…Independence?
So if “Independence” is supposed to be better than colonial rule, how come we have to bring back the British, FIFTY-TWO years after Independence, to fix a basic independence marker as “security”?? Security’s the sine qua non of a state, especially an Independent one! What did Independence get us? More murders, more banditry, more domestic violence!
The PNC-led Government officials beat their chests about “winning” Independence. They should be ashamed. How’d you “win” a prize that was given to you simply to deny your opponent what was legally and morally theirs?? No wonder the PNC’s downplaying Mashramani and Republic Day in favour of “Independence Day”. Say what you will about his later excesses; at least Cuffy FOUGHT!!
This PNC lot sold out the rest of the Guyanese who hadn’t supported them — just like some chieftains in Africa sold some folks from other tribes to the pirates!! As Brother Bob said, “Old pirates, yes, they rob I; Sold I to the merchant ships.” Some folks want to forget it was our own who sold us to the pirates, to begin with; as our own prophet, Walter Rodney, showed. But then, Brother Bob also asked – as we should today: “How long shall they kill our prophets/ While we stand aside and look?” Yet the PNC killed Rodney AFTER Independence!!
What’s the point of reintroducing the British law of sedition, which they used to suppress our freedom of speech by banning Independence literature? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep the British with their laws?? Well, not really…they’ve changed their law because they said it was an abomination in modern times!! Whose minds need to be emancipated?
They said the British exploited us economically…which they did! But they trained lawyers of the highest calibre – such as Ramphal, Shahabuddeen et al — who could hold their own when they negotiated nationalisation of our assets. What have we produced AFTER Independence? How’d you give away the store when you have such glorious predecessors in negotiations?? Even Burnham knew about the trap of “transfer pricing” when he nationalised Bauxite!! So now we have to hire some foreign legal “experts” – most definitely British or American. Some “Independence”!!
But this importation of the Trinidad Carnival takes the cake. Even Trinis have complained that the indigenous aspects, like Calypso Tents, are disappearing in favour of uninhibited alcohol-fuelled sexual displays and frolic, like the “Scorch _uck the work” fete.
They say it’s “Duck the wuk” – which is bad enough if we want to become independent.
But the blank means you can substitute “F”!!
…the return of Mass Games?
Folks may’ve forgotten that, in late 1979, just after Burnham DECLARED his “sharper steel” to the WPA, he’d dropped the bombshell that Guyana would now be experiencing the joys of “mass games”! Well, especially he and Guyanese schoolchildren. It was inspired by the North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung after Burnham’s visit to that country. According to the N Koreans, Guyana would now be “carrying out socialist construction under the banner of the Juche idea created by the great leader Comrade.” “Burnham’s “cooperativism” was analogous to the ‘Juche’ of Kim Il-Sung.
Mass Games were made compulsory for all schoolchildren, who were forced to march in the sun, perform the “lizard crawl” etc, to repel any invaders. But what pleased Burnham more than all of that was the excuse to introduce the “backdrop panorama” to the games on the field. The thousands of schoolchildren would move perfectly synchronised coloured cards to produce a “scene”.
Of course, in the first Mass Games of 1980, with Rodney’s assassination in the offing, the first panorama was of Burnham’s face!!
So what’s for Independence next year?? A panorama of Granger’s face?
