…the nation
In case anyone out there has forgotten, the reason why we have a Government and a state and all that is for the protection of “we, the people”! Way back in Cave Man days, it was every man for himself – but the Devil invariably took the hindmost!! Might was right! Life, one bright fella concluded, was “nasty, brutish and short”! So, we gradually accepted chiefs, kings, and eventually the state, with things like armies and Police to protect us – from ourselves and them “furriners”. We eventually elected governments to run the state, and expanded the list of things-to-do for us, since we were giving them all these powers. Not to mention huge salaries and fancy rides and such like!
But protection always remained on top of the list. After all, of what use is health or wealth if folks on motorbikes or wearing masks could just ride up to you, knock you silly, and rob you blind? And this brings us to Guyana, where we’ve never really moved out of that “state of nature” and its law of the jungle. Rather than using the institutions of the Police and army to protect us, Burnham enlarged them massively and deployed them to suppress us. Didn’t you read the CoI on the Rodney Assassination that’s finally released? Not surprisingly, some of those force members free-lanced as “kick-down-the-door” bandits. Hoyte had to innovate and form a “Special Target Unit” – as a specialised squad to deal with the new type of crime.
Now, when democracy was restored, was anyone naive enough to believe those institutions – especially the Police, that’s the face of the state amongst the people – had changed?? A tree is shaped when it’s young, and Burnham had done a whole lot of shaping after the already authoritarian colonial Police fell into his lap. So, the PPP had its work cut out for it as far as fighting crime and assuring we live in peace. The PNC’s “mo’ fyaah; slow fyaah” strategy morphed into open warfare, not only on assumed supporters of the PPP – but the Police Force, specifically the Special Target Unit! We were experiencing in no uncertain terms that the premises of why we had a state in the first place were being challenged frontally.
Additional means to deal with that open warfare and our protection ran the gamut from a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to (unfortunately) extra-legal muscle. Well, this time around, the PPP isn’t going to be caught flat-footed again by the PNC. President Ali recently confirmed the formation of a “Regional Joint Support Team” (RJST) for “regionalizing crime fighting”.
Decentralisation is always good for hydra-headed crime!
…their (PNC) a55es
James Bond – of Peters Hall land giveaway fame, and Volda Lawrence’s handbag carrier – in a letter to the press, dumped all the blame for the coalition’s crimes and misdemeanors before and after the March 2 elections on David Granger. One of his arguments is that the buck stops with the leader – and Granger made sure everyone knew who was leader. Being an army man, he did this by his rank – or, in his case, “ranks”. He was, Bond points out, “President and Commander in Chief; Leader of APNU/AFC; Chairman of APNU; Leader of the PNCR and Campaign Director of APNU/AFC”, not to mention for the elections, “leader of the list”!! Where else could the buck stop?
But Bond would know – as a lawyer – that, even in the army, soldiers don’t have to obey illegal orders. But all and sundry – with a few notable exceptions, like his own son-in-law – snapped to attention when the orders came down from on high!
All were involved…and all will be consumed!
…medical standards
Some folks were taken aback that unvaccinated medical professionals were specifically mentioned among the COVID-19 fatalities.
But if they have doubts about the scientific method undergirding their profession, can we trust their professionalism?
