. …in sugar
It’s clear that with a bunch of geriatrics – CY Thomas at the Board and Holder at the Ministry – running GuySuCo, they’re stuck in the past. Not surprising as they proceed blithely with shuttering the sugar industry – which President Granger had announced and then flip-flopped after Nagamootoo complained his 11% promised would be “dead meat” – their communication to the workers evokes 60’s balladeer Marvin Gaye’s classic – “heard it through the grapevine”! “People say believe half of what you see/Some and none of what you hear/But I can’t help but be confused/If it’s true please tell me dear/Do you plan to let me go?” Well, it’s clear GuySuCo plans to let ALL sugar workers go! First it was Wales. Workers heard about its closing through an article in this newspaper. Which the geriatric crowd stoutly denied – but then sheepishly admitted even though they tried to dazzle the poor workers with the BS they didn’t “plan to REALLY let them go”. Wales’ cane’s was gonna be processed at Uitvlugt!! And there’s also a tooth fairy! Now from the smallest factory, on to the largest – Skeldon. Do they really think Guyanese are fools? They’ve started out with the identical tactic they used at Wales – criticising the condition of the factory. Suddenly we hear the Skeldon Factory’s “falling apart”. And why’s it falling apart, pray tell? Because that dastardly Jagdeo and his PPP gave it to the Chinese to build – who supposedly didn’t know much about building sugar factories. But to confirm their charge, Skeldon guess which assessor they hired – Wartsilla!! You heard that right… a Polish power generation company with ABSOLUTELY no experience with sugar factories, judging the work of the criticised Chinese company that at least knows something about sugar factories!! Is there some kind of logic operating here? If there is, it certainly escapes this Eyewitness! The blind leading the blind? And then while there’s been no official announcement, we hear Skeldon’s about to be privatised. But as your Eyewitness already asked…why would you want to undermine a factory you want to sell? The answer to that question isn’t so difficult to answer, is it? Especially when you hear Tony Vieira, the government’s Advisor on GuySuCo, is behind the move. What it means, dear reader, is somebody’s gonna get a real steal on this deal…with the emphasis on the word “steal”. And it won’t be the workers. They’ll once again hear it on the grapevine: they’re been shafted!! And like Marvin, they’ll be losin’ their mind. …on crime When Clement Rohee was the Home Affairs Minister, nobody hounded him more than Khemraj Ramjattan – purportedly for not doing his job. But any moron could tell it was personal: Ramjattan always had that peculiar look in his eyes when he glared at Rohee across the aisles. It was Ramjattan who insisted that a motion of ‘no confidence’ be moved against Rohee by the Parliament they controlled with APNU. Well, the shoe’s on the other foot, isn’t it? Khemraj Ramjattan is now the “Minister of Public Security”. They changed the name of the Ministry from “Home Affairs” to emphasise the role Ramjattan had to perform – ENSURE PUBLIC SECURITY. So the question is – “How’s Ramjattan performing?” And we all know his performance is beyond piss poor. He’s so clueless the best he could do was announce his Columbus-like discovery – “the cause of crime is greed”. No sh*t! So why doesn’t the PPP move a motion of “no confidence” against him? Isn’t there ONE member of the government with the courage of her convictions? …and a sheepish story As if Guyana isn’t inundated with enough “serious” crimes, we had a case of sheep rustling in Berbice. Well, just like in the days of the old American Wild West, our lawmen don’t take kindly to rustlers. Even though the rustler “drew” first, the lawman nailed him like a plugged nickel!
