Robert’s a no show at UK agri fair
Grow more! grow more! grow more! grow more! grow more! grow more! grow
more! grow more! grow more! grow more (power) grow
power! grow grow! more more! grow more
power! more! more! more…power! more
power! more power! more power!power!
power! power! power!
Yes! Good evening! Farmers, Housewives! Comrades and anyone else so bored at home that they would choose to go to an event about fruits and vegetables….Here we are at the Grow More (Power) festival, where the goodly minister Robert Persaud is busy exhorting the crowd to put 100% effort into bilange output for the sake of the nation, not only for domestic consumption but also for valuable exports… “to make Guyana a leading agriculture food producer and exporter.”
Everyone must be involved…One People! One Nation, Many, Many Vegetables. (you see how the slogans are interchangeable?)
(Even indigent pensioners at the Palms are being told to grow vegetables.. a Chronic letter writer, describing them as “inmates” suggested they could plant window boxes. Old age must not be an excuse. You can grow more even if you’re personally shrinking.
And this was how hack Shirley Thomas describes the Grow More (Power) Festival in the Chronic: “the newly installed flood lights, richly illuminating the scene, exerted a kind of magnetic pull on persons in the area, assuring a steady flow of patrons into the fair ground.” Please pass the puke bag.
Now let’s rewind to three weeks ago (July 4); Place: Coventry England and one of the largest agricultural fairs in Europe. In a large tent a high ranking UK delegation awaits the arrival of the Guyanese Minister of Agriculture…one hour passes, then two hours…among those waiting, HRH Prince of Wales… they wait and wait and guess what, Robert is a huge, huge no show!
Everything – the first class airfares, the accommodations – was paid for by the British government. Robert made it to New York and was to connect to the flight to London when he did a runner. He never got on the plane.
What on earth could have kept him in the Big Apple rather than going to represent his country and make contacts that could possibly lead to valuable exports? Well we don’t know but we sure would like the minister to tell the people whom he exhorts every day to grow more. And do those few days and nights in New York count as paid leave? And will he reimburse the British for the return flight to New York?
Meanwhile all was not lost. Shadow Agri Minister Tony Vieira filled in and was said to have been both knowledgeable and charming…yes charming. Why he did not come back home and make a big stink about Robert being AWOL is also a mystery.
Olympian travesty
Is it just us but surely the “Coca cola Olympic Caravan” is an oxymoron? Exactly what is healthy, athletic about drinking a corn syrup based drink that packs 10 teaspoons of sugar into a 500ml bottle? This is nothing but a shabby marketing arrangement for Coca Cola as part of their Olympic package that cheapens the honorable history of the games, hijacked already by a totalitarian government widely accused of human rights abuses, its repression of religious expressions and its annexing of Tibet.
That is why we are shocked that Raphael Trotman would openly accept a gift of an all expenses trip to China.
The New US Ambassador
On July 24 John Jones was confirmed as the new US Ambassador to Guyana and will be here in mid-August….yawn….hold… hold…. whoaaaa! An American called J Jones is coming to Guyana? You’ve got to be frickin’ kidding us? How do we know he is not the love child of the old Jim Jones come back to wreak vengeance on this country? Haven’t the Joneses done enough damage to the image of this country already?
Next thing, Jones Junior will be moving the embassy to Port Kaituma and bringing in containers of Kool Aid.
What is Carolyn Rodrigues doing about this? Guyana must send an official protest. There must not be another tragedy like 1978…ever, ever again! After all Guyana is grown up enough now to arrange its own massacres.
Prognosis on next PPP Candidate
“If it’s Ramotar, everyone head for the exits, if it’s Rohee no one will be allowed to leave.”