The Coil: From Good to Just Plain Bad (and All Points in Between)

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

One man called me a coolie supremacist when I dared to post a comment on Facebook that one day Guyana would advertise for positions in the public sector rather than continue the partisan tradition of appointing, sometimes very qualified, loyal party supporters.

Some people are relieved that the PPP is out of office no matter what, others are relieved the PPP is out of office but concerned that some things seem to remain the same while others are not too bothered as long as life goes on. Some people say “give dem time” and the amount of time varies.

Dr David Hinds and Ruel Johnson wrote early about criticising the administration even if they supported the change. Some people say stop being so negative all the time about Guyana in general.

Instead of boring binaries of good and bad things, there might be a spectrum from Good to Bad which is Good, not so good, mosquito bites (bad but tolerable); bad – but not so bad as before, weird and fascinating and plain bad just because “is Granger doing it. “

The spectrum might be limiting some of the time to discuss some of the issues as shown in the table below.

ISSUE	THE SPECTRUM..
Mosquitoes	Some cleaning of drains but if the water does not flow, mosquitoes will thrive. The fogging has been delayed due to the rainy season so the humans will not be disturbed by the smoke which does not disturb the mosquitoes.	Would we have to count malaria, dengue, yellow fever cases to show that things are working? Should we be happy to put up with mosquito bites as long as we do not get sick? Is this a metaphor for any of the other changes in case we thought we would be rid of mosquito nuisance forever?
Rice	The Essequibo farmers have not protested as yet. It could be that they are waiting on the Morning Glory which is supposed to be made from 2000 tonnes of rice a year.	The Minister of Agriculture has not said anything about Morning Glory. As part of the National Unity strategy, would Morning Glory be the exclusive diet of the Parliament? Would the Governent invite former Minister Ali and Ramsammy to sell Morning Glory around the world? Would Morning Glory be available at cocktails, national functions, served for free at the Marriott ? Would Minister Greenidge have to include Morning Glory sales in his portfolio of economic activities?
Oil	The possibility of fossil fuel oil is increasing. A girl who makes soap from coconut said that coconut oil is not so easy to come by. It seems that there is great potential in coconut oil. IAST has not said much more about bio diesel.	People watching to see what will happen with the oil which might be found in the waters that Venezuela says is theirs. Others resigned to the fact that oil money not coming their way. No further news on plans for coconut oil or bio-diesel.
Venezuela	Some stories about Venezuelans coming to shop and buy things. Rumours that in addition to rice for oil, there might be toilet paper for oil.	Venezuela is redrawing its boundaries and giving headache to the new Minister Greenidge. Is there a leftist conspiracy between the most extreme radical elements of the PPP/C and the Venezuelan comrades? Is this conspiracy linked to Shiv not playing the Aussie Test because there was a great collaboration between the PPP/C and the Clive Lloyd selection panel? How is this all connected to the great conspiracy between the CIA , the Queen and CARICOM to rig the elections to get a man who looks good in a shirt jac suit into the Presidential Office. Venezuelan flights are suspended and now Guyanese cannot sell scarce goods to Venezuelans. Hopefully this is a temporary thing.
Burnham	This is complex. Some talk from some people who say that they bury Burnham after the elections.	Some people bring back Burnham during the Independence celebrations and now with this Venezuela thing, some people want to hearBurnham’s great oratory and not a blade of grass. Some are concerned that Burnham might overthrow Mr Granger and the whole idea of APNU+AFC coalition – the WPA saying no meeting held with APNU comrades, the AFC Prime Minister Nagamootoo not being allowed to chair Cabinet in that nice green and yellow very-very-very body fitting, slightly small Golden Jaguars football tee shirt which was not provided as part of conspiracy from the PPP via its candidate .
Cheddi	Bheri’s women and men had long buried Cheddi. Since Independence is over, Cheddi has gone back into history, his name not even coming up in the protests	Bheri’s women and men had long buried Cheddi.
Hoyte	Some of Hoyte’s men are back in Government.	Ramotar is determined not to be Hoyte. He will not concede the elections like Hoyte did in 1992. No word yet though if Ramotar  plans to protest vigorously like in 1998.
