'Court doesn't work...police doesn't work'

... this from a Brazilian businessman who came, saw business opportunities and for all extents and purposes ..got robbed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKh2Y-ZDSZA

What is sad is that the Courts have been subverted to grant injunctions (for the want of a better word) against itself -- supporting the Businessman on one hand ...then acting against their own orders on the other.  The Police Headquarters not investigating their own branches and the dogs turning against their owners and biting the hand/s that fed them!

So.. far from following the glorious path of capitalism according to Thomas Friedmann in 'The Lexus and Olive Tree': private sector the engine of economic growth.. removing restrictions on foreign investments... increasing exports... opening industries to direct foreign ownership and investment...  it appeared to take a unique Guyanese turn-- whereby the caretaker who was promoted to 'frontman' ( how the heck a Sri Lankan turn up here?) got 'smart' and conned the Brazilians out of their money and used it to finance his own business, stealing their equipment-- no doubt in collusion with the original businessman who owned and leased his land doing nothing with it. 

Clearly the Law and legal system need 'fixing' before this country can progress but there was an interesting letter in yesterday's paper which pointed out:
'the ideal state is a democracy which serves the interests of the citizens in accordance with fair laws, applicable to all citizens, designed to maintain order, peace and liberty. On the other hand a narco-state is a territory taken over by drug interests where government institutions are controlled by drug money and law enforcement agencies serve the interests of narco-traffickers and the corrupted elite.'
Maybe the latter part is applicable: some government institutions serve the interests of the corrupted elite.'?

Morality and the minister(s)

The apparently spineless Finance Minister found himself in the papers recently as he hit a car into a trench without due care and attention as he was supposed to stop. Perhaps if he hadn't been driving an oversized vehicle unsuited to Guyana's roads there might have been less damages, but there it goes. Like Ted Kennedy-- he removed himself from the scene of the accident without seeing that the other people involved got out of the trench- in this case a taxi with a passenger, and sending a minion to deal with his mess.

This raises several questions in my mind-- I remember reading that the goodly minister had completed a Pandit's training course -- so he should have been aware that the ethical thing to do would be to assist people to whom he had caused harm. ( A Pandit means/implies a learned person able to read and understand the Vedas-- the sacred Hindu texts-- implying some sort of moral leader)  In fact, to back-pedal a bit  he ought not to be even drinking alcohol, much less be driving recklessly, supposedly under the influence ( no breathalyser or blood tests were carried out so there is no evidence!)-- AND according to Kaieteur News-- especially after he had 'jammed' another person's car under similar circumstances only a month previously!
Then as now, a minion had been dispatched to cut a deal, keep it out of public knowledge and quietly drop the matter after ignoring the person's pleas.  Looking very hard for mitigating factors I could only come up with -- it was a Public Holiday so his driver was not working and he was generously driving himself to do the rest of us a favour of not paying another minion 'time and a half', thus having the Country's interest at heart.
(Likewise one could suppose the questionable position of having his wife in the Auditor-General's office to oversee his department's spending of the Public's funds - he could, purely from an altruistic view make sure she had her facts right-- like the Minister of Culture-- a trained Public Health specialist having his wife be in a position of controlling the then cash-cow funds for HIV prevention. I am not saying these are not intelligent women who could not of otherwise have gained these positions on their own steam because let's face it-- Guyana's Parliament has a higher than required number of women parliamentarians on all sides but our peculiar system means they toe the Party line-- and why spoil a good thing of all the perks?  Maybe that's one of the functions of a good Guyanese wife-- clean ya husband dirty laundry?)
I think the Crime Chief indicated that traditionally Ministers are treated differently from ordinary citizens with respect to failing to report the accident within 24hrs or rendering assistance to those injured at the scene of an accident  -- whether this was another genius move from the President who wrote the 1980 constitution giving himself unlimited powers or harkens further back to to Colonial times - it is the same thing -- blatant abuse of Power.
Ironically-- this Minister of Finance's name has been touted as a possible presidential candidate following the stellar performance of the last one.

Culture of Honour

This is a response, explained by a Yale professor, of societies to a situation where there is inadequate policing. The men, who have more testosterone coursing around their body, develop an irrational response of extreme violence to the mildest provocation – this is actually a ‘rational’ response: the idea being – if I become irrational, then people would not want to mess with me and I will get to have my own way all the time! 

The downside to this attitude would be – it does not foster co-operation and results in the ‘elites’ living in their isolated little tower getting increasingly paranoid and trying to exert more and more ‘control’. Social creatures like primates need interaction to grow and develop – and risk stagnating by suppressing the ‘majority of the great unwashed’.

Applying the above ideas to Guyana, the bullies who become ‘big fishes in little ponds’ are definitely not capable of formulating any long-term plan as their brains are wired for quick short-term gains and maintaining the status quo. The first paragraph also throws some light on the seemingly high incidence of Intimate Partner Violence: a man can bully his wife and children in response to the pressure he himself feels as there are no social recourses to adjudicate on the unfairness of the external situation he may feel under.   The downside is…the family as a unit becomes dysfunctional and breeds children permanently on the defensive, perpetuating the downward spiral and resulting in a society unable move co-operatively forward.

