Category: Eyewitness

…and PNC garrison politics Some folks wondered why the PNC had spent G$40 million to purchase and distribute tickets for their supporters to attend the Buju Banton concert at the National Stadium as part of the “Independence Carnival”. After all, when the PPP had also supported some concerts while in office, the PNC had trenchantly criticised them for pandering to the lowest common denominator in THEIR constituency! Or is it okay for the PNC to pander, ‘cause the PPP’s pandering might be tainted with poaching? But the dancehall artiste of…

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…on children’s rights On so many issues, the PNC-led Government has just been “all talk and no action”; invariably, their “talk” has just been political white noise. Take, for instance, the issue of “children’s rights”. In 2015, they were invited by the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) to talk to schoolchildren about their human rights; and, of course, seeing that he didn’t have a portfolio apart from writing a column in the Chronic, PM Moses Nagamootoo was assigned the task!! Now, if there’s one thing Nagamootoo’s good at, it’s…

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…and retribution Your Eyewitness was one of those who called for a more proactive response by the Police to the crime tsunami sweeping the country in general, and Berbice in particular. With the overwhelming majority of the crimes being committed by gun-toting bandits, he called for the deployment of the SWAT Unit to take them on, on an equal footing. The regular Police were invariably late on the scene, even after frantic calls and it was suspected they feared they’d be outgunned. Well, the SWAT Unit WAS rushed out to…

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  …from Indian elections When it comes to India and China, the numbers that crop up when discussing their affairs are more than humungous – they’re literally mind-boggling, since no one can wrap their head around them. Excepting when it comes to electing their leaders. In China, the President and the State Council are elected by the National People’s Congress – made up of 2980 people – while Modi and the Cabinet he’ll form are elected by 900 MILLION persons!! That’s the difference between an authoritarian and democratic system!! How…

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  …two communities Ever since sliding into office, the PNC-led government’s been working to relocate the squatters on a privately-owned piece of land in the prime real estate location at Broad and Lombard Streets. They were first told they’d be given house lots at Mocha on the East Bank, but they refused that offer after the NDC balked. Finally, a month ago, the government announced they’d be moving 20 of the families into houses built in collaboration with FFTP at Prospect on the East Bank. The remainder will be relocated…

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…in the house? It seems that in addition to Charrandas Persaud being a “Judas”, a “bribetaker”, a gold smuggler etc, he’s also a “usurper”. The former appellations were bestowed by the PNC/AFC combine right after the NCM vote, while the latter was uttered in the final appeal as to the validity of that vote in front of the CCJ by the Govt’s lawyer, one Courtenay, a former AG of Belize. If the latter gentleman is representative of Belize’s legal talent, then it’s clear we don’t have to hang our heads…

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  …on meaning of “majority” The PNC/AFC Government insisted on playing hop-scotch over our Constitution; so, not surprisingly, we’re back to square one!! To wit, why wasn’t the NCM passed, when the Speaker and the National Assembly affirmed on Dec 21 that it was; and it was then accepted by the President? All was going hunky dory, excepting Amna Ally, the Government’s Chief Whip, who was ruing the day she taunted the PPP by saying, “Bring it on, baby!!” The PPP did bring it on, and before the night was…

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  …on corruption The stench of corruption enveloping the PNC/AFC Administration got so bad that even some of its fervent supporters can’t squeeze their noses any longer. Especially now it’s a cert the CCJ’s gonna mandate elections sometime later this year. The latest to join in the chorus of criticism is a dyed-in-the-wool PNCite, Kean Gibson, who teaches at UWI, Barbados. She doesn’t understand why Granger’s tolerating the “normalisation” of corruption!! After all, from the word “go!” on May 11, 2015, you’d think his Ministers had been champing at their…

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…Cheddi Jagan David Granger is a historian and therefore he knows more than most about historiography that goes beyond the cliché about history being written by the victors. He’d know about the groundbreaking work by the Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillet, whose book Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History opened up the wider public’s eye to the phenomenon of “silencing” and its use in creating narratives by silencing other stories. “Silencing” as used by Trouillet is not merely inadvertently leaving out facts or because one doesn’t consider them…

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…hubris on musical chairs “What’s in a name?” the Bard famously asked in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And, one might add, in the context of Guyana, a rotten egg would smell just as foul! Which is by far more appropriate to describe the gymnastics going on in the Office of the President, by Granger and his “plenary” that’s now a “Cabinet” again. In terms of politics rather than young love, didn’t the Bard also point out that something was rotten in…

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