…on the salary abomination

Moses Nagamootoo just doesn’t get it, does he? It’s more than being socially tone deaf – this is a fella who’s morally callused to the plight of ordinary people. Imagine he just ran a cordon of social activists protesting the 50% salary increases he and his cohorts in the Executive gave themselves – compared to the pitiful 5% for Public Workers – and the man had the chutzpah to blame it on his “poor PR job”?!!

Is this fella for real? He really thinks the rage of the people’s about PR? So exactly how would he’ve told pensioners that while they’re getting $4000 more monthly – giving them the princely sum of $17,000 – HE gets another $200,000 on top of his $1,500,000 monthly?!! Or that they have to now pay their light and water bills – wiping out that $4000 – but his water bill, light & air conditioning bill, chauffeur bill, gardener bill, guard bill, government car maintenance bill, first class plane-tickets bill, entertainment bill, food bill, telephone bill, etc, etc – are paid for by the Government?!!

Nagamootoo’s now 68 years old – he’s of pensionable age. There are thousands of his old comrades from his days in the PPP plus opponents from the PNC side, who have to feed, clothe and house themselves – plus all the other expenses like bus fares, etc – on that $17,000. While he can just deposit his 100 times greater $1.7M in the bank every month – because ALL his expenses have been paid for him. And it’s just a matter of PR?? What kind of man is this?

How can he live with himself? He spoke about “qualifying” himself for his job – which is presumably worth the money and benefits he’s drawing from the pockets of the Guyanese taxpayers. But he’s finally confessed the Cummingsburg Accord isn’t worth the toilet paper it was most likely written on – seeing how it was used after the election – and all he’s “responsible” for is the State Media.

But since he’d sanctimoniously announced he wouldn’t get involved with operations – like he accused the PPP of doing— it means he’s basically just “throwing back”. So how was he going to wash away his twiddling of thumbs with PR? That it’ll take a lot energy to continue with more downright lowdown schemes like “outing” NCN CEO’s – Molly Hassan’s – salary and benefits?

No PR can absolve a man who would bring such calumny on his Government just because he couldn’t stand that a colleague – Basil Williams in this case – was getting more money than he did.

Even if it is a payoff for being shafted over Cummingsburg, it’s downright nasty.

…on Amerindian development

The APNU/AFC coalition’s pulling out all the stops to bring the real 11% into their “fold”- Amerindians. Right off the bat, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs was renamed as the “Ministry of Indigenous Peoples” – being what some of our native folks had requested for a while. It was then given two Ministers – and one of them was made into a VICE PRESIDENT.

But the coalition wasn’t leaving their wooing to just symbolic name changes and “bigging up leaders” – they immediately acted to wipe out the PPP/C’s earlier efforts to use development as a mobilisational tool. They fired 1972 employees in the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP) through which Amerindians in the villages were given some skills training and a stipend to help develop their communities.

“Boondoggle!” screamed the coalition. “YEAP was just a thinly disguised vehicle to recruit party workers!” Well now the coalition’s launched A “ Hinterland Employment and Youth Service (HEYS)” that’ll employ and “train” 3000 Amerindians.

But “HEYS” IS NOT a booddoggle! Just “YEAP”.

…on democracy

Shouldn’t the people have a say in deciding how much money the Executive can grant itself? If a referendum’s needed to decide whether a president can run for three terms, shouldn’t we have one on permissible greed?