Believe me my (more regular) friends, after today I’ll do my utmost to avoid this theme and issue for an extended period.
What issue? It’s one that I should be able to unravel with the numerous views, analyses and answers given so frequently by very educated minds. The issue? The intrigue of mine? It’s the usual: Why do our electoral tribes, our (alleged?) “racial voters” still vote to elect those who were obviously guilty of massive corruption in executive offices to enrich only themselves, to the exclusion of the needy voters who had catapulted them into those lucrative opportunities?
What a long question! And I have studied quite a few explanations, rationales. They range from ethnic security in numbers and power when your own “is in office and authority; to the dubious comfort of discriminatory opportunities for your own; just plain racial preference; fear of the others – APNU, PNC, GDF, Police, GRA et al; psychological influence; of both party/racial loyalty – and ethnic/economic triumphalism. So why do I still agonise over the fact that a large body of the poor still support anti-national evil? Poor me. A youthful materialistic generation admires any type of wealth as old-time values, virtues, morality have metamorphosed.
Maimoon sold fish
“Auntie Maimoon” sold fish caught by her nephew off the coast of Unity Village for decades. She was an off-and-on Hindu worshipper sometimes going way up to Cove-and-John/Belfield to fellowship.
She had mixed emotions about her East Coast village of Unity when a young son of that soil suddenly became the President of the Republic! Would young Bharrat assist the needy of his community? Especially since her nephew had died? Fish supply had dried up and life was suddenly tougher when Bharrat started to live at the huge State House in Georgetown.
Aunty Maimoon was old enough to know both the three world renowned cricketers and the cricket administrators who were also sons of her fishing village. But all that had no meaning for her suffering. Yet she “voted PPP/Cup/Jagdeo” at all times. At sixty-six she knew not how to contemplate anything else.
She heard and read of the opulence of the young millionaire President who hardly ever visited his home village. As she was wondering whether to vote or remain home just before the 2011 General Election, Auntie Maimoon died – very poor. But her bereaved villagers and few relatives still voted PPP/Cup.
Badree: PPP farmer
Badree, the mega-farm greens-farmer always declared himself “A born PPP”. I had cause to write about him just a few years ago when he reluctantly decided to stop voting altogether. Why did he become disillusioned with Mr Ramotar and his “Cup”?
Because a few miles from the location of his vast farmlands, the Hope Canal did not provide any significant drainage as floods buried his produce for the umpteenth time. As a frustrated Badree had commented publicly: “Me en able no mo. Mih vote fuh alyah all mih life. But again – me pumpkin duck, mih bora duck, mih boulanger duck; de whole farm duck! Ayuh na do nutten!”
Then, his two grown sons and high school daughter had become fans of the Kaieteur News, a ‘paper that daily highlighted real or perceived instances of high-level corruption and thefts. It even alleged that a key official of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and Hope Canal Project was suspected of giant wrong-doing for self-enrichment.
Accurate or not, that was the last straw for Badree and his PPP loyalty. A broken comrade, he declared: “If only wan fraction – a wuh dat ‘paper report accurate, a – still billions of po people money going to a few. Me done!” But he did not vote for any other contender.
******
Race relations USA…
I became familiar with the term “:minorities” when reading about American society and politics as a teenager decades ago.
American “minorities” then, meant the native Indians, African-Americans and some Spanish and Asian groupings. Caucasian Americans originally from England, Scotland, Ireland and Europe comprised the overwhelming majority demographic. Then!
Now – in 2016 – combined minorities will very soon transform “White Americans” into such a status. Still, when one reads of American race–relations one thinks of the “black-white” existence.
One of my few (working-class) luxuries is my American/British Cable TV Channels. I’m glued to the reports of American Election Campaign 2016 and, of course, last week’s murders and assassinations that whipped up outrage, protest, grief and sorrow. Police killed two “Blacks” and one “Black” killed five “White Cops”.
I shall not offer my views as any analytical narrative here. Instead I record ten points to provoke thought, even responses, from those interested (inclusive of “concerned re-migrants”). My “fans” and detractors.
Here goes: * Barack Obama, a “Black”/Mixed man, was elected candidate and President with votes from thousands of “Whites”. * More immigrants were deported by him than any other President recently.
Obama sought to have more illegals and refugees remain in the USA. * More “Whites are killed by American police than Black, though Afro-Americans have valid fears of Police aggression towards them for generations. * Frankly Speaking, more gun controls cannot prevent hate and evil in racist, terroristic hearts. (Bombs and knives will remain available).
*It was a hate crime by the assassin of the 5 police officers. * Before their murders by the sniper, the Dallas cops were genial whilst protecting the peaceful protesters. *Dallas Police Chief Brown had brought down very low, police/community face-offs. * He wants protesters to join the police, to become part of the solution. * Are President Obama and his DOJ/Criminal Justice System fair to all groups of Americans? Now, Discuss…
Just think…
*1) Acquire the abandoned Co-op Bank building by Stabroek and create a modern vendors arcade.
*2) Mr Ashton Chase will be 90 years old next week. Congrats to him. There is so much he does not reveal about the early PPP and his own role(s).
*3) Which recently-fired GRA top brass had a degree in Zoology?
’Til next week!
(allanafenty@yahoo.com)
