Your Eyewitness was pleased to read there was another Diaspora Conference held at – and sponsored by – UG. He still hasn’t recovered from the last one held almost five years ago by the bow-tied wonder VC Ivelaw Griffith!! Your Eyewitness suspects THAT bash was more about getting some Guyanese from “foreign” to see him acclaimed as VC!! In the FIRST Investiture Ceremony in the history of the institution! Ahh…it was a sight to behold…the entire faculty in a procession decked out in their medieval academic regalia to confer “official powers and responsibilities” on the ex-YSM leader!! Local boy made good!!
And he got a Cacique Crown of Honour, even before he’d settled in, from his squaddie Granger!! That Diaspora and Investiture Conference was held at the Princess Ramada and cost a cool $10 million. But, then again, this was the man who’d created a 12-person CABINET – with FOUR Deputy Vice Chancellors – to help him run UG!! JUST LISTEN TO THEIR TITLES – Philantrophy, Alumni and Civic Engagement, Office of Strategic Initiatives, and yes – Academic Engagement!! He’d flown up with them to NY as part of a huge “fund raising” entourage at a cost of US$4 million – and brought back US$2 million!! Yep…that’s how the University would become “self-sustaining”!!
Anyhow as your Eyewitness looked at the speechifying at this second Diaspora Conference, he wondered if all those offices were functioning – and what they’d done the last five years. He knew they were all drawing their fat salaries!! He wondered – not so idly – whether the glossy, slick “Renaissance” Magazine was being produced?? The ones your Eyewitness had seen while Griffith was around were all about Griffith. So maybe they ran out of “renaissance” content with the departure of the Renaissance Man??
Anyhow, your Eyewitness was just blown away by the presentation of the present VC. Your Eyewitness heard there were THREE TIMES the number of Guyanese OUTSIDE Guyana as in!! Imagine that!! Since we GOT about 750,000 of us in our dear Mudland, that means there are 2,250,000 of us in foreign?? WOW!! This must be the result of some real cutting-edge research, since a figure of this magnitude has never been floated!! And, you know, in these matters, a lot of stuff floats to the top!!
Then there was the announcement that we produced 50,000 graduates, and if you ADD the cost to produce them to the amount they could’ve earned if they’d stayed (opportunity cost), we could’ve earned a cool US$1 TRILLION!! Now that’s ONE THOUSAND BILLION US DOLLARS!! Even Trinidad with its oil revenues IN TOTAL didn’t earn that much!! Your Eyewitness wonders what they’d be doing to rake in so much moolah!!
Shipping coke??
…the money gone??
We know that, for the longest while, Haiti’s been a “basket case” – economically and otherwise. In fact, most Guyanese appreciated their plight when, in 1989, the McIntyre Report – by the eminent economist of that name – showed us just ABOVE Haiti. Imagine, there were persons worse off than us!! We read they’ve been ruled by a series of vicious dictators who preyed on their people. Recently, we heard about violent gangs taking over the place and wreaking havoc with the lives of the long-suffering people.
But did you, dear reader, even wonder how this all started?? As a West Indian, you must know that Haiti waged the FIRST SUCCESSFUL SLAVE REBELLION IN THE WORLD – against their French rulers. They created a country – which was more than Spartacus even did!! But, with the connivance of the US, France was able to impose a penalty on Haiti, which was only repaid recently!! And this is what drained them for centuries.
Now, France’s Macron says Haiti’s “a primary concern” to his country. So, they’ll repay their ransom??
…the loyalty gone??
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told the BBC that it’s “absurd” Charles III is Head of State of St Vincent!! Trouble is, St Vincentians still want their monarch – as per their 2000 referendum!!
