…while Berbice burns
Back in the day, when Rome was on top of the world, the story’s told of Emperor Nero “fiddling while Rome burnt”. The incident has come to epitomise those with responsibility twiddling their thumbs or engaged with frivolities in the midst of a crisis. That’s the thought that came to your Eyewitness when he read of PM Nagamootoo celebrating his birthday while hundreds of sugar workers were summarily fired in Canje, Berbice.
And to rub salt into the wound, Nagamootoo didn’t have the festivities at his refurbished and newly air-conditioned residence on Main Street in Georgetown, but travelled TO BERBICE to do so!! And imagine it was these sugar workers’ votes that gave him the bargaining chip to become Prime Minister!! The famous 11% that he and Ramjattan promised from their “fellow Berbicians”! He specifically promised them sugar wouldn’t be closed…even though his PNC running mate, David Granger, had said it would.
For Nagamootoo to now say he meant not ALL sugar would be closed is speaking from both sides of his mouth. Fact of the matter is: Granger only changed his line to mamaguy Nagamootoo’s Berbice supporters, and closure was always on the cards.
One friend told your Eyewitness cynically, “David (Granger) slayed the Giant (GuySuCo) and Moses (Nagamootoo) led his (Berbice) tribe into the promised land of Unemployment!!
Does Nagamootoo really believe the PNC will keep the remaining three estates going, as they’re now promising? Didn’t they also promise Rose Hall’s closing will be delayed to 2018? Now we have the Minister of Agriculture saying it’s not his decision; it’s the Minister of Finance’s, and NICIL and the Special Service Unit’s!!
So, we have people with no knowledge of sugar, and who look at it only as a set of numbers on a balance sheet, deciding the fate of thousands of sugar workers – with their representative Nagamootoo sporting his birthday away!
The line is: GuySuCo’s now just three estates – Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion. Problem solved with the stroke of a pen!! You can’t solve the equation? Why worry?? Just change the numbers any which way you want and — voila!! — problem solved!!
Exactly what are they going to do differently on these estates to reduce costs? We know the Government will try to wring blood from a stone…but does the stone have any blood to release?
It’s like during the days of indentureship: when the planters arbitrarily cut wages, and when workers protested, they were shot like dogs! It fact, it was Nagamootoo himself who reminded Berbicians that it was right at Rose Hall where thirteen of them were murdered back in 1913.
Is history going to be repeated? With Nagamootoo fiddling?
…and the narcissist Nagamootoo
At his birthday bash in Berbice — more specifically, at his old primary school — Nagamootoo handed out trinkets and baubles like Columbus did to the “Natives” he’d “discovered”. Nagamootoo of course arrived in his specially outfitted $22million SUV, along with the requisite outriders, not Caravels! The children were also given flags to wave in awe at this godlike being!!
And he told them, “Each and every one of you can become the Prime Minister of your country. Each one of you can become the President of the country; each of you can become the most important person.” And from this comment we can get a measure of the man, Nagamootoo: the children shouldn’t seek public office to serve the people, but to “become the most IMPORTANT person”!!
This is emblematic of the narcissistic personality characterised by “extreme selfishness; a grandiose view of one’s own talents, and a craving for admiration”!
Sugar workers are fired and can’t get bread? Let them eat cake!!
…and VAT on education
It was the Government that insisted education was fundamental to Guyana’s growth and development. Yet they imposed VAT on schools that showed quality education was deliverable!!
So must we pat them on their heads for treating the wound after shooting themselves in the foot?
