jobs?? “Not our job, man!” says the Government via its Minister of Finance and even Prezzie. All Governments have to do is encourage the Private Sector to create this jobs. So what about direct fiscal stimulus? No, thank you…the Private Sector’s on its own!
Now this is something else, isn’t it? Even in that arch bastion of capitalism – the good, old US of A – the Government jumped in to bail out General Motors and pumped billions into the banks so they could lend to businesses.
But hey! Promises are cheap in Guyana, nuh?
…hatchets
The cockles of your Eyewitness’ heart warmed when he saw the PPP Chairman of Reg 5 hug the PNC councilwoman who’d taken to singing and banging tables to force him to apologise to Prezzie.
It seems they’ve buried the hatchet after the latter gentleman’s intervention.
Hopefully not into each other’s back!!
