What’s the difference, Dear Reader, between a good lawyer and a bad lawyer? A bad lawyer might let a case drag on for several years. A good lawyer, on the other hand, knows how to make it last even longer!! Now you might’ve heard that “lawyer joke” before, but today it’s resonating about the very womb of the profession. After more than two decades of trying, Guyana still doesn’t have a law school to produce these much-reviled “professionals”! And Lord knows they’ve tried.
During the last administration Basil Williams – SC, AG, Minister of Legal Affairs but not so incidentally the losingest AG in the history of Guyana – had assured us he’d secured the long-sought-after law school. There were hurrahs – if not hosannahs! – all across the land!! He’d secured 15 acres of land courtesy of his government and even announced the name – JOF Haynes School of Law – after one of our most illustrious members of the bar!! But he got some fly-by-night private education operators out of Jamaica to own the school and the Council for Legal Education (CLE) that licenses law schools to issue the Legal Education Certificate (LEC) – balked.
They’d never given permission (their charters forbid private law schools), but Williams insisted THEY were mistaken. Never mind he couldn’t show any documentation to prove that such approval was ever granted!! Basil brings to mind that old saw: “How does an attorney sleep? Well, first he lies on one side, then he lies on the other”!! Snorted Basil truculently when the head of CLE told him the school wouldn’t be licensed: “Nobody can’t stop us from building a law school. It’s just that we are community minded, we are founding members of Caricom and we feel that we have a right”!! Well…Basil WAS the losingest AG ever, but he’d also threatened a sitting Judge when appearing before him!!
Anyhow, up to now –
as far as qualifying our aspiring lawyers – Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad automatically accepts the top 25 graduates of our UG LLB programme annually – all others have to take the Hugh Wooding Open Exam and wing it on their own. It ain’t cheap – costing at least $3 million per semester. The Government offers a few scholarships based on need, performance – and connections!! The PPP Govt promised to build the promised law school, but last your Eyewitness heard was a feasibility study – to convince the CLC – was being compiled.
Now your Eyewitness can’t imagine how we can’t justify more lawyers in the fastest growing Caricom economy!! Your Eyewitness is reminded of the terrorist who hijacked a 747 full of lawyers. He threatened to release one every hour if his demands weren’t met!!
…the democratic example??
Can you believe there was another attempt to assassinate Trump?? Well, you better believe it, because the culprit was nabbed. They’ve described him as being a developer from Hawaii – but he only moved there a few years ago from North Carolina. There, he was labelled as an avid gun aficionado who owned an armoury of weapons and was a bit of a “weirdo”. Ironically, he fit your typical Trump supporter’s profile!!
Now, what this reminds us is: as a country becomes increasingly divided politically and leaders spout more extreme rhetoric, more followers are gonna accept the rhetoric at face value and take matters into their own hands. This is also the situation in Guyana where elements from the opposition are pushing the envelope to describe the PPP as an “apartheid government” that’s committing “genocide” on their supporters.
In the States, there are some who fear that a civil war is imminent. We’ve already experienced “freedom fighters” wreaking mayhem in our society. Déjà vu?
…the chicken curry?
One of Trump’s loonier advisers, Laura Loomer complained if Kamala Harris wins the election, “the White House will smell like curry”!! Trump’s VP candidate Vance – married to an Indian – says he doesn’t like the comments and “I make a mean chicken curry.”
Curry chicken!!
