The British economist John Maynard Keynes – after whom a whole “school” of economic thought is named – once remarked, “Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”!! So imagine the situation of those IMPRACTICAL men who enthusiastically announce they’re followers of that economist who lies in Highgate cemetery!! When alive, he didn’t actually lie – but was so dogmatic about his mistakes that he convinced some, even more than a century since he was interred.
In Guyana, of course, Burnham and Jagan insisted they were followers of that bearded, pock-marked fella who developed carbuncles sitting in the Library rooms of the British Museum!! Burnham’s opponents, however, were convinced he was just a poseur who wanted to look “radical”. “Radicalism” – which simply meant tweaking the coat-tail of Uncle Sam – was the flavour of that age!! Anyhow, there’s evidence there are still some true believers around!
One of them’s the elderly fella from that era who still scribbles the defunct ideas in one of the dailies. Back then, he’d advocated that Guyana cut all links -trading and otherwise – with the Yanks and their “running dogs of capitalism”. Yes…that’s how they spoke!! Quite overwrought, don’t you think?!! For instance, the fella in Highgate’s most famous call was “Workers of the world, unite!! You have nothing to lose but your chains!!” Ironically, since then the greatest dream of the world was to BECOME workers – and presumably acquire their chains!!
Hoyte had jettisoned the Marxist-Leninist jargon as soon as Burnham passed on – after getting his dying wish to eat condensed milk he’d banned! Hoyte promptly banished all the Marxist ideologues and accepted a loan from the guardian of the capitalist order – the IMF!! He privatised Burnham’s nationalised “commanding heights of the economy” and devalued our currency to the accompaniment of Sparrow’s “Ten to one is murdah!!”
Over in the WPA, they in effect dumped the Marxist lingua franca as they morphed into Black nationalists. The ideologue agreed to shut down four sugar plantations – throwing 7000 Indian workers out of work!! But this ideologue in 2018 – even before oil and revenues started flowing -the fella – had demanded that every household be given an annual cash grant of US$5000 ANNUALLY!! He grandiosely called it the “Buxton Declaration” in imitation of Burnham’s “Declaration of Sophia”!!
But last Sunday- on Indian Arrival Day – the PPP pulled the biggest shocker of the millennium when they dumped all references to “socialism” and “Marxism-Leninism” from their party’s constitution!! They’re gonna follow the capitalist path to development – as even communist China had done – to deliver prosperity to the poor!!
Change is inevitable…stagnation is death!!
…of Mother Day?
Yesterday, as the nation went into overdrive in sending flowers, consuming lunches and dinners and calling their mothers, your Eyewitness – who lost his Momma a while back – reflected on some of the contradictions in the overwrought emotions. Right up there, of course, is the mind-numbing level of violence inflicted on mothers – women and girls who’ll become mothers – by men. Isn’t there some kinda contradiction there?
What he couldn’t explain was how come these men could carry on so maudlinly about their mothers and not be bothered when they raise their hands against females. Some even against their own mothers!! Your Eyewitness has heard about compartmentalizing your minds – but this is ridiculous!! But what’s even more of an enigma is that each of those men who beat up on women was raised by a woman – their mother!!
To reverse this unacceptable violence against women and girls, your Eyewitness suggests that all women be explicitly taught a course in raising their sons to not hit females. And ditto for males!!
…of the free market
It’s been quite an adventure for the Government after they put the Marriott on sale. There were the lowball bids – not surprisingly all rejected; then the knight in shining armor with a US$90M bid. Then he went and passed!! Oi vey!!
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