Marching in shade

Satiricus was pleased that the revolutionary spirit hadn’t disappeared completely from the campuses. He’d seen the articles in the spit press and settled down to find out what was going on. There were so many injustices in the world, he thought. He wondered which one of these outrages the youthful idealists, fired by their solidarity with the oppressed, were protesting.

Could it be the Big Brother (more like “Huge Father”) spying the National Security Agency (NSA) was conducting with Google and the other social networks? Was it the cynical power play in the Middle East? Was it saving the poor trees from being chopped down in the forests? Satiricus smiled in anticipation as he remembered his own protests back in the day against the Vietnam War. Those were the days it was good to be a student. There were weeks he didn’t see the inside of a classroom.

But as Satiricus looked at the pictures in the papers, he recoiled. “These couldn’t be students,” he thought in horror. “Did they have to repeat their classes for several decades? They were certainly going to be the oldest graduating class in the history of higher education! These people were old!!!!” Then Satiricus glanced at the headline – which he should’ve done in the first place, he thought ruefully.

It was the University of Guyana (UG) staff picketing, the headlines announced.

But by then Satiricus had recognised the Kiss Soon fella from the MuckrakerKN who he knew had been fired since last year. The Muckraker explicitly captioned the picture with their columnist: “Workers with placards…” What the heck was going on? Was the staff picketing to get the fellow hired again? Was the MuckrakerKN telling him to find another job? No. The article explained the staff were protesting late payments of their salaries.

Nothing to do with the government, since the UG administration had made a decision to hold up payments because of the extraordinary amount of “special and extra” payments which couldn’t be budgeted for. UG only had money – Gy$ 60,000,000 per month – for the regular salaries. With that kind of money being shared out, Satiricus understood why the unemployed former lecturer wanted his job back.

Anyhow Satiricus was sympathetic. The salaries were supposed to be paid out last Thursday and the UG administration didn’t get around to doling out the cash until the next day – Friday. Gasp!!! Didn’t UG know you need money ahead of the weekend so you could buy clothes and so on for the month-end “sport”?? This was a noble protest. Even though these were all old people, Satiricus was pleased they hadn’t lost their idealism.

But for sure, Satiricus figured, they had gained wisdom. In each of the pictures, the protestors were in the shade. Let the youngsters march in the sun for genocide and such other abuses.