The British economist John Maynard Keynes – after whom a whole “school” of economic thought is named – once remarked, “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”!! So imagine the situation of those IMPRACTICAL men who enthusiastically announce they’re followers of that economist who lies in Highgate cemetery!! When alive, he didn’t actually lie – but was so dogmatic about his mistakes that he convinced some, even more than a century since he was interred.
In Guyana, of course, Burnham insisted he was a follower of that bearded, pock-marked fella who developed carbuncles sitting in the Library rooms of the British Museum!! His opponents, however, was convinced he was just a poseur who wanted to look “radical”. “Radicalism” – which simply meant tweaking the coat-tail of Uncle Sam – was the flavour of that age!! Anyhow, against all evidence to the contrary, there are still some true believers around.
One of them is the elderly fella from that era who still scribbles the defunct ideas in one of the dailies. Back then, he’d advocated that Guyana cut all links -trading and otherwise – with the Yanks and their “running dogs of capitalism”. Yes…that’s how they spoke!! Quite overwrought, don’t you think?,!! For instance, the fella in Highgate most famous call was “Workers of the world, unite!! You have nothing to lose but your chains!!” Ironically, since then the greatest dream of the world was to BECOME workers – and presumably acquire their chains!!
Yesterday, the local acolyte critiqued an SCD analysis of our oil economy done by the World Bank – incidentally which Keynes helped launch! Back in 2018 – even before oil and revenues started flowing -the fella had demanded that every household be given an annual cash grant of US$5000 ANNUALLY!! He grandiosely called it the “Buxton Declaration” – as if that made it more official. All it did was to remind folks of Burnham’s “Declaration of Sophia” that declared the PNC “paramount” over the state!! With over 200,000 households, that meant shelling out a cool US$1BILLION annually!! Which is pretty much what we’d be earning from the giveaway contract accepted by the PNC!! So what’ll be left for developing the country?? Who cares? We’ll all eat, drink and be merry till the oil runs out!!
Anyhow the long-in-the-tooth radical took offence that the WB report debunked his pet proposal by stating (with evidence!) that the revenues produced by the oil sector “can distort the labour market by…the establishment of generous transfer programs”!! At a minimum doesn’t he think he should counter with some evidence to buttress his claim??
Not just the declarations of a dead economist!!
…of mother day
Yesterday, as the nation went into overdrive in sending flowers, consuming lunches and dinners and calling their mothers, your Eyewitness – who lost his mother a while ago – reflected on some of the contradictions in the overwrought emotions. Right up there, of course, is the mind-numbing level of violence inflicted on mothers. women – and girls who will become mothers – by men. Isn’t there some kinda contradiction there?
What he couldn’t explain was how come these men could carry on so maudlinly about their mothers and not be bothered when they raise their hands against females. Some even against their own mothers!! Your Eyewitness has heard about compartmentalizing your minds – but this is ridiculous!! But what is even more of an enigma is each of those men who beat up on women were raised by a woman – their mother!!
To reverse this unacceptable violence against women and girls, your Eyewitness suggests that all women be explicitly taught a course in raising their sons to not hit females. And ditto for males!!
