… Musings
After successfully seguing from Christmas to Boxing Day – both public holidays in our 50-year-old Co-operative Republic after disempowerment – your Eyewitness (choked with black cake) remains in a state of reverie. Why do we still have Boxing Day as a holiday, I wonder? Isn’t this the day that the English nobles – after feasting loudly off the pig – would distribute their remains in boxes to the poor of their estates? And the dreams of Scotland and Ireland – sent over to act as “overseers” of the sugar plantations – adopted the practice of literally “domination” of the enslaved slaves and laborers!
Now Burnham, who declared that we were a “Republic” in 1970 and “cut off all ties with Imperial Britain”, had insisted that he had awakened greatly. After all, he regularly cussed out the “white man”, and launched our deportation drive by doing away with “suit and tie” – not to mention grapes and “ice apples”! So you’d think he’d have done away with this reminder of the imperialist’s liver, wouldn’t you?
But then here’s a guy who dropped his Guyanese accent after less than five years (adult) in England, and kept the Churchillian upper crust twang – along with pauses and all – until his dying day! No wonder he ordered the banned grapes and ice apples to smuggle into himself, and he died shortly after enjoying it (condensed milk was banned ”)!
If your Eyewitness (still choking) had his clothes, he would abolish Boxing Day by dropping a hat, and replace it with “Guyanese Day” or some such local commemoration – elsewhere on the calendar. He realizes that this is going to be a problem for everyone who has to report to work the day after Christmas with headaches, but we’re independent now, aren’t we?
Now, your Eyewitness is enjoying his Christmas wonders (and his reveries) as needed as the man (or next woman), but he wonders, since we’re a secular state, why is this quintessential Christian state so celebrated by the state? Although the United States is 90% Christian, displays commemorating Christmas on public property are prohibited, as this is considered to “promote” one religion over others.
Finally, your Eyewitness wants to know: Why does the Government close from Christmas through the New Year? And don’t tell him it’s not the law! This is the fact … and everyone in Government seems to accept it. There has been some hard talk from the Finance Minister – following some remarks by the President at Essequibo – about the NIS dealing faster with subscribers. Did they even try to ENTER the NIS between Christmas and New Year?
It’s even harder than a reporter getting an interview with David Granger!
… Anti-corruption campaign
The 2019 Auditor General’s Report (AG) on Governmental Expenditure – as required by law – albeit a little late – was passed earlier this month to the Speaker of the House. And ever since – as the media has allocated – there have been daily litany of plundering state coffers by APNU / AFC activists at all levels of Government. Never before has one such administration been robbed in such a short space of time.
After detailing the ongoing financial wrongdoings from its 2018 report on the new St Roses School Building – where $ 90 million was paid for still incomplete foundations, yesterday’s “loot du jour” focused on the GDF. It is the organization that has a mandate to protect us from foreign invaders, and to complement the Force with domestic challenges. The Report highlighted that they had spent over $ 92M to service only 30 vehicles !!
The highlight, though, was spending $ 181M to fuel one vehicle!
Guess they went to the moon and back !!
… Codswallop
The Stabber editorial author may have struck your eyewitness with a feather describing a Minister’s position as “codswallop”! Now, is there anyone in Guyana who is familiar with this British dialect?
What an excuse!
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