H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Half Year Report

Jul 09, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – There was what was both good and terrible in the first half of 2023.

The people closest to the PPP, which means brother Barry J, did extremely well.  The people who were beyond the PPP Government’s consideration didn’t fare so well; in fact, they did poorly in this rich country.  There was some malice on the PPP’s part, plus the expediency of politics, confluence of circumstances, and choices the headmen made.  Everything was lined up, and the PPP kicked away merrily, deliriously; and, when some got in its way, dealt with those deviants, distractors, and destabilizers affectionately.  What qualifies as affectionate for the PPP (doctors Ali, Jagdeo, Nandlall) is not the same as that of ordinary people.

The numbers were aligned: GDP, expert computations.  Sumptuous.  There was the national budget.  More sumptuousness.  Another record, another record for giving to PPP cronies, through infrastructure pipelines.  Private sector business was good, with geysers from the national [budget] slush fund.  It’s all legal and parliamentary, naturally.  Each school child got US$200; each pensioner US$20 more monthly; plus, light, water, and pump bills all got a subsidy.  For every dollar the small people got, the big fish in Guyana got a million.  Call it trickle down, spread the wealth, or reverse redistribution of national patrimony.  No arguments here.  The 1% people made out like banshees; the masses spoke about inequity.  Cost-of-living was/is killing; even cats fell before counting nine.  For the disappointed that expected a rain of dollars in the richest country, they got a reign of pain.  I wonder what it is like to live in Haiti, with no caring PPP Government, no oil.

The oil companies enjoyed more greenlights and protection rackets from the PPP, EPA; even the haloed Guyana judiciary did its part.  Well, partly anyway.  John Hess did his part also when he dismissed Guyanese anxieties and concerns as “noise.”  Nice polite fellow isn’t he.  See what I mean, the good has to be swallowed with the degrading.  Man, being among the richest people on earth, I should own people like John Hess, American multimillionaire, Guyana zillionaire and all.  His noble Guyanese friends should relay my sentiments.

Numbers aside, the last corner of the bottom gave way qualitatively.  Media elections, media assaults (not from me), media broadsides.  Regarding the latter, it was the brother’s version of Thanksgiving Day celebrations, as Dr. Jagdeo did his best imitation of Benito.  Women were shown the error of their ways: don’t leave the kitchen, no oil questions.  When Guyanese want a fair deal, a raw deal remains.  Is this registering brother B?  It is the old Russian in brother Barry resurfacing, an unreconstructed Stalinist.  Yet, I swear that the local maestro is more Yankee than me nowadays.  Since he is nearer to the ocean, I suspect the saltwater variety.  It is PPP style democracy: do things this way, or don’t do them at all.  No wonder Exxon’s master theatrician, Alistair Routledge is chortling.  What happened to Southern gallantry, and the classy way that belles are treated in Texas, Colonel?  The dignity of Guyanese womanhood is just as precious to us.  Definitely to me, boss.

In the matter of national institutions, it was a carnage.  They are all at mudflat levels: beached and bunched into the barrel of badly wounded.  I tender the police, the environmental police, the child police.  Only the media stormtroopers are having a field day chasing down perceived enemies, and Guyana’s local equivalent of Jews.  Recall what happened to them in Europe.  Justice, equity, truth, and fair play all collapsed.  History does recharge its batteries, like a centipede or lizard (new limbs); or the PPP corruption season infused by national budgets [new life].

The President was very much in the picture from Jan-Jun 2023.  By now, he should have accumulated more flying miles than any on taxpayer’s dime.  He does the job of two men, but the only pairs matching are Bud and Lou; or Laurel and Hardy.  The more I study President Ali, the more Columbus comes to mind.  Cristobal was lost when he started; became more lost when he arrived; and largely lost all recollection about where he was when he returned to Madrid, or Castille.  The beauty about all this is that in the President’s case, Guyanese pay the price.  The people cry for relief Excellency, do something material, please.  Careful sir, I don’t mean private sector people.  Think of the poor multitudes, commander.  They are poor, tired, and huddled in wretched agony; don’t let them bow below the Statue of Liberty.  Have a heart, Alistair R.  How about a square deal, and not this sucker’s deal, colonel?

Since all this is likely to lead nowhere, I need to try my prayers at the Holy See (Vatican), the sandy seas of Mecca, and the sea of the Ganges.  Meanwhile, in the richest country globally, Guyanese cry a river.  They don’t cry for Argentina; they cry for Guyana.  It has been that kind of dark, dismal, draining half year.  Time for the statisticians to bend their numbers, take it from here.  Percentages punish.

Finally, when a head-of-state lacks dignity, is devoid of the fiber, to act timely, authoritatively, involving comrades making ugly headlines, then we have nothing, are nothing.  People must come before the party, citizens ahead of comrades, especially children.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• expediency, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Half Year Report, PPP

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