The GRA was reported to’ve raided a Chinese Supermarket in the City – actually on Hunter Street in La Penitence – and seized a van-load of items, including liquor!! Now, they didn’t say exactly why the raids but the fact that goods, were seized offers a clue: there had to’ve been one or more of our laws broken on these items. For instance, a grocery or supermarket can’t just start selling liquor without a specific license. Ditto for expired goods or those that don’t have English language labels. This latter regulation is regularly flouted by these Chinese supermarkets – as your Eyewitness knows to his cost since he can’t figure out what’s perking up his favourite Ramen Noodles at the three Chinese Supermarkets in his vicinity!! Could he be getting addicted to pork fat??!!
But as your Eyewitness has written before, this business of Chinese Supermarkets springing up everywhere like Jumbie Umbrellas represents a multi-pronged concern. One of them goes far beyond the economic issues since the supermarkets are invariably run by four or five Chinese nationals who now live here. They could be strategically changing our demographics!! Are they naturalizing themselves?? Your Eyewitness remembers visiting Suriname some two decades ago and noticing Chinese Supermarkets all over the landscape. They ran most of the locals out of business – as is happening here – but as the economy fell on hard times, most of them pulled up stakes and ran. Your Eyewitness wouldn’t be surprised if most of them haven’t ended up here!!
The other problem your Eyewitness has with the phenomenon is there’s definitely some price-fixing mechanism in place. Surely a supermarket in Berbice can’t have the same price on the aforementioned noodles as the one in your Eyewitness’ Demerara neighbourhood by sheer coincidence!! Don’t we have laws against price fixing that can lead to monopolies – which is being created in the supermarket business?? The other dirt your Eyewitness picked up is that containers consigned to the Chinese Embassy arriving duty free may contain grocery items?? If this true?? Shouldn’t be too difficult to track the number of these containers and enquire as to whether the Chinese Embassy is stocking up to feed the Red Army that might be arriving to support Mad Maduro’s Venezuela – whose diplomatic ties have been recently upgraded to an “all weather” partnership.??
But more insidiously, even for the containers not consigned to the Chinese Embassy, your Eyewitness was told most of these also don’t pay any duties. When the Customs Officer at the docks punch in the info to generate the requisite duties etc – friends high up in the GRA hierarchy have already waived such charges on the system!!
GRA has to conduct raids on its own officials??
…on Maths
Our children in the educational system appear to be caught in an endless loop of mediocre performance in Maths. The Ministry of Education has been focusing on getting teachers to improve the performances –and most recently the Min of Education declared ominously that “teachers and schools will now be held accountable for students’ maths results”!! Now for sure it’s possible Math teachers might be slackers – but why just math teachers?? Could it be the subject itself – the curriculum, that is??
Your Eyewitness remembers being bored out of his wits when forced to do Quadratic Equations in school. Fifty years later, he still hasn’t faced a situation in life where he had to apply quadratic equations!! Is this a clue?? That kids just don’t see any connection between the maths being shoved down their throats, and their own lives!!
Your Eyewitness understands other countries tried having the kids apply maths – along with other pertinent subjects – to solve real life problems.
Is this what the new “Maths awareness campaign” all about??
…on competition
Trump took time to announce that Mike Pompeo and Nikki Halley – two prominent officials in the 2016-2020 term – ain’t being considered for any role in his administration. What gives?? They both thought themselves capable of ousting Trump??
