Telling it…like (sanction) is

PNC leader Aubrey Norton came out firing from both hips last week. To his critics – mostly disgruntled PNCites who haven’t moved to the side-lines or over to WIN! – he defiantly announced that he ain’t gonna step aside, step down or sidestep from his job!! Seems he’s a born-again Democrat who believes that once he’s elected to a position, he gotta represent those who elected him till the next (rigged?) elections at the PNC Congress!! That most folks who might’ve supported him at the last party elections – before last year’s General Elections – subsequently deserted him for WIN doesn’t faze him one bit!!
In fact, from the other hip, he fired away at Sanction Man – the leader of WIN – when asked about collaborating in the Opposition with the man who replaced him as Opposition leader. “Mohammed’s interest here is to ensure that he isn’t extradited. We don’t have an interest in that. We have an interest in promoting the development of the people of Guyana,” said the old street fighter sanctimoniously!! Now some might say it’s a matter of “sour grapes” – but shouldn’t we taste the grape before we buy the story??
No one can deny Mr Norton’s assertion that Sanction Man was sanctioned by the Yanks for smuggling tonnes of gold out of our country – and depriving the GRA of almost a billion dollars in taxes!! That’s what earned him the moniker “Sanction Man”, innit?? And he’s been fighting a strenuous rear-guard in all the courts – Magistrate, High, Appeal and even the CCJ – to prevent his extradition to Miami for trial – and possible fitting for that orange jumpsuit they wear in US penitentiaries!! So, Norton’s not really unreasonable to suggest that Sanction Man isn’t only about helping the poor with (albeit large) handouts!!
In fact, Norton explicitly addressed that last contention: “They give a pittance to the people and keep the hog [of the smuggled proceeds!] for themselves, and so, while I appreciate some people getting help, I am very clear in my mind that the focus here is not on making Guyanese society get a better life. It is doing the things that will allow you to protect your interests, and, therefore, in many regards, the approach of the Mohameds more than WIN is one in which there is self-protection and the people happen to get some crumbs in the process of self-protection!!”
Your Eyewitness thinks that Norton might be looking at the precedence set by that fella Pablo Escobar from over in Colombia, who was also sanctioned by the Yanks for smuggling – and ran (successfully) for his country’s Congress explicitly to hold off extradition!!
He also was a great philanthropist from his ill-gotten gains!!

…on oil revenues
There are some – mainly in the Opposition – who’re vociferously insisting that the PPP throw down the gauntlet to Exxon’s consortium – including the Chinese behemoth CNOOC!!! They demand that the PSA – signed by Raphael Trotman on behalf of the then Government of Guyana led by the PNC – be “renegotiated” so that we can come out with a bigger haul!!
Now nothing would please your Eyewitness more than if we could get mo’ money for our oil!! But in the real world the PPP’s operating in, they’ve decided that this would be tantamount to abandoning the “sanctity of contracts” – the foundation stone of the economic world order!! Shouldn’t we give them the benefit of the doubt – seeing as how they’re actually IN the game??
Your Eyewitness is reminded about that story “The Dog and the Bone” where the dog loses the bone he has and ends up with nothing!!
After all, the US$761M deposited in the NRF in the first quarter is a pretty large bone!!

…on pecking order
With Parliament convened last Friday, the Parliamentary Committees were launched and their members nominated!! Interestingly, there’s no Black Pudding Man or Chicken Man among the Opposition nominees!! Instead, Norton tried to get Walton-Desir in!!
OOOOHH!!