Campbell's Commentary OPERATION GLASNOST. THE CURSE OF THE BLACK GOLD

By Aubrey Campbell

NEW YORK. NY. Tuesday, March 10, 2020 -- Folks, Here’s wishing you a happy belated International Women’s Day! And as quickly as I say that I am putting away the champagne and caviar because we are living in perilous times, COVID-19 and all!

As someone who is always looking at and for the big/bigger picture, my thoughts are far and away in Georgetown, Guyana, where the curse of the ‘black gold’ could erupt like a violent  volcano before clarity is brought to bear on the election results of March 2.

 

But before I take you to Georgetown, I have to make a stop in Kingston town and reluctantly so! And in doing so, let me hope that by now you would have seen a story in the Sunday Gleaner of March 8 – online edition, headlined ‘Just An Accusation’ - Principals Dodge Involvement As Second Logistics Company Paid Over $50m Is Identified’, detailing the alleged corruption involving then Minister of Education Ruel Reid, President of the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), Fritz Pinnock and key stakeholders of the Jamaica Diaspora.

 I urge you to read the story because after reading it myself, two areas caught my attention. First the ‘forensics’ which peeled away at the façade and exposed the level of corruption and deceit involving the parties identified, and second, the comments of readers who noted that Reid and Pinnock should never again be seen near the nation’s education system, when you consider the amount of money involved, context by the fact that government can never find the money for education, which is why the system is as broke and broken as it is.

One reader noted that there are other actors involved who have not yet been arrested and continue to hold position of influence, still!

I’m wondering if any of those ‘actors’ have anything to do with a planned Education Summit in California, this summer?

COVID-19 aside, I gather that this will be the fifth such gathering and part of the curriculum, ironically enough, will focus on Guidance Counselors and Crime Prevention Professionals!

LMAO!

Are you with me?

Flashback to my conversation of last week and I want to thank Ms. McKenzie for coming to the defense of Dr. Karen Dunkley, and to say that in asking why I ‘singled out’ the ‘good doctor’, she (Ms. McKenzie) in fact aligned her thoughts with mine.

Thank you.

So, Ms. McKenzie, I was just calling to mind the fact that now that we have a ‘Diaspora Voice’ in Dr. Dunkley, she needs to say something, because I know she is seeing something! If she is going to be the eyes and ears of the government of the day, then so be it, say something, even if it is to say you like what you see, then say something!

For God’s sake, we pay our taxes here and we remit billions of dollars more to our beloved homeland. Let us know that it’s appreciated.

And BTW, Dr. Dunkley, congratulations on naming your nine state representatives from Virginia in the south to Maine, up north. We wait to hear what your next move is!

My next move is to Georgetown. I do hope that good sense will win the day, even as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the courts sort through what exactly went wrong on election day, Monday, March 2, a day that was given as a national holiday so that all eligible nationals could go out and exercise their right to vote in the ‘mother of all elections’

I am not a Guyanese. I never visited the island but know a lot of folks and love the food. However, I did well – if I may say so myself - at West Indian History in the Cambridge Exams – Ordinary Level, so I think I am sufficiently conversant with the people and the politics.

And I am sufficiently convinced that the election stalemate, if that’s what it really is, is underpinned by the prospect of economic boom, fueled by the discovery of oil and gas, offshore!

While the Guyanese population might have wanted to give the current administration a chance to finish its term, Barett Jagdeo was having none of this, first by forcing a no-confidence motion down the throat of an ailing President David Granger and fifteen months later, ripping out a page from Donald Trump’s playbook ‘Operation Glasnost’, setting the stage for a real political crisis, if the Christmas 2018 Constitutional crisis was not enough!

There are some Caribbean politicians who just don’t know when to quit!

It is no secret that Guyana is on the threshold of an economic upturn, not seen in the Caribbean region since Trinidad & Tobago struck oil, many moons ago! And any sensible leader would want to hang around and hang on to power to chart the way forward. However, it’s the electorate that gets to decide and that decision should and must be respected via the ballot box.

One person. one vote!

This is where Guyana is at, a crossroads with signs that are not clearly marked and whether or not the court is equipped with enough justices with the right GPS, is anybody’s guess, at this time.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, it was the green gold that left us shackled and enslaved, physically. Robert Nesta Marley, a prophet of our popular culture would later encourage us to, ‘emancipate ourselves from mental slavery’, but no sooner after his untimely demise, we are back to square one!

So, to all my Caribbean brothers and sister from the Republic of Guyana, Afro, Indo or both, rise up and take your rightful place, TOGETHER!

You now have the floor!

The conversation continues on Saturday, March 14, @11.00 am, on THE POWER HOUR, WSNR, 620 AM, www.radio620am.com, weeradioonline.com. s. 718.509.9001