Republican anniversary

Felicitations

PM Sam Hinds, standing in for the president who was in Chile, felicitated India’s accomplishment on the anniversary of that country achieving republican status on January 26, 1950. In case you’re confused about the Indian goings – the one that occurs annually on August 15, that’s India’s “Independence Day”. This was their “Republic Day”.
We’re going to have our “Republic Day” on February 23. Remember? Okay… that’s the day we call, “Mash Day”– but it’s actually the day we became a “republic”. We know most people in Guyana see it as a day to ‘sport up’ and get drunk. And if you’re in Georgetown, either join in the ‘wine down’ or look on in amazement.
But for most countries, it’s a day when countries can show that they have what it takes to be a full-fledged member of the “state system”. For former colonies like India, Ghana (and presumably Guyana) we can show we’re completely free from Britain with our own Constitution and head of state and all that.
Over in India, they traditionally hold massive military parades all over the country. The largest one is in New Delhi, their capital. This year they showed off their Agni-V (Fire) missile, which has a range of 3100 miles. They’d hailed their test of the missile in April last year as a significant step forward in becoming a regional and world power. They also have their president address the nation. This year, President Pranab Mukherjee’s speech sounded a sombre note about the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old medical student last December in Delhi.
“There is a law of the land. But there is also a higher law. The sanctity of a woman is a directive principle of that larger edifice called Indian civilisation. The Vedas say that there is more than one kind of mother: birth mother, a guru’s wife, a king’s wife, a priest’s wife, she who nurses us, and our motherland. Mother is our protection from evil and oppression, our symbol of life and prosperity. When we brutalise a woman, we wound the soul of our civilisation.”
Ghana, which also influenced us greatly during our struggle for independence, became a republic on July 1, 1960. India 1950; Ghana 1960; Guyana 1970. Has a symmetry to it, no?  In Ghana, the celebrations are rather low-keyed, since many Ghanaians believe that their first leader Nkrumah made ‘republicanism’ into a rather dubious proposition. Sounds familiar?
And we will continue with our Mash.

Chinese arrival
Very positively, we observed the 160th anniversary of the arrival of Chinese to Guyana. In light of some rather gratuitous attempts to stir up resentments against Chinese people, it is salutary to remind those miscreants that the Chinese played a seminal role in establishing this country.
When they were brought to labour on the sugar plantations, out of all the other indentured labourers (Indians, Portuguese) – they had the lowest ratio of women. As a consequence, they intermarried very extensively with the newly-freed slaves. Today a large percentage of so-called ‘African Guyanese’ have Chinese genes. We recently learnt that Speaker Raphael Trotman traced his Chinese ancestry.
The Chinese were among some of our earliest entrepreneurs – and no one can claim they received preferential treatment. Early on, they established township up the Demerara River where they manufactured charcoal – which was widely used for cooking in Georgetown. Others gravitated into shopkeeping and eventually all the professions.
This new wave of Chinese immigrants, of course, is from a newly resurgent (economically and politically) country that is brimming with self-confidence. Let us cop their thriftiness and work ethic so that our republic’s flag could also fly high.

Cricket farce
What’s this nonsense going on in this country with the Guyana Cricket Board? How can we let them thumb their noses at the laws of this country? Bring them to heel…or anarchy will reign in local cricket.