…the elderly
Last Saturday was “International Youth Day”. That’s right, there’s been a day set aside for our yutes, since the beginning of our new millennium, but your Eyewitness confesses that it slipped under his radar with all these “UN Days” coming so fast and furious. Then again, since he’s not exactly a spring chicken, he could’ve been suffering from the incipient senility that threatens once you’ve graduated from “youth”. Think about that prolix “Elder”!!
And it’s probably of that threat that, this year, the theme chosen – “Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World” – doesn’t resonate. Shouldn’t youths be exhorted to spare a thought for us oldsters? That saying, “Youth is wasted on the young and wisdom is wasted on the old”, makes sense, doesn’t it?? Imagine having all that energy and not knowing how exactly to make the best use of it – and then knowing exactly what to do but just can’t get up to do it!! The irony that is life!!
Now, we all know we’ve got a very youthful President – is he still a youth?? Where’s that line of demarcation? He certainly has the energy that goes with youth; the man’s schedule makes your Eyewitness’s head spin!! The Energiser Bunny has nothing on him!! And he’s certainly the exception that proves the rule on youth and wisdom not joined at the hip! Frankly, young President Ali’s a walking advertisement for electing some younger leaders to get our moribund country moving. If you have any concerns, just think of President Biden and his public appearances!!
Well, Pres Ali appears ready to move out all the old guard who might be holding back his plan for total transformation. He just announced a shakeup of the second-tier leadership constituted by the Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries when he reassigned six of them and appointed two new ones! Now, while all eyes are focused on the Ministers appointed by the President to the Cabinet, when we think of the Executive and the execution of the Government’s programme, when it comes to the crunch, it’s really the folks supporting the ministers in the Public Service that have to ensure the jobs get done. And – if the truth be told – it’s the Permanent Secretaries that have to get the Public Service bodies moving!!
In the same vein of letting it all hang out, we gotta admit that our worthies in the Public Service are more reflexively prone to supporting the Opposition!! And when they can, actually throw wrenches in the governmental machinery, even through malingering!!
And we return to the critical role of the Permanent Secretary, who’s the link between the Minister – who reports to the President directly – and the Public Service.
…law and order
Something’s rotten in the state of the Guyana Police Force. Why, if it’s another day, then it’s another scandal for them! Your Eyewitness wonders how long this can continue. But then he realises ruefully that Haiti’s been putting up with a rotten Police Force for two hundred years!! Will we suffer with ours for another century?? Your Eyewitness notes that the Police were corrupted in both countries by dictators who used and subverted them for their own self-interest.
It was Papa Doc in Haiti and Fat Boy Burnham in ours. They had their TonTon Macoutes, and we had our House of Israel goon squad. We got quite a ways to catch up – but don’t forget that in only two decades, the PNC had brought our economy to hover precariously barely above theirs!! Right now, with criminal gangs controlling greater swathes of the Haitian capital than the Government – an international force is being assembled, led by Kenya, to help out the Police.
Good luck with that!!
