Cash grant-he last stop

Dec 18, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- I can only call things as I see them.  Some of what is presented is based on people I trust, proven ‘reliable sources’ for me.  People who vote but are not so rankly partisan that they blindfold themselves; citizens not into fake news or propaganda.  Just plain truths, as gleaned from their own experience.  The cash grant initiative is one such instance.

I went to the Brickdam Cathedral registration site on Tuesday at 10:30hrs.  Done at 11:00, with 10 citizens ahead of me.  In and out in 30 minutes.  Smooth as a new tire and Christmas lite bright.  What is left for me to say?  That two agents arrived at 10:45hrs?  Didn’t matter.  So, how does this experience reconcile with what has happened in Region 9 and other places?  With what one letter writer asserted hinting at racial bias?  There may be a hundred, or a thousand, of such negative encounters that speak ill of the PPP Government’s and its leaders’ slippery grasp on competence and efficiency.  I can refer to those laments, but proceed carefully with them, despite their likely truths, solidness.  Not with the string of experiences reported by trusted people that prompted last week’s letter in SN.  Not with the longer string of positive reports relayed afterwards about the swift-as-a-rabbit registration experience.  Their own, not secondhand.

Note that all the positive reports about the registration process received were from Georgetown.  After the initial buildup and usual madness, the registration machinery settled into a steady monotony.  Next in line, step up in time!  Music to any citizen’s ear, especially the one at the back.  Nonetheless, the registration system did have big holes.  Contradictory pieces of information flowing from the two headmen.  One said one thing (now), the other said the opposite (just now).  Enter Dr. Ashni Singh.  The process will be easy and swift.  Goal!!!  Still, some points must be registered.

The registration process smells.  Nothing aromatic, mainly the corrosive.  This curious business about one photo, two photo, three photos is odd.  Strikes in the craw.  Then, the big doctor (the real one) had his funny moment: no photo, no dinero.  Say no, and its tallyho and cheerio.  What the hell is this?  North Korea?  The other big doctor (the artificial one) had once before reassured Guyanese -this is not North Korea.  Wherever he got that idea from, a mass of Guyanese know that is, because they live in it.

To compel citizens to take three photos seems rather claustrophobic.  Must be related to climate change; the sun must be at the right angle for front and back, and the standup and face forward.  For those objecting to claustrophobic, try communistic.  If problems persist, try crooked.  Something is rotten in Copenhagen and Camp Guyana.  Hear this one.  A person who helps me delightedly shared that registration agents came to her home.  Not only that, but they came after 7 p.m.  Must be her area.  It was neither Buxton nor Agricola; think geography not demography.

Separately, tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars for any purpose should never be a manual process.  Line up, turn around, step out.  A grounded citizen said why not make use of the GRA and NIS so that money get into Guyanese hands seamlessly.  I say, why not.  Noted commentator, Chris Ram, pointed to confusion, incompetence and inefficiency that dogged this cash grant season.  Other than for my bright spot of sunshine in the process, (in Georgetown), when has most things essayed by the PPP Government not been so?  Let us all be honest with ourselves just this once.  Put big money and the big ones in the government under a big tent, and the result is a big snakebite for little Guyanese.  Look at the yearly old age pension book distribution process, and the madness to which elderly folks have been subjected.  There seems to be a wide streak of cruelty in Guyanese governments and the people who run them.  There is secret joy at watching Guyanese form long lines, and then push one another out of the way to get ahead.  This is what these fine folks in PPP and PNC governments appear to think that efficient government is about, how they get their laffs.

This year, I noticed that more time has been given to the geriatric folks.  Glad that somebody at the ministry listened, which should give gramps and grams some relief.  Here is my motto: if it’s good say so.  There are too few moments to do so, with the kind local bigshots Guyanese continue to put in office to run the show.  And when it is bad, which is most of the damn time, then let loose on them with both barrels.  But wait a minute!  The real fun is just about to begin.  It is who gets a check and who has to check into the ICU.  Say thanks to the PPP Government and its ultrasmart men for what follows next.  Even a good thing, long delayed something, gets tangled up in either a maze or some madness.

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

(Cash grant-he last stop)

(Cash grant-he last stop)

(Cash grant-he last stop)

---

• cash grant initiative, initial buildup, registration machinery, solidness, thousand

---