…in the police ranks?
If the Commissioner of Police has his way, there might well be a revolution in our much maligned (and rightfully so!) Police Force! The man wants to stop the practice – which evidently been in place from god-knows-when – that GPF recruits must just have a “sound” Primary School education!! Well, this explains a lot! Your Eyewitness didn’t think that you had to get five CSEC with Maths and English to be accepted. Even UG can’t get that – and has resorted to all sorts of made-up entrance free passes. But just “sound primary school” for the Police?
First of all, what’s a “sound” Primary School Education? Is it a cut off mark from the NGSA? But if a student got a decent mark, one would’ve expected him/her to enter Secondary School! Guyanese always knew that Policemen weren’t the brightest bulbs in the room – any room!! But we can now understand why the old joke about policemen has survived for so long. You know…the Policeman nabs the miscreant in the act on Vlissengen St but hauls him over to Church to charge him since there was no way in Hell (or Earth!) he could spell “Vlissengen”!!
But seriously folks, this is a revelation we can’t allow to now just blow away in the wind. For the longest while there have been complaints about the low salaries in the GPF being a disincentive to recruit new cops. Well let’s now raise the salaries to those in the private sector – but require at least 3 subjects at CSEC with English Language. Then there’s no question there will be a whole new cohort lining up to take sign on the dotted line.
And this will be the Revolution. We’ll get Policemen (and women) who’ll actually be able to have a discussion with a civilian they nabbed in one suspected infraction or another – without resorting to profanities! Up to now, the poor cop probably just didn’t have the vocabulary to express himself and in frustration let’s off a few scatological exclamations! Did you ever think the reason traffic police drag you to the station for just crossing an unbroken yellow line might be that they just can’t fill out the traffic ticket violation?
Now, before you think this suggestion is unrealistic…let’s appreciate the PPP’s push for raising the educational level of all Guyanese. Those 20,000 scholarships graduates from their Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) will soon be looking for jobs…and why not the Police Force if the pay is competitive?? In New York you need at least 60 college credits to apply.
All in all, your Eyewitness is really excited by this development. He’s obviously had too many unfortunate interactions with (uneducated) Police!
…with Bajans
Well, how times have changed!! Bajans are actually being polite to Guyanese – which isn’t a curse word to them any longer. At least not in front of us!! And this just shows you that money makes the world go round! Forget all those fine sounding platitudes about us all passing through the same sugar plantations and slavery which made us into “one people”. Not so…as all of us who were subjected to the “Guyanese Bench” at Grantley Adams Airport know to our cost!
Anyhow, now that our oil’s starting to flow, it’s clear that the center of gravity of the new Caribbean wlll be Guyana and Surinam and we should collaborate. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong about this. For sure we’ll need all sorts of expertise to develop this new economy – and if they can be sourced from our CariCom neighbors – why not?
Trinidad and Barbados along with Guyana and Suriname can now form a SouthCarib Hub. There’s strength in numbers,no?
…in PNC
Something is not right with the PNC leadership race. After being such a live wire in Georgetown, will Volda Lawrence not even contest for the Chairmanship?
Her WCB role did blunt the “only PNC friends” exclamation for crossover votes