Sexual Offences	There is a Sexual Offences Act. Some people are happy that some alleged rapists are no longer working in the public sector.	People in Guyana still think it is okay for big man to have sex with under age girls and to punish the under age girl . People want to be horrified about children having sex on videos rather than be horrified that there is no sex education in the schools.
Sugar	Cane juice and egg ball have been saved for now	The future of cane juice and egg ball is more tied to slavery, indentureship, independence, Burnham , Cheddi, the PNC, the PPP, the PPP supporters than it is to whether or not Guyana should continue to produce sugar.
Environment	There is some viagra put into a lot of people which resulted in a lot of cleaning. Not the cleaning which many of us involuntarily had after the flooding. Minister Patterson survived his baptism of floods.	The Mayor for 23 years gets a national award for fighting Carol Sooba and not bothering to let the public know about the outfalls and the pumps which have not been working for over a year. Viagra does not last forever according to reports.
Crime	A diplomat asked me whether minibuses have now become dangerous to use as a passenger kills Hardat Kissoon on his way home. Other persons have been robbed in the last two months.
Racism	People are venting freely their thoughts about race , racism. Some persons disguise it, others do not.	No clear way as to how we fix the race problems or whether there is any interest in fixing the race and other prejudice problems.
Suicide Prevention	There have been suicides since 11 May. There is no indication of how many people changed their minds about killing themselves.	Minister Norton has been visiting hospitals and talking about a lot of things. So far, he and Dr Cummings have not commented on suicide prevention.
Young people	Two nice young men from the coalition have become Director of Youth and Director of Sports respectively. A lot of young people are very keen, and some of them are determined to be vigilant even if only on Facebook.	Nobody knows whether these, or any of the other Directorships which are filled with nice people, are meant to be Presidential appointments, or whether they should come through the Public Service Commission.
Beating children	The Minister of Education thinks that beating children is bad. The previous Minister of Education also thinks that beating children was bad. There are teachers who do not beat children..	The teachers can still beat children regardless of what the Ministers think. There might be other things that the teachers do regardless of what the Ministers think.
Gay rights	The political parties said that they are against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. This was in the manifestos though.	President Granger made some comments on 25 May, 2015 about discrimination against LGBT citizens which have beendescribed as non-committal.The President has not spoken since to the media about anything. Has there been a muzzling of the President? Have people been praying to ensure that he does not speak in case he says no discrimination against LGBT citizens and then he will have to face the wrath of Bishop Edghill? Are the President’s communications people scared that if they hold a press conference, the journalists who might be bored or any disgruntled former PPP media employees will just ask things about gay rights and abortion to keep things lively during the press conferences? You know.. questions like “Mr President, concerning President Maduro’s claims on our waters, should we be concerned that Venezuela would send their gay soldiers to invade Guyana and corrupt our society?”
Presidential attire	The President has been cool, going to work in long sleeve shirt and shirt jac suit.	The President has appeared in a few pictures where a jacket is worn over his long sleeve shirt. We have to maintain vigilance.
USA intervention	A glimmer of hope that the PPP had regained some ideology. This hope was in a placard held by one of bheri’s women which detailed the USA intervention in Cuba, Guyana, Chile, Congo, Vietnam and protesting USA intervention in the elections. The PPP joins with all progressives in history suffering from US imperialism The USA mutters something about doing a national Unity project. Maybe the USA plans to reconcile with the PPP as part of the example for love and unity ?	The placard was never seen again on social media or any media. All hopes of the people who had been deported from the US or turned down for visas have been dashed. There are no 24/7 vigils outside the US Embassy or the British or Canadian High Commissions. with campaign songs and red shirts and flags. There is no hope of Jagdeo or Rohee or Ramotar or any of the young uns wearing tee shirts with pictures of Allende, Che Guevera and Lumumba engaged in some hunger strike or threatening to shoot down anybody except the people who call them out on their corruption and bad governance.