It might’ve been a “talk shop”, as TT’s Opposition Leader Kamla Bissessar sniped, but there was a whole lotta TOUGH talk coming outta the just concluded Caricom Symposium on Crime. Nev-er mind their stated commitment to consider crime as a “Public Health” problem, the gathered Caribbean leaders to a man (and woman) didn’t pull no punches. Kamla’s intervention was typi-cal. Honing in on “home invasions” that’ve now become routine in the land of Carnival and Kai-so, she morphed into Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” – squint and all!!
She pointed out this was the #1 fear in the land: “You can see sometimes seven men jump over your wall and invade the sanctity of your home, with guns, with cutlasses, with other weap-ons…They torture, rob, they rape and then like rats jump off your house in rapid succession to proceed to a waiting car to move to the next venue.” She recommended that homeowners de-fend their “castle” by any means necessary – and the namby-pamby law of responding with “commensurate” force – be dumped!! “Shoot on sight” and “hang ‘em high” would be appro-priate legislation!! If the home invaders were unfortunately not killed, there should be MANDA-TORY 25-year sentences imposed!!
Now you may think that Kamla’s some right-wing, law and order nut but how do you explain St Vincent’s dyed in the wool socialist Ralph Gonsalves identical position?? He went against his “mother and the Pope” to call for the death penalty for murder!! He didn’t spare the Judiciary: “How could you go and give somebody who’s charged with murder, bail? Let’s be serious! …Where do those judges live? On Mars?” He didn’t spare Opposition politicians who sanctimo-niously urge they be included in crime fighting efforts but will only “undermine” initiatives as they try to “expose, oppose and depose” the government”! Whew!!
But it wasn’t just the individual PM’s who talked tough. Caricom as a whole called out the world superpower – the US – on the guns they ship into the region. “(G)iven our observation that the gun has become the new drug, as articulated in our separate 18 April 2023 Declaration, we call on the US to reciprocate and join the Caribbean in its ‘War on Guns’.” Now you know things na regulah when puny CariCom’s not only willing to take on the US – but its most powerful gun lobby!! That $50billion a year industry’s dominated by a handful of big ones – who’re more un-touchable than the mafia”!!
Can you imagine a “civilized” country where the majority of its citizens would die to defend their right to carry a gun?? And somebody gotta make those guns for them to carry around, no??
Now let’s see what happens after they got that outta their system!!
…the mornin’ after
After a bout of lovemaking some folks throw back with a cigarette and maybe think about what just happened! But after the lovefest that’s consummated by the political parties on Nomination Day, while Guyanese MAY take a pull on their cigarettes, they ALWAYS argue about who bested who!! To change the metaphor, if election day in Guyana is like a boxing match between heav-yweights, then Nomination Day’s like them coming out of their dressing rooms with their entou-rage!! A whole lot of strutting and shadow boxing!
The consensus on the street is that the PPP were definitely better prepared – and not only be-cause they had their red shirts ready!! They had the bodies to get into the shirts!! But then they’d unabashedly announced their strategy when they eased into government: get right into a literal “in your face” jabs at the PNC’s strongholds!! They then landed some body blows ; opened up the weak spots and we saw the results.
Total disarray in the PNC camp!!
…in song
Most Guynese channelin’ Sam Cooke: “It’s been too hard living/ But I’m afraid to die/ ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there/ Beyond the sky/ It’s been a long/ A long time coming, but I know/ A change gon’ come/ Oh yes, it will”.
