…Bulkan
Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan’s head has to be spinning. And why not, dear reader? After all, he was just bitch-slapped in public by Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green!! This wasn’t your average bitch-slapping, where the weak, open-handed blow is just accompanied by hair-pulling and face scratching. No…this one was delivered with such ferocity and force that Bulkan was knocked right out of his buckta!!
Now, in this matter, your Eyewitness has to be fair…and it does look to him like Bulkan was just asking for it! Whether Bulkan’s into S&M or anything like that, your Eyewitness can’t say, since he never did complete that psychiatrist correspondence course!!
Imagine, Bulkan had the temerity to tell Her Worship the Mayoress she couldn’t convert some playground into house lots for her and her close associates, like the Town Clerk!!
Can you believe it? Who the heck does Bulkan think he is? Head of Local Government or something? The Mayoress (?) didn’t mess around: she told him bluntly to quit with the “so-and-so meddling”. Quoting by-laws and suchlike, she told the Minister where to get off – that is, to go jump into a lake!! Your Eyewitness isn’t too au fait with the highways and by-laws of the Garden City, but from what’s been going on (down?) since the Mayoress took over from Hamilton Green (no relative, one assumes) the law is whatever the lady says it is!!
Remember when the same Bulkan approved some by-laws to have the parking meter scam approved? At that time even the Attorney General and the Finance Minister insisted the contract wasn’t kosher and should be headed off at the pass. The Mayoress, on the other hand, had asserted that what she did was hunky-dory, and Bulkan meekly went along!! So if she now insists the laws governing our fair city allow playgrounds to be doled out to the Mayoress and her cohorts, who’s your Eyewitness (or Bulkan) to say otherwise??
But really, folks, the Mayoress knows there are both formal and informal sources of power, and with the PNC, of which both Bulkan and the Mayoress are executive members, the lady has the inside track on the REAL power switch. Bulkan is mere window dressing – like Nagamootoo – to mamaguy the world into thinking the PNC has changed its stripes. But he’s not a “born PNC”, like the Mayoress.
And that is why the Mayoress can publicly bitch-slap him silly: she knows that in the real pecking order she outranks him by miles. Bulkan better wake up and smell the coffee…it’s been brewing not only at City Hall, but in the offices of all governmental offices.
Only those who are born PNC wield real power!!
…Oil watchdog
One of the peculiar characteristics of Guyanese officialdom is how quickly supposed “watchdogs” become “lapdogs”. Take this Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) that’s supposed to ensure the Government in general, and the Minister of Natural Resources in particular, stay on the straight and narrow where our oil interests are concerned.
The head of this local body – now officially recognized by the international body – is one Dr Rudy Jagopat. He just insisted he can’t comment on the universal accusation (even the IMF!!) that something (many things!!) stinks to high heaven with our oil contract!! He said civil society’s doing a good job, and they should keep it up!!
Now, if the watchdog can’t comment on an accusation that goes to the heart of his function, why do we need him? Well, that’s where the “lapdog” tag comes in! What else can you expect from a fella (where’d he come from?) who’s been working out of Trotman’s office from the beginning?
Watchdogs fed by their targets are bitch-slapped into lapdogs!!
…into bassidiness
If you were ever wondering about the effects of prolonged bitch-slapping – used to create the “Stockholm Syndrome”, dear reader — all you have to do is follow the utterances of Ramjattan.
They mumble inanities like “It’s God’s work” to explain PNC firing sugar workers!!