…for Guyana
Just when your Eyewitness thought it couldn’t get any worse, up comes news that some smart cock at GECOM evidently decided to slurp off the gravy train that’s been rolling through Guyana since May 2015. $100M worth of slurping!! Now, Dear Readers, you may say, with Ministers renting drug warehouses just in case a meteor MIGHT hit the Government’s brand new warehouse – and not so incidentally setting back the Government $450M – and billion-dollar write-offs and settlements flowing fast and furious, what’s the big deal about $100M?
Well, it’s not just the $100M…it’s the fact that this has happened at GECOM. And in case some have forgotten what GECOM stands for in Guyana – let your Eyewitness give you a quick refresher. GECOM represents the return to law and order to a land that was raped for 28 years – political, social, economic and physical rape – plus, of course, “kick down the door bandits” to add the finishing touch to the degradation of the lawlessness.
All of the above was due to the Government of Forbes Burnham keeping himself in power through the rigging of elections. Why? Well, if those Big Ones who were controlling all the resources of the State – and its ultimate power to snuff out the lives of citizens – got and kept that power illegally, what was the rest of the country to do? It ranged from those working in factories who literally stripped the buildings of even light bulbs and fixtures to sell on the black market to the Ministers who sold licences to the highest bidder.
It was every thief for himself and the devil take Guyana. So when we had free and fair elections in 1992 through the good offices of Jimmy Carter who helped to create an INDEPENDENT GECOM – which DID lead to a change of government, not unnaturally lots of folks – including this Eyewitness had a soft spot for the elections body. He’d heard of the Indian Elections Commission, which was able to do so much for democracy in that fractious country by standing above the fray – and the graft – and insisting on harking to the rule of law.
So when we now hear about even this organisation getting tainted with the brush of corruption, it brings the feeling invoked by Martin Carter when he spoke to his most intimate partner – to who one obviously expresses one’s innermost thoughts – that “it’s a dark time, my love”.
In this case, the “love” is Guyana and it would appear that yes, we all should cry for our beloved land.
…for the USA
Can you imagine the President of Philippines – a fella by the name of Duterte – had the temerity to call President Obama of the US a “son of a bitch”?? What has the world come to, when a former colony that’s still out in the global boondocks can describe the most powerful man on planet earth in such terms?? Don’t people know their place anymore? Was he taking a cue from all those US rednecks who called Obama all sorts of names..and not just “Hussein”!!
Only presidents of the US can call other leaders of countries “sons of bitches”. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – obviously not the Roosevelt who “talked softly but carried a big stick” – said of the leader of Nicaragua, “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” And everyone took this as a compliment! But then who gets to define others has the power, nuh?
Look at how fast Duterte stuck his tail between his legs and said he REALLY didn’t mean to insult Obama!!
…for fowlcocks
Ever seen fowlcocks in front of a henhouse? Jumping up and down, crowing at the top of their airbags as if the sky were falling? But the hens? They couldn’t care less!!
And that’s the story of Patrick Yarde and the Government with the GPSU wage negotiations!!
