Category: Eyewitness

…in world finance? It’s a sign of the times that we’ve entered a new world order when the Breton Woods institutions – the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – are commemorating their 75th anniversary and none of the political parties – even the newbies – have uttered a squeak. Formed in 1944 when WWII wasn’t even over, the two institutions were meant to facilitate the new world order reflecting the ground reality: the US was now the most dominant nation on earth, with its economy exceeding…

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…a lame duck Just when you thought the Chronic, under the ministrations of Nagamootoo and his DPI shill, couldn’t sink any lower – snakes are already on the ground, aren’t they? – they just went and endorsed Granger as their preferred Presidential candidate among the PPP, PNC and ANUG!! Of course we know Nagamootoo is assiduously brown-nosing Granger, hoping against all the evidence that he’ll be PM pick!! Ahhh…hope springs eternal in the human breast and all that!! But back to the Chronic’s endorsement. They claim this coming election is…

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…or handouts? There’s a spirited debate roiling the political arena – and “arena” it is! – on whether some of the anticipated oil revenues should be passed directly to some (or all) citizens of Guyana. From where your Eyewitness is sitting, the debate boils down to whether we should call the idea “cash transfer” or “handout”. Interestingly, however, none of the combatants are calling their schemes, “handouts”! But if you were to look at the comments, most folks who are opposed to the scheme raise the supposedly deleterious effects of…

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…from Granger After his foray into Linden last week, Granger took his show to Berbice – the Corentyne more precisely. At Linden, he’d announced “We are born to rule Guyana”, which unleashed a slew of speculation about who exactly was “we”! Was it only PNC members since he was addressing a PNC rally? This would’ve dovetailed with PNC Chairman Volda Lawrence, who’d unabashedly announced that all her friends were PNC and they’d be the ones she’d hire! He’d assured his Linden audience they were principled folks, unlike “Charrandas (the “Judas”)…

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…pipe dreams? Your Eyewitness was intrigued to read that the Private Investor who’d promised in Feb 2018 that he’d have a modular refinery ready “within a year” – meaning by Feb 2019 is still at it. He’d worried that only the PNC was working on “Guyana time”! To us mudlandrs, meeting deadlines – even constitutional or self-imposed ones – are such a bore. Spontaneity is our thing, man!! Go with the flow!! Back in 2018, the highly-hyped plan by the (former?) rice marketing magnate was to put up a 10,000bpd…

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…to divide Guyana! In what will certainly be the longest political campaign in Guyana’s history, David Granger led his PNC into one of its traditional strongholds – Linden – in their opening sortie. Not the so-called “five party coalition”, APNU…not the APNU/AFC coalition, but the PNC!! Of course, we know Granger and company have been campaigning even as they fought their rear guard, Court battle against the NCM! Surely, dear readers, you didn’t think all those ministerial “outreaches” were belated mea culpas for ignoring areas outside their air-conditioned offices since…

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…from oil Your Eyewitness has been thinking about why exactly all those countries that found oil and had oodles of money pouring into their treasuries yet contracted the dreaded “Dutch Disease”. Did the money itself have a virus with it or something, or was it one of those non-communicable diseases we’ve been hearing so much about? For Guyana, your Eyewitness believes the cause is that virus called “greed”! And going by what’s been going down ever since oil was struck in 2015, we’ve already contracted the disease bad! And why…

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…the way to rigging With cricket in the air (how about them Warriors!!), it might be useful to use a cricketing analogy to describe what’s been going on politically in our dear, old mud land. Basically, since the game’s gonna be played on the PNC’s home turf, they’ve been preparing a pitch that would deliver them the game. Which, we’re now being told, will be played five months hence, March 2, 2020. Now don’t think for a moment that the preparations started after that NCM. Nah…it begun when the Cabinet…

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…for elections?? In the long-running cartoon, “Peanuts”, one of the staple memes was Lucy inviting Charlie Brown to kick a football she’s holding on the ground. But as soon as he’s about to, she cruelly pulls the ball away and he lands on his behind. And no matter how many times she goes back on her word, Charlie chooses to engage in the same behaviour once Lucy promises she won’t renege on her word. He, of course, pays the same price, over and over. The point of it all is…

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…on power In case anyone had any doubts about the veracity of David Granger’s claim to the PNC-faithful in Atlanta that he’d been “always PNC”, they should’ve been dissipated by now like morning mist in this equinox sun we’re sweltering under! Behind that vacuous, simpering expression he cultivates, the man does not deviate from the PNC playbook, compiled by Forbes Burnham – and passed on directly to him when he was just a junior officer in the GDF. Imagine Burnham entrusting a junior officer with his indoctrination programme for the…

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