H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL - A crazy horse society

H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – A crazy horse society

Jan 16, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – Guyana is too rich for my system. The national lunatic fringe is now a complete Crazy Horse society. I’m honored to present the crazier ones.

GHK Lall

There is one presence whose productions are that of a grand showman: government business reduced to show business. A dithering dissembler I see, in plain English, a craftsman (conniver) in action. A real winner is this character. Along with others, these are graduates of the Cowardly College of Contract collaboration. One never comes straight out or can handle issues straight up: but comes from around some corner, has an angle that satisfies some twist inside: shifty phrases, slippery craftiness. Never incisive or precise, as if something subversive has to be shielded at all costs. Going round and round, without saying anything of depth, qualifies as better stewardship. In a word, a prevaricator. This is how precision is held hostage, and truth is blindfolded. With the record of hindsight there is zero confidence in foresight. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken this country, left it in the hands of such folks?

Another heroic figure of note is a bullheaded, lead footed plodder who has convinced himself that coating brass with silver adds something to the dismal and abysmal, which is considered profound expression. On any subject. The disposition is toward delirious exuberance, with an uncontrollable addiction to verbal pompousness and peacock-like extravagance. The standard is saying something no matter how intellectually dishonest, no matter how hollow, is better than saying nothing at all. In all of these gyrations, this rambunctious citizen always succeeds in conveying the impression that he is competing for the badman of the day award. There is so much bristling that brittleness has become a full body skin disease. There is scarring and peeling, but no caring.

Here are some other characters straight out of Madame Tussaud wax museum. Anyone ever heard of citizens giving comfort publicly to national enemies? I can understand covert, as in cloak-and-dagger ops, but not in channels open to and absorbed by everyone. Guyanese fueling up on filth to plant a knife in the back of peers. This is what came up recently, and it is foolishness, vacuousness, and madness seizing, controlling. Clearly, some cells fail to fire, with burlesque and grotesque resulting. Guyana is overloaded with oddballs, screwballs, goofballs, even sleazeballs. But how does one deal with a mince ball in this Crazy Horse country? Some are undergoing political menopause here. For a flock of other candidates visit the National Assembly, and scan both aisles. At work in slow motion is the mongrelizing of the national intellect. It is obvious that some parliamentary brethren got kicked in the head by a horse, which then fell on them. It is difficult to think, talk, and walk straight after such an experience.

Sizing up all this I come to this dark, dangerous place: Guyana is being run by too many small men, who are too big for their corsets, who are too long in power, and who are too deep in all that is wrong for the peoples of this country. I need a breather from these superstars, or a tall slug of cheap rum. The harder the kick the better. How do people live here all their lives without ending up in a ward gowned in a straitjacket is what I want to know.

Not to worry, Guyana is not unique in its stable of silly men and funny men. Jimmy Morales went to the top in Guatemala in 2015. Volodymyr Zelensky followed in Ukraine in 2019. And in Italy, Beppe Grillo’s political party won the biggest slice of the 2018 vote. Those three shared a common calling: they were all jokers. America’s Donald Trump was a former TV reality star. So also, was Boris Johnson, the former British Prime Minister who was a goofy TV personality on British channels. Art imitating life, or comedians taking over politics, and whole nations? The end time, according to the Bible, would be characterized by famine, pestilence, wars, and so forth. They forgot these national embarrassments, with Guyana having more than its fair share. No Guyanese with a working noggin on his shoulder would describe the current crop of local politicians as courtly. Crafty, yes; crabby, yes again; creepy, for sure, yes; and catty, oh yes, indeed. Some of these wonderful people perplex: weighing if they are coming off the bottle or the needle.

Casting a wider net, I recall a profound statement from Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, Primo Levi, who had this to say: “Monsters exist. But they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the functionaries…ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” Don’t worry about social media, there are enough lunatics in regular media. They impress as the howling werewolves of partisan deformity, the limits of their exposure to civilization crystal clear.

It was Nietzsche who said, “I love the great despisers for they are the great reverers, the arrows of longing for the other shore.” When St Lawrence was being roasted alive, his reaction was -turn me over on the other side. Time for another sabbatical. Like the Russians, I am also celebrating Christmas in January.

(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.)