…of the Bounty Hunters
Sam Spade is the iconic fictional, had-boiled detective launched in the 1930’s book The Maltese Falcon and played by Humphrey Bogart in the movie by the same name. Sam Sittlington is the retired Irish Cop who’s been brought to Guyana to tutor SOCU in enforcing the Anti-Money laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CTF) legislation. We’ll call him “Sam Sit” in the tradition of private dicks having short, snappy names!
There’s historical precedence for this appointment, of course, arising from the days when we were a colony of England and slavery had just ended. What to do in case those newly freed poor souls – who’d been enslaved for centuries – decided to take matters into their own hands and seek retributive justice? Simple…set up a Police Force like the armed one they’d formed in Ireland to keep down those benighted Irish – who’d wanted to get back at the British just as bad as the freed slaves! None of that baton-twirling Cops like the English Metropolitan Police! In Ireland, it was “punish them by any means necessary, mate!!”
From then on, the Irish Police provided most of the officers to instruct the newly-formed colonial Police on how to keep down the natives. With 28 years being an Irish Cop, Sam Sit knows more than a thing or two about frontier justice. In Guyana, while his remit’s supposed to be AML/CTF related, his biggest case – which the Government insisted he dig up – was the Pradoville 2 charges of Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and some other Executives of the PPP!
After two previous stints in 2016 and 2017, he’s been brought back again since his promised convictions on Pradoville 2 haven’t materialised. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it??! No one, for instance, has even SUGGESTED that Jagdeo et al, has been involved in either money laundering or financing terrorism. At the very best, it might be “unjust enrichment” – but that’s a horse of a different colour. And that’s precisely why the three sets of legal whizzes who’re supposed to prosecute can’t come to an agreement to move ahead.
Quizzed about the case falling apart, Sam Sit insists he has a track record that “speaks for itself” and that the evidence also “speaks for itself”. The “speaking for itself” phrase, of course, alludes to the legal term “res ipsa loquitor” – the “thing speaks for itself”. It’s clear that Sam Sit – with a PhD and all! – isn’t your run-of-the-mill private dick!!
However, if his record and evidence have been “speaking”, why haven’t the SOCU fellas he trained heard anything?
Even Sam Sit can’t make silk purses out of sows’ ears!!
…in agriculture
Everyone in Guyana owes Agriculture Minister Noel Holder an apology. We’ve been beating up on the poor fella for over a year – first for abruptly firing 1700 sugar workers at Wales last Christmas, and then, for consistency and improvement; another 4000 this Christmas. According to Noel, actually he was a good guy – a hero, even – who SAVED 5000 jobs at GuySuCo!!
What happened?? According to the unsung hero, some 9000 persons should’ve been fired but like the boy who stuck his finger in the hole in the dike, he and the Government “assimilated” 5000 workers into the public service”!! Your Eyewitness isn’t going to nit-pick on the disparency in numbers – he’ll keep focused on the BIG picture. Did he miss the forest for the trees in that picture? He (humbly) wonders if the goodly Minister could advise where exactly those 5000 persons were “assimilated”.
The 100 workers trained in cake making and sewing that he knows about, haven’t been hired, have they?
…in whistle blowing
Town Clerk Royston King just warned the City Constable who blew the whistle on his Corporal who forced a youth to perform a sexual act.
Says he “defamed” the Mayor and Town Clerk. Did the Constable say these two were also involved?
