Choir boys?

Outrage

Lincoln Lewis is outraged that President Ramotar referred to the dears who blocked the road at Agricola as “thugs”. The fellows had only tossed burning tyres and logs on the highway, trapping thousands of hapless and helpless commuters and schoolchildren for five hours in their vehicles. They’d only kicked and pummelled policemen as they brandished cutlasses and clubs. They’d only robbed and assaulted numerous men, women, and children who were forced to trek back in darkness to the Stabroek Market Stelling – where their cohorts picked up from where they left off. How dare the president call these choir boys ‘thugs’??!! “The workers and families affected during the incident,” said Lewis, should appreciate their “intertwined relations” to the “aggrieved” of Agricola.
The ‘incident’ is also how we should refer to what went down at Agricola last Thursday night. Those sobbing women and children, some huddled on the floor of buses as rocks were hurled at them, should know they were involved in an ‘incident’. Aren’t we grateful for the semantics taught to this trade unionist? The boy scouts who hurled Molotov cocktails, bottles, and rocks at the police only “saw the road blockage as a means to bring attention to their grievances”, explained Lewis.
Waxing eloquent, Lewis declaimed poetically, “What affects one affects all.” Can’t the rest of us brutes understand the sensitivity of those cherubs of Agricola? Seems not. Lewis berated the president who, he pointed out, had crudely responded to Agricola innocents – just expressing their inner joy – with “buse out and taunts”. Lewis advised that “The society must no longer accept these behaviours since … (they) disrupt peaceful co-existence.” You got that right! By calling them “thugs”, the president had disrupted the “peaceful co- existence” being practised by the darlings of Agricola.
Lewis then used a World Health Organisation (yes WHO) definition of violence to condemn the president – who evidently ignores state violence. “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.” We thought the definition fitted to a “T”, the actions of the seraphs of Agricola. But what do we know? Lewis knows best. If the violence is from the choir boys of Agricola, it’s OK. It’s for our common good.
Seems that Guyana has other angels whose actions have been misunderstood and misrepresented. Moses Nagamootoo’s hackles has been raised by a story published by the Chronicle. Don’t know what “hackles” are? It’s the feathers on the neck of a ‘fowlcock’ that are raised to impress the hens. It’s also the hairs on the back of the neck of a dog. Take your pick. Anyhow, Nagamootoo is convinced that the story was “intended to damage my (Nagamootoo’s) character, profession, and standing in the Guyanese community”. We don’t know about you, but we thought when Nagamootoo yelled to his grandson “shut yuh-so-an-so mouth”! he’d just about destroyed whatever shred of character he still retained up to then.

Stabber backstabbing?
We wonder what Lewis would say about the Stabber News’ – usually a staunch ally – description of the Agricola “incident”? Noting that the police used ‘no excessive force’ and in fact was on the receiving end, Stabber said the actions of the “marauding gangs”, should be “condemned”, “excoriated”, and “deplored”. Gasp!!!