What’s going on with this $100,000 cash grant?

Dec 02, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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…Hard Truths 

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- Take public servants and pensioners, by my count 100,000 cash grant eligible Guyanese, give or take.  Since they are already in the system, a captive subset of the qualifying population, why do they still have to register?  About 76,000 pensioners are readying for the ordeal of collecting their 2025 pension books, now they must submit to another grueling process that drains stamina and soul.  Consider the wait and woes at registration sites.

Perhaps, the government will have an army of registration agents, and many, many of such sites.  There is the element of time, and note is made of the week allocated.  It is helpful, but I ask myself if that is enough, considering the numbers of cash grant eligible citizens.  Will the PPP Government, as a special courtesy to senior citizens segregate them from the crush of about 300,000 Guyanese in a mad rush to get in the line and sign on the dotted line?  If they are lumped in with other qualifying Guyanese, it doesn’t require much to imagine their distress.

Opposition Leader, Mr. Aubrey Norton, said that the government is in a mad scramble.  The PPP Government is mad.  End of story.  Excellency Ali, who loves the quick dash, the big splash, delivered one involving a bucket of cash. Where is it, Mr. Ali?  It has not been “immediately”, as promised Dr. Excellency.  Dr. Ashni Singh, the man with the cash register, waxed smartly about a simple and easy registration process.

How so, Dr. Singh, with about 300,000 eligible people congregating at the sites and then having to return to uplift their check (American spelling).  Perhaps, Dr. Singh helicopters from home to work. I suggest that he should try to get a read on how Guyanese use their multibillion-dollar roads.  If there is that level of mayhem to get to a stoplight [and through it], then only the worst is to be expected when a hundred large is involved.  Discipline, courtesy, and order are all under the severest stresses, with no money in the mix.  Throw in a hundred big bills and men become mobs.

For some reason, the mind flashes to the Romans. What did those sharpies do when they wanted to mesmerise the jaded and angry populace?   They gave them a circus, with free bread attached to stuff their mouths and clog their minds.  And, to put a crown on the festivities, the sickly Roman emperors, who made themselves into Gods, gave them some gladiators to kill one another, and a bundle of Christians to feed the lions or the bonfires.  For the Romans that was respite and entertainment.  The PPP Government’s equivalent is because we care, we share.  Thanks for the circus, Dr. Ali, Jagdeo, and Dr. Singh.

Dr. Jagdeo was the first out of the blocks to inform the nation about an App.  What happened to that, Mistah Jagdeo?  Did Mr. Maduro wreak havoc with that Ministry of Finance gimmick?  It was that all along, wasn’t it, especially now that the owner of that app, Dr. AK Singh, is busy pontificating in public about a paper process.  Who is the real doctor in that trio of heroes and superstars?  Dr. Singh got a shade on the testy side when peppered with questions about the $100k.  I would be too, if my own vice president ran out and told the Guyanese people about some blasted app that is now undeliverable, for all intents and purposes.  Was it ever feasible?  Did it really exist?

Incidentally, there was some picture of General Mark Phillips registering for the cash grant.  Why is that so, why is he lining up to collect, as much as he is eligible, is due?  The PPP Government has taken care of its prime ministers (Jagdeo is three in one), ministers, and so on in the money and allowances departments.  Is it every damn cent that becomes available that has to be grabbed by the PPP big dogs?  I assure mon general Phillips that this is not personal, no offense intended.  It is simply sociological, environmental, and general (no pun meant), which all Guyanese are free to interpret as they please.

It was the same Big Boss Bhar-rat who jumped in front and hollered that overseas Guyanese could collect the cash.  He and his sickly, dutty PPP Government cannot even deal with the Guyanese who are here, who are hoping, who are hurting, and he races forward to bring overseas Guyanese into the freeness.  Guyanese resident here are living on the borders of starvation, but Jagdeo’s only vision, only ambition, is about elections. Guyanese losing their grip on a decent living, and Daktah Jagdeo lusting after power.

It is how the cash is tainted.  It is how one cash grant sleight of hand after another has visited expectant Guyanese.  I remind all Guyanese of those other Guyanese who used to storm airline offices for some mixed-up plane ticket.  With money in the mix all bets are off.  Many times, money drives sober men mad.  Look at what it has done to PPP politicians.  Going forward, I am calling this the cash grant slant.  Or the PPP Government’s cash grant trash talk.

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

(What’s going on with this $100,000 cash grant?)

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• $100, 000 cash grant, Guyanese, hard truths, registration agents

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