…on history
One letter writer to the Chronic – who’s also a weekly columnist – made an astounding claim. Now, in and of itself, this isn’t surprising since it would appear – with the coming of Trump as the leader of the “free world” – this is the age of excesses. Especially when it comes to fact claims. In fact, we’ve now added a new term to our vocabulary – “alternative facts”. Forget the old exhortation about giving “just the facts!”, today it’s a matter of saying whatever serves your purpose and call it “alternative facts”.
So, we come to just ONE of the alternative facts offered by this columnist Braithwaithe in his letter with a caption that was pretty much a letter in itself: “In the absence of anything innovative, the PPP offers lies.” To wit, that “in the pre-independence years…(The PPP) took us down into the shadows of a racial civil war for power, that has divided this country to date.” Wow!! And here it is, just last week. a columnist had reminded us of the now declassified files from the US and UK archives from that era. They leave no doubt about who were responsible for that “civil war”!
But we notice when anyone associated with the PNC refers to that tragic period, somehow they develop a severe case of amnesia about those files. Now dear reader, you don’t have to take the word of your Eyewitness about these files – just hit “Guyana declassified documents” in your Google search engine. There they’ll be – laid out in a tedious trail of memos, letters and records of meetings. And what are the revealed facts?
Firstly, the US wanted to oust Jagan and the PPP after their embarrassment with Castro, Cuba and Communism and after Jagan’s 1961 visit to Washington to beg JFK for aid, his goose was cooked. It’s all there in black and white…out of the mouth of Kennedy and his “best and brightest” advisers. The CIA was called in and worked with our Trade Union movement to burn down the town in 1962. The CIA-supported public service strike of 1963 was supposed to bring Jagan down to his knees but he rode out that storm.
That Cuba helped with oil shipments to keep the electricity supply going might’ve ended the strike, but it just fortified the US resolve to oust the PPP. That Jagan called the sugar belt strike in 1964 which resulted in widespread ethnic violence was the occasion for the war, not the cause! Like the Greek tragedies of yore, Jagan’s fate was sealed since 1961.
The US and Britain were the Gods that controlled us like puppets on a string!
…on oil contract
Civil Society activist Christopher Ram’s clearly a fella on a mission to salvage his credibility for tying bundle with this bunch of incompetent reprobates before the last elections. Good for him. Unlike some, he’s at least conceding he can make errors of judgement. Not like that other prolific letter writer GHK Lall, who’s now blaming the Guyanese people, rather than the Government, for our miseries.
“We have it too good!” the man says in a letter to the Stabber. One wonders why we elect governments and pay Ministers those multi-million-dollar-salaries – not to mention all the perks!! But if the truth be told, Lall’s the one who’s having it GOOD. He doesn’t say he’s now head of the Gold Board!!
Ram’s latest expose is something your humble Eyewitness had been asking for months now: How is it that Trotman could’ve had the royalty changed in the Exxon contract and not touch the rest of the objectionable clauses.
But he’s being kind…it’s not that Trotman didn’t know. He’s just playing stupid!!
…on meats
Maduro’s being mocked for distributing rabbits to be reared to provide protein for hungry Venezuelans. So what’s wrong with rabbit stew that Europe loves? China loves dog meat!!
There’s no accounting for taste, no?
