From the Diaspora… WOULD IT BE A HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR GUYANA

Dec 30, 2012 News

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By Ralph Seeram

Old Year’s Night is probably one of the most stressful times for ladies. They have to find that special gown for the Old Year’s Night party. They want to make sure it’s a unique gown; it would be fatal if she discovers other women wearing the same gown at the party.
Whether it’s Guyana or here in the U.S, it is the same with women. Men are not too far behind, I recall a friend of mine who thought he had the only shirt of its kind at the party only to discover the porter bringing the ice and “drinks” for the party wearing the same shirt. He immediately went home and changed.
Men generally don’t have much of a choice or problem “dressing” for Old Year’s night party; it is your basic suit, shirt and pants, being a little choosy with the shirt and tie. For women it is an entirely different matter, first they discreetly find out from their friends what they are wearing, color, style etc. before deciding what to wear.
Here in Orlando I know of a close relative who goes and buy three dresses (I may add very expensive ones) for that special night. Two as a standby in the event she discovers someone has a similar dress or color. She would wear one to the party and the following day she would promptly return all three gowns tags and all for a refund. Most stores here have a generous return policy. I doubt whether she could get away with that in Guyana.
So at the stroke of midnight we hug, kiss and wish each other Happy New Year, it is one of those few moments when all cell phone circuits get busy here. For me this would be a happy occasion for a different reason. I will be spending the night at home celebrating with my grand kids, the youngest only three months old; I have resigned to the fact that Old Year’s party is a thing of the past for me. I will have to leave that to the younger folks.
Tomorrow all the politicians issue their usual New Year’s messages and no doubt will imply how they want the best for Guyana in the coming year. In actuality most of those speeches are insincere; the past year has shown that it was more about the politicians than Guyana.
The AFC has lost direction, the New Year will see it having serious internal differences, with everyone scrambling to get to the top.
APNU for its part, along with the AFC, spent the first half of the year finding its way around Parliament with its new found power, then spending the next half trying to remove a Minister of the Government. In fact the only achievements one can recall for the opposition are unrests at Linden and Agricola and the useless effort to remove Clement Rohee. Can anyone think of anything else?
Perhaps the major disappointment was from President Donald Ramotar. Guyanese were looking forward to some major changes within the PPP Government.
As the months went by, there was hope that changes will come but the President held on to most of Jagdeo’s Ministers, the very people whom the Guyanese public perceive to be feathering their retirement fund with taxpayers’ money, or to put it more bluntly, the public was expecting Ramotar to get rid of the thieves.
The PPP knows who they are; every “rum shop drinker” knows who they are. I should be careful not to paint the entire ministerial Cabinet with a “broad brush”.  In the midst of all the accusation of corruption in the Government, no one has pointed an accusing finger at Prime Minister Sam Hinds. No one as far as I know has accused him of any corruption.
In fact, someone joked to me that he may be the poorest Minister in the government. Sam Hinds is a decent man; he needs to step away from the “crowd”.
So what I am I looking for in the New Year for Guyana? I have my wish list which will be wishful thinking. I want politicians to put aside their differences and put Guyana first; I want to see a reshuffling of the Cabinet, get rid of the thieves.
I would like to see the government more open in terms of how taxpayers’ money is spent. I get the impression that some in government think it’s their money.
I want to see an end to corruption in the Guyana Police force, especially among traffic police officers. The Commissioner of Police knows the harassment drivers face from officers soliciting bribes, yet nothing tangible has been done or appear to have been done. I want to see CANU and the police force bring the big drug lords to justice. How come you catch only the mules? I want all drivers in Guyana to take a rivers education course before renewing their licences; this will eliminate half the drivers and half the road deaths. My greatest fear when I come to Guyana is being killed in a road accident.
I want the Government to pay more attention to those at the lower end of the economic ladder; the prosperity the government talks about does not appear to have reached those at the bottom. I want the passport office taken away from the police; merge it with the public service that has branches throughout the country.
Passport, vehicle licences and birth certificates need to be decentralized. In this computer and internet age why Guyanese have to travel to Georgetown for these services, it is highly ridiculous.
I can go on with my wish list, but as I said before it is wishful thinking. No one listens. I hope President Ramotar is reading.
Happy New Year

Ralph Seeram can be reached at [email protected]

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