Coil: Thoughts on the coalition’s first year while almost swallowing a stone in my channa curry

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

Man with the white face mask , hat and white lab coat  asked, ‘You want lil dhal wid it?” and I said yes. We had negotiated the amount of rice .

‘I want a $300 ital but nah wid all dat rice”

“Arite, well just say fuh down de rice”

The calabash looked full. The man put the channa curry, the mix of black eye and eddoe leaf callallo, ochro, chunks.

“I don’t want karilla’

“Big man like you, you aint shame, you doan like karilla’

‘No, put more of de odder tings’

Two youngsters talking about bill of quantities and quality of concrete . They sounded like civil engineering students. A man in old clothes looked like he was talking to himself between mouthfuls. 

Two men in ties with insurance company logos on their shirts. Another man in tattoos and a tie dye shirt and pants and anklets.

There is cussing too. The man in the mask is conscious of hygiene but he could cuss loud too like the other men. The TV screen has a movie with a woman tying up a man and threatening him. The civil engineering gaff turns to conversations about women who kill men.

Diversity in the love of the ital. Same value like  May 2015, no changes here.

I sense a hard thing in my mouth. Take it out. It looks like a stone, I hope it is not a bone.

The man  tells me.. ‘Sorry, it is the channa, we try we best but we miss some.”

Stone in the nice channa curry in the low cost and high value ital

A journalist asked, “what is your assessment of the 1 year government of the coalition?”  How really to assess the administration? Is the administration separate from the voters and opposition and non-voters?  Can we cuss /praise the administration without cussing/praising the citizens? Can we cuss/praise the President and then have to go through cussing/praising each Minister?  Parts of the city are clean, and drainage has improved. There is nice talk.
Is the administration nice like the ital with the stone?

Protesting against Minister Volda Lawrence
In May 2015, I doubt that anyone would have imagined that there would have been calls for Minister Lawrence to be removed from the portfolio of Ministry of Social Protection.  The Party and the President have supported Minister Lawrence and her support of a man charged with child abuse.

The Red Thread picket continues every Tuesday at noon outside Ministry of the Presidency. The last picket  had 10 persons. The stones in the channa curry are the absence of rage ,and the absence of calls for accountability.  Akola Thompson has written about the public’s selective rage.

For some reason, President Granger has not moved on the National Task force for the Prevention of Sexual Offences. The media  has not used the opportunities of the Public Interest programmes to ask the President about the sexual offences task force. The media probably does not see this in the public interest.

Media
President Granger spoke eloquently about the role of the media in Guyana. (In  fact, President Granger has spoken beautifully and eloquently of many things – and a loyal supporter on Facebook said he is loving the sound bites )

The stones in the channa curry are the disconnects  between the President and the actions of the Ministers.  Here is President Granger on the media “The administration is committed also to non-interference in the independent media. Independent media act as watchdogs of government. They promote transparency by ensuring that information is provided to the public on the work of government.  They are a source of valuable feedback on the effectiveness of the efforts of the government. There is no good reason for the State to interfere in the work of the private media.”

This is a refreshing  contrast to Possible-Future-President-Cde-Rohee’s comments that Stabroek News  behaves like a “stray dog going by the smell of things and rummaging the Freedom House neighbourhood for new (or old) juicy inaccuracies and speculations.”

Kaieteur News broke the story about Minister Harmon and his trip to China with  B K Tiwarie and the picture with  Baishanlin and the private jet and the intervention with the Guyana Revenue

Authority to help preserve relations with China.

No-apologies Minister Harmon, in a far cry from President Granger’s appreciation of the role of the media, has decided to threaten Kaieteur News with a $13 million lawsuit.

The media could follow up on other things. In July 2015, I attended the launch of Be Good to People organised by the Ministry of Social Protection, Ms Suzanna Nicols and Ms Rosanna Ali. I remember people  chanting ‘Be Good to People’ . There was supposed to be money coming to help the Ministry in its work. There have been no reports since of what happened to Be Good to People. There is a Go Fund Me Campaign run by a  Ms Nichols which does not have anything about Be Good to People.

There was a report of an attack by the Georgetown City Constabulary on Ms Nichols. There were no reports of the outcome of the probe.

In August 2015, The Ministry of Social Protection had a National conference to develop a gender policy. The theme was “‘Equal rights for all-Be good to People.” The media might help the administration in tracking the  he completion of the policy. There are no visible signs of any GoFundMe or similar fund raising campaigns for the national gender policy.

The Ministry of Social Cohesion had a Social Cohesion Round Table in September 2015 . The general aim was to initiate a 5 year strategic plan. The Ministry has been busy. The media might discover the location of the 5 year strategic plan. The public could then do  the assessments based on the achievements in the plan.

In July 2015, there were consultations on   the Draft National Youth Policy. It has been given to Dr Roopnarine, Minister responsible for youth. The media might want to track the policy , find it and make it available to the young people so they could assess the administration.

Youth
Vicky Persaud, 17 years old, drowned in Lusignan on 11 May, 2016. He was due to write CXC. According to the Guyana Chronicle, he had a side job to support his family and he drowned while working.
On 11 May, 2016 , six teenagers were questioned for the murder of Professor Perry Mars. On 6 May, 2016 , four young people including two teenagers were to return to court on murder charges.

There are other stories .  Some of the youth advocates who were against the PPP regime are working now in jobs which might have them busy. The youth activism has died down. There were many exciting youth groups which had nudged the change in May 2015. They are not active now, maybe things are okay for the youth.

Two young men this week talked of not finding jobs. They both qualified successfully from the University of Guyana. They are both told by employers that ‘they have no experience’. One has been told  that he is too qualified as he applies for jobs which do not require a degree.

It cannot be easy. There is pressure to consume – the 4G campaigns are targeted at young people. 

There are more billboards and advertising about 4G than about accessing livelihoods. The companies

are sponsoring mega concerts with foreign entertainers for the jubilee. The youths though, have not asked that the money spent on mega concerts could have been spent on job-fairs, and activities to improve livelihoods for young people.  The youth have not asked for the creation of permanent job centres in their communities.

The media might want to track the 60 persons who were pardoned by the President. The public might be interested in the  stories, not only of those who have ignored President Granger’s call to Go forth and sin no more , but of those who have taken the second chance and are trying to survive.

Surely the President himself must want to know that he made the right call for some of the people who received pardons?

Born in treachery
Nigel Westmaas quotes Martin Carter in 1963 “The alchemists sought to find the philosopher’s stone which would transmute base metals into gold. Guyanese society contains that which transmutes anything of value into base matter.”   In 1963, Guyana was discussing independence . A BBC documentary talks of the manipulations. The late Professor Norman Girvan suggested a title around the documentary ‘Born in Treachery: Imperial Intrigue and the origins of British Guiana”.

The administration is trying hard to celebrate the gloomy beginning 50 years later.  Things might have been different if the focus was not on jubilee.

In the film , Barbershop : The next Cut , Raja the Indian barber discusses race, immigration and possibilities. He refers to the West Indies in a quip about lifting south side Chicago. Something which goes like  “Look at the West Indies, Blacks from Africa, Indians from India and two centuries later there is Rhianna”

The $300 calabash of ital derived from Africa and India and other places is probably not seen as high value as Rhianna. The ital though , stone and all, might signify some possibility that we could overcome the treachery at birth. We cannot asses the administration alone, without  assessing our abilities to hold the administration and each other accountable in ensuring we don’t all end up as ‘base matter”.