Poli-tricks

Free at last?

It’s an old truism that the only ways to get a politician’s attention is to either wave some money under his nose or suggest a way for him to get some more votes. Or both. The two attention-grabbers, of course, aren’t unrelated. The more votes the politicians get, the more money they command. In the U.S., lobbyists for assorted ‘interests’ – ranging from ‘big oil’ to ‘gun freaks’ – take care of the money waving.
The vote garnering has moved away somewhat from the days of the ‘political bosses’ who could deliver blocks of (mostly poor, white, ethnic) votes from the inner cities. The political bosses would be in charge of handouts to his constituency. Today, the elected congressmen get to feed at the public through directly by their power to deliver gravy to businesses in his district.
But every now and then the ordinary people can speak directly to the politician – at the polls.  This gets their attention when they are either thrown out or elected to office. And then, Americans get a taste of what Lincoln’s ‘government by the people’ might look like. Demographers had been warning for some time that whites were going to become a minority in the U.S. and that Latinos were the fastest growing group that would make a difference at the polls.
But as usual, the politicians remained mired in the present. Up to last November, that is. Faced with a substantial white desertion, Obama made a calculated move to woo Latino voters. Latinos have the largest number of ‘illegal immigrants’ – or ‘undocumented workers’ as they are euphemistically called. To grab the attention of Latinos, politicians had to get off the immigrant-bashing and endorse immigration reform.
This Obama did, unlike his Republican opponent Romney, who stayed firmly with his party line that ‘illegals’ were costing ‘real Americans’ jobs. The rest, as they say is history. Obama is back in the White House while Romney and the Republicans are out in the cold. Obama has now launched his plans to regularise the 11 million or so ‘illegals’ – including tons of Guyanese, as we all know. The Republicans are slavering to get on board!
The Latinos have finally shown that their votes can talk – and their interests have to be addressed when they vote as a bloc. Maybe Guyanese can advise their relatives in Queens to follow suit?

Not cricket
With cricket in Guyana and the West Indies, it’s a case of two steps forward; one step backwards. Or is it two steps forward; two steps backwards – ensuring that we’re getting nowhere? On the field, the Guyana T-20 cricket team did pretty good, as we said at the time, to get into the WI finals.
But the off-field administration continues to remain embroiled in controversy. On Friday, the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) meeting to elect office bearers was halted by an injunction obtained by former national player and coach, Roger Harper in line with the Ministry of Sport’s attempts to clean up the Augean Stables into which Guyana’s cricketing administration had fallen.
The courts, of course, have already determined that the GCB (and by extension, all the other cricket boards) are not ‘legal’ entities – and they need to get their houses in order. The WICB, firmly protecting their sinecures, are encouraging the renegade officers to continue with their illegalities rather than working with the government to clean up the mess.
The Ministry of Sport must stand firm and insist that the various factions appear before the Select Committee in Parliament. No one must place themselves above the law.

Wasting time
Your trusty Eyewitness had promised himself to lay off the opposition for a while. But how does he avoid their seeming death-wish to make themselves look ridiculous? Like trying to reduce former President Jagdeo’s pension benefits when the taking of ‘property’ (which the pension is) is unconstitutional?