…to the man
Just before his appearance at the UN, to make his presentation to the General Assembly, Pres Ali was interviewed by one Richard Madeley from the “Good Morning Britain” programme – on their ITV channel. Now, we know these morning show hosts are speaking generally to yahoos out in TV land – and are trying to shock them out of their somnolence!! In essence, they’re shock jocks to the guests they have on their shows! But this Madeley fella is more than the average piece of empty-headedness – and he displayed it all to John Public in his “interview” with Pres Ali.
Now, to give you a measure of the faux arrogance Madeley adopts to cover his shallowness, which matches that of his basically redneck audiences, imagine he once had the temerity to describe Sir David Attenborough – the world-famous “Our Planet” host – as “just a broadcaster”!! That’s like calling the Kohinoor “just a diamond”!! He was widely panned as a “disrespectful, arrogant little oaf”!! And this is what he was once again with the President.
He raised the question of reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade and slavery in the Caribbean and Guyana. Pres Ali immediately labelled it for what it was – the biggest crime against humanity ever – and, as such, there was no question that reparations must be delivered!! You could see the condescending way Madeley talked about slavery – but the President would have none of it. At one point, Madeley asked with a smirk, “It’s about gestures, and you think that the British Royal Family should make a big gesture, don’t you? What do you mean, hand over a palace to your country?” Imagine a British TV host dismissing the calls for reparations as answerable with “gestures”.
And he was transparently using the reductio ad absurdum technique – where you try to prove your position by pointing out the absurdity or foolishness of the other fellow’s point – with the palace gambit. But Ali gave him a punch in the solar plexus when he replied: “We don’t want the British to hand over a palace that we built! They have ‘lovely green hardwood from Guyana’, and if someone went there, they could see ‘the sweat, tears and blood of the slaves who were exploited, and the revenue that was earned from their exploitation”. He firmly told Madeley that Guyana wasn’t ‘asking for a palace, we’re asking for justice’!!
As the uneducated lout he is, Madeley clearly wanted to hide that it was a British Monarch – Charles II – who’d founded the Royal African Company to trade in enslaved Africans!! And built palaces with the blood-stained money.
Madeley was criticised for “vile” behaviour!! But that won’t save Britain from paying reparations!!
…to Big Brother??
Your Eyewitness thought, when Rep Jeffries promised he’d do a Solomon and also meet Guyana’s Opposition after facing off Pres Ali’s troupe, he’d be heading down to old Mudland. Fat chance!! Turns out that Jeffries can’t come to our Opposition, so our Opposition’s gonna be going up to Jeffries!! But if Jeffries wanted to court his Crown Heights Caribbean constituents, you think he’d have brought up the TEN – Opposition members to parade them in the hood!!
But the moment your Eyewitness saw the Opposition worthies were going to meet the House Democratic Leader on September 27 in Washington, he knew Jeffries was roped in by his PNC buddy from Canarsie to do two-fer!! Give the feature address at the latter’s “Conference on Guyana”, and then “meet” the Opposition MPs, whose profile would be raised!!
They think that holding the “Conference” at the Washington Press Club (WPC) makes it sound “official”!! Who’d you think you’re foolin”?? The WPC is rented for US$500 for five hours!!
…to the Venezies
It happens all the time – all the way back to Jagan and Burnham!! The moment the Venezies rattle their sabres, the PNC and PPP come together as one. Maybe they should be rattling those sabres all the time??
