Taking on… corruption

With all the kvetching by the Opposition about “friends and family” corruption by the Govt, your Eyewitness asks the question frontally – and brutally: Is it possible to get rid of corruption in general, and in Government in particular?? And he’d like to give you his answer just as frontally and brutally – NO!! There ain’t no ifs, ands, or buts about this… corruption is endemic to the human condition, baby. All of the religions are as one about this. Ain’t it written in Genesis, “God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth”?? Yep… the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak!!
At that time the Big Guy boomed out from on high: “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth!!” Now your Eyewitness doesn’t like THAT solution, since he don’t see no Noah building no Ark!! And he’d like to continue living, thank you!!
So, does this mean we gotta accept corruption?? Absolutely not!! Some people are also born with the urge to kill their fellow human beings. Should we allow the Netanyahus of the world to get away with their cold-blooded genocide?? No, siree, Bob!! And here in Guyana, both Pressie and the most experienced VP have conceded corruption is alive and kicking – but must be confronted!! Quite sensibly, they suggest in essence that we gotta establish rules of the game to control those tendencies that are detrimental to us living the good life.
Where to begin?? The first thing we all gotta follow is your Eyewitness’s philosophy – as stated above – and assume EVERYONE’s out to screw you over! That supermarket selling you tuna?? Check the expiration date!! That contractor bidding for contracts?? Check out if he’s bribing the folks in charge of procurement. The gold exporter shipping gold to the Middle East or whatever? Check out if he’s reusing GRA seals!! – and so on and so forth.
But because corruption didn’t just drop from above in 2020, the Government can reasonably point out it started when Burnham was given “independence” by the West – and they closed their eyes to his institutionalisation of corruption. They even accommodated and facilitated it!! Surely they didn’t think corruption in rigging the votes to stay in power would be confined to just that narrow area?? Darn!! Right off the bat, THOUSANDS had to be corrupted to duck the real ballots cast – and write new ones!!
In the present assertions of corrupt procurement the question is, “Who’s gonna guard the guardians?”
And the answer is: facilitate whistleblowing!! Let thief man watch thief man!!

…land shortage
According to Pres Ali, we’re fast running out of coastlands – so we gotta come up with a plan to satisfy the insatiable demands created by his Government’s developmental plans!! Well, to your Eyewitness, the solution’s pretty simple: just as the US invented the slogan “GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!!” when their original thirteen East Coast colonies started getting crowded, we can do worse than follow their example! Not only is there gold out west – but the move’s gonna help checkmate the Venezuelans’ nasty ambitions to take over our Essequibo!!
Now your Eyewitness is aware we ain’t supposed to be cutting down our interior forests – which we’re virtuously (smirk!) committed to preserve for climate change – and some small change!! But out west ain’t all forests!! Wasn’t the land where Jim Jones set up his Kool-Aid dispensing outfit suitable for farming?
We just gotta build more roads and railways towards Ankoko Way!!

…sugar crisis
Well, Pressie has now thrown the gauntlet to the sugar workers’ union GAWU to put its money (union dues!) where its mouth is – bemoaning “management’s” inability to turn around the industry.
He told them he’s willing to have them manage one of the sugar estates – since labour’s our key constraint!