Dear Editor,
Take a hard-earned bow SN, that piercing and poignant cost of living series did its part; had some role. While in this era of good feeling, I give myself a pat on the back for beating the pain and suffering drums for Guyanese. Persistence through adversity does have its rewards, no matter how long the wait. Just plant the seed and leave the rest to God. Or the soil. For there is one of my favourite people, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali greeting 2025 in fine style, one big cash splash. So as not to distort or dilute what the big boss put before transfixed Guyanese, it would be not one big cash splash, but something beyond that paltry limit. Two, three, even four cash grants in 2025, anybody? Four is taking things too far, getting carried away, I think. Hail Ali! For he is a jolly good fellow….
Pardon me for coming up with my own big splash. Of ice-cold water. Looking at Excellency Ali, I don’t see Rip Van Winkle. The latter slept for 20 years, so what was President Ali doing during the last four? Beating up the PNC and other Guyanese that crossed his path. His people tried that with me but found out that I am like a black cat. One meow and they run to Big Momma, Vice President Jagdeo. He was the one raging and running amok when poor people (like me) spoke about the plight of poor people. Both he and the president were proud to inform Guyanese of how much they did for them. A thousand here, five thousand there, and a few thousand more elsewhere. When SN and others said that in a country with the fabulous GDP that Guyana boasts have so many continuously hungry and emptyhanded people, then something must be terribly wrong. More to the point, drastic remedies are desperately needed. Unsurprisingly, that met with bristling, blustering, and the usual statistical bluffing. Now, there is the man of the people, Excellency Ali, riding into town out of nowhere, like Sharukh Khan or Alan Ladd (Shane), with bags and bags of dough. Excellency Ali has gone from Santa Claus to Duke Doughboy in a few short sentences.
It is cash grant jamboree year 2025. Cash grants galore is on the way. Since kings and presidents like to be buttered up, I am looking around for a trowel to lay it on thickly. Of course, that has its own people. Guyanese were dying on their feet before, crying out for any kind of relief that they can get, and both the president and vice president coldly and boldly informed them: ‘look at all dah wee duh fuh yu’all.’ The two grown men of Guyana didn’t want to hear about poor people pain before, but now they are all about what they’re going to do this year, without a word in that direction. Talk about spin, and a banana peel would go green with envy. Must be one of those notoriously skilled flaks in the upper layers of the PPP Government. Because President Mohamed I. Ali was sounding like President John F. Kennedy in reverse. Forget about you can do for Guyana. Guyana is here to do it for you. My apologies to Ali and Barry Jagdeo: not Guyana, but the PPP is here for you.
All the anxieties and all the tears of the last four years are dashed on the rocks by a wash of cash. Envelopes are not big enough for the rolls of cash, nor is a bag, nor a boat. There has to be an Electronic ID Card system to process the cash. Am I hallucinating? Was the last four years a product of the imagination of critics (conscientious objectors, thank you) and parasites like SN and myself? I make a simple point: if the PPP Government was so evenhanded and generous with oil cash over the last four years, then there would be no need for even one cash grant this year. Because the government did negligibly for poor Guyanese, now they run forward with vats of cash to make the people forget. Vote PPP! Don’t forget: Vote for the Cup. The cash came from there. Considering President Ali’s New Year’s cash grant bonanza announcement, all Guyanese could be doing this year, or looking forward to, is to collect cash grant money. I could think of worst things to do.
All of this just goes to show one thing. Those who are always about truth, justice and the fair way. And those who were not, i.e., lies, fake stats, propaganda. Take a deep curtsy, SN.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall