Category: Eyewitness

PPP congress The PPP announced it will be holding its congress this August in the Ancient County. This is good news. There have been all sorts of badmouthing of the party by some that have jumped ship. Charges about “anti-democratic” practices and so on. They forgot that the party had been around for quite some time and has a quite sound ‘institutional memory’. The boys knew what the erstwhile ‘comrades’ were up to before they even opened their mouths to scream, “Shut yuh so- and- so mouths”. The old heads…

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No responsibility The excuses offered by Carl “Barry” Greenidge for missing the scheduled meeting with the Finance Ministry’s team to discuss the budget have degenerated beyond ‘ridiculous’. As pointed out by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, Greenidge is blaming everybody but himself – not just the Finance Ministry, but his party’s erstwhile ally – the AFC – and (most astoundingly!) his own party, the PNC. Sad thing is, the facts of the matter – which are all in the public domain – make Greenidge’s culpability self-evident. With all his bobbing…

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Disorder in the House Speaker Trotman, in all fairness, does seem to be a very prim and proper chap. So maybe we can expect him to overreact on occasion about etiquette and such things. But his charge that in the last session “remarks such as ‘thief’, ‘liar’, and ‘prostitute’ were just a few of the ones most audible” from MPs, boggles the mind. “Thief” we can understand. That, in fact, is how most citizens see some members of parliament, rightly or wrongly. And don’t think it’s the government benches –…

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The “AFC gaze” Post-modernists speak of various ‘gazes’. They mean that certain groups with power are able to shape the views of various ‘others’, based on their own (obviously subjective) perspective. So we have the ‘imperial gaze’ of the British defining us as ‘ugly natives’ who are incapable of accomplishing anything. One of the AFC main advisors (and close friend of its leader Ramjattan) Freddie Kissoon is one of those ‘natives’ who’s accepted that description of himself. He projects that onto other Guyanese who, he accuses of never measuring up…

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The Kabaka In their free, sponsored Muckraker KN’s column, the PNC expanded on their founder-leader Burnham’s “weltanschauung”. No, that’s not his proclivity to ride round on horseback while insisting that civil servants weed ‘bush’ at Hope Estate. It’s a fancy German word the image-makers at Sophia dug up that means ‘world view’. They’re engaged in their never-ending yeoman efforts to rehabilitate Burnham’s legacy. You have to give them credit. Then again, King Canute couldn’t stop the waves by his command, could he? But he tried. Anyhow, not unexpectedly, the Sophia…

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Cheddi neglected Alvin Thompson is one of our most distinguished historians in the region. As Professor Emeritus of History at UWI (Cave Hill) Dr Thompson has inspired more than two generations of Caribbean peoples. One of the more positive features of this year’s observance of our attainment of Republican status was the Culture Ministry’s invitation to several international academics to offer perspectives on topics relevant to the event. Professor Thompson’s topic was “The Berbice Slave Uprising of 1763: Historical and present-day significance”. The ministry was obviously responding to trenchant criticisms…

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…is his castle We’ve talked about rules being the line between us and cavemen. We’d looked at what was going on in Parliament with the MPs from both sides of the divide acting as if they were in a rum shop. One of the more disreputable ones, without a bouncer. But it seems there’re elements determined to push the envelope even lower than the MPs. Word is that Mark Benschop just picketed the HOME of Winston Brassington, the CEO of NICIL. Now you might’ve heard of behaviour that’s lower than…

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(Dis)order in the House! To be human is to have differences of opinions. But since our days as cavemen (and cavewomen), we’ve worked out ways of settling those differences other than bopping each other on the head with clubs. But to read the reports of what transpired in Parliament last Thursday night, you wouldn’t be blamed for concluding that such information hasn’t trickled into Guyana. The screaming and shouting from both sides of the House got so bad that THE SPEAKER WALKED OUT!!! You heard that right. We’ve had the…

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No licks? In an age of increasingly unruly children – and not just boys – the United Nations’ push for Guyana to abolish corporal punishment for children in the family and in schools is going to raise a lot of hackles. The Ministry of Education (MoH) has already held some ‘consultations’ in various locales in the country on the issue – and were told in no uncertain terms by irate parents: “No way, Jose!!” It didn’t help matters that in addition to advocating “no licks for any child”, the ministry…

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…. while murders soar The Emperor Nero, we’re told, “fiddled while Rome burned”. While he may’ve actually played a harp while his city was razed, you get the idea. Not surprisingly, the phrase has come down the ages illustrate the insistence of some to do nothing while knowing that something disastrous is happening. Well, at least good sense prevailed on Thursday in our National Assembly. With murders, robberies and carnage on the roads rising in the first months of the year, the minister of home affairs, Clement Rohee had announced…

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