‘Tis…the season

As your Eyewitness mentioned, he was pretty chuffed to’ve visited the “One Guyana Christmas Village” on Main Street in our GT that’s slowly recovering its old (colonial) shine!! When your Eyewitness reached the North Road end, he could see the refurbished spires of City Hall – which been transformed into a set for Bram Stoker’s Dracula!! Dark, grim and foreboding by the PNC-M&CC!! Walking under the street-length lighted arches, he could see they were inspired by that old Christmas standby: Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la la!!
But as we careen into “the season” with increasing jollity – fuelled by exuberant spirits from internal and external sources – your Eyewitness hopes he won’t be a party pooper when he reminds of that other side of Christmas. A side that exhorts us to remember the SEVEN VIRTUES that the fella whose birthday we commemorate taught us as the values of the life we oughta live by. You don’t know about the homily of the “seven virtues”, Dear Reader??
Well, it’s not that your Eyewitness was such a diligent and attentive listener to the sermons which he’d been conscripted to imbibe on Wednesdays – at the Religious Denominational School he attended!! That, as his sainted Granma used to say, passed in one ear – and right through the other!! Of course, as he had been frequently assured, that could mean he didn’t have anything between the aforementioned two ears!!
No…what kept the Seven Virtues in his mind was a painting the 15th Century Italian painter Caravaggio executed for a Church – where it’s still hung!! – in exculpation for a murder he’d committed!! And there were the seven Virtues – feeding the hungry, offering drink to the thirsty; sheltering the homeless; clothing the naked; visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead represented in glorious oils that made the painting literally talk to a young, callow Eyewitness who stumbled upon it in one of his textbooks!! If the truth be told, he was particularly drawn to the young mother who was feeding an old man from her lactating breast!! That was showing mercy!!
But back to your Eyewitness’s point!! Shouldn’t we at least practise these virtues with the same abandon and gusto in this Christmas season – that we do with the jollity associated with the Big Guy’s coming?? Incidentally, both he – as a cherubic baby! – and his Mother Mary are pictured in the painting!! Let’s not argue about the exact PERCENTAGE of poverty that persists to date.
We know that surely it’s impossible to totally eliminate that condition – so why not do our bit??

…to rally support
So here we are, having just felicitated – and facilitated – the opening of a Grenada Consulate for Guyana when your Eyewitness read that the Venezuelan-sponsored regional grouping ALBA – of which Grenada’s a part – has criticised the US military presence in the Caribbean – which our Government and President have fervently supported!!
St Vincent’s Ralph Gonsalves, of course, had been a card-carrying member of the “Mad Maduro Fan Club”!! But with his embarrassing clobbering at the polls that threw him out of the Government on his ears, your Eyewitness had assumed the new government would’ve paid more heed to Trinidad and Guyana’s existential threat from Venezuela!! But no Siree, Bob!! There they were – right at the side of Grenada and the other OECS micro-states in ALBA – giving succour and support to the dictator!! Your Eyewitness hopes they don’t expect us to bail them out when they get the squeeze from the US for siding with Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela!!
What will they do when Mad Maduro’s ousted?? Suck salt!!

…a tragedy
This thing called drug abuse has no boundaries – geographical, social, economic…whatever. But he was still shocked that “Meathead” – from one of your Eyewitness’s favourite shows back in the day “All in the Family” – was murdered by his druggie son.