Okay if we were not living an increasingly shrinking Global Village but as Thomas Friedman said in his book ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ – opting out of wearing The Golden Straitjacket (accepting norms of the developed world such as transparency) means you don’t get to ride the Information SuperHighway and get left behind wallowing in backwardsness – my words not his!

Crime and Punishment -- Guyana Style

So in topsy-turvy Land, the Police have been literally beating confessions out of those pulled in for Crimes. There have been a couple of appalling actions carried out involving genitals being damaged, while the rate of burglary and personal attacks appears to be increasing as the youths' chances of employment decreases - a perfect storm situation brewing.  Neighbouring Venezuela looks to be a bit further along than us.
While it is commendable that there are still people wanting to join the Force and I have met more than a few decent ones, I am sadden that on the whole, their crime detecting skills leave much so be desired  that violation of Human Rights seems standard practice. As Martin Niemoller said:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

There is an understandable outcry about the Human Rights violation of the alleged criminal but seems to overshadow the Human Rights violation of the victim/s, as whatever the person who was suspected did or was alleged to have done gets swept away by the barbarity of the Police actions - the original victim/s are also swept aside.

It seems peculiar to here that focus is on violations by the 'authorities' like the leader of an Opposition Party, a lawyer, laying into the government for destroying a fence built by a big businessman on land needed to expand a roadway.  Guyanese are in the habit of considering the reserve of Land outside their properties 'theirs' and apparently some Law says after occupying the land for 25yrs-- it's yours-- that needs serious revision - my view is that Government should issue 'rent due' notices with interest for those people set on abusing common sense. I fail to understand how the Government coffers are empty as practically every second person is breaking some Law or the other -- those same people then wringing their hands that the place is being buried under rubbish -- both physical and mental-- and we are headed no-where as a country and emigrating (to where I wonder-- everywhere else is in their own mess!)

If we as a Country want to continue to be a sovereign state then as the editorial in SN points out, we need to adopt a long-term strategy on a consensal basis and stick to it. I see now the wisdom behind the National Development Strategy conceived by Cheddi Jagan and wonder why Jagdeo shelved it when he came to power.

Why It's Exhausting To Live In Guyana (any end in sight for stupidity?)--- 8

My day started with a big 'suck teeth' on reading that a 16yr old who went out with her 28yr old boyfriend did not return at night, having spoken to her mother on her boyfriend's cellphone while they were at a nearby shop. They lived off the Highway - an arid and sparsely populated part of Guyana leading to Linden.  The mother went looking for her child at 7am with the sister and found her with a   slit throat in a creek. On ringing the boy's family in Essequibo, it was discovered that he had made his way back there and hung himself.
This 'relationship' had started apparently 2 years ago and from the article it sounds like the boyfriend and the girl had a room in the girl's parent's house.  14 yrs?? That mother should be charged for traffic-ing in persons or pimping, whatever is the correct term. This is not the first incidence I have heard - mothers encouraging their barely adolescent daughters to 'go with' miners and other men who seem to have money.  What is going on with these women??
I feel I belong in a dinosaur age as at 15yrs old I was running around the house playing 'Catcha' with my much younger sisters and neighbours down the road-- I didn't feel it was uncool as my brother, 2 yrs older, was playing with us!  Whole different era-- clearly!  Sadly the focus on education seems secondary for the majority.. the big question would be how to encourage young people to get back on that path when the parents themselves are so ignorant?

Legalising marijuana

A passing remark from a wise 75yr old got me thinking about the above topic - she observed that it was yet another way of distracting people from being engaged in purposeful living.  As it so happens, I recently finished reading a 2007 very enlightening paper by the unfortunately-named Nutt and others called "The development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse". Assuming most of you reading this are not subscribed to 'The Lancet' I will pick out the relevant parts and hope I am not infringing on any copyright laws.

So basically, it was noted 'that the UK’s classification of drugs evolved in an unsystematic, arbitrary and unscientific way' and they attempted to classify current drugs using three determinants of harm -
‘the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; the tendency of the drug to induce dependence; and the effect of drug use on communities, families and society.’  They produced a nice graph and although marijuana rated below Tobacco as the marijuana advocates claim - cannabis is not as harmful as Tobacco but as 11th out of the 20 - hardly in the harmless category! Check it out:

‘A being the most harmful, C being the least’ 

I leave it to you to make the decision for your individual selves -- but I do wonder about the ways the Tobacco Industry manipulates the social environment in order to portray how 'cool' it is to smoke knowing fully well how difficult it is to give up after becoming addicted-- of the order of 2% of  quitters who attempt, succeed.

While I concede there may be medical reasons for smoking 'ganja' - like for use as an appetite stimulant for debilitated persons - purely recreational use leading to addiction seems more ominous. Remembering the line in Desiderata - even the dumb and ignorance have their say - I remember musing after laughing myself silly while reading "Yoga and the Body of Christ: What position should Christians hold?" that the man stated that the CIA purposely released LSD to observe the effects on humans! 
 I was told that Colorado 'ran out' of stock-- does that mean the drug trade can become legal down here--or must we wait for big business interests to run the market? And really is some 'fried-up' brained person making these decisions which will affect our young?
 

Love in Theory

by J E Levy

Always interesting to read a different perspective and someone suggested this book: practically all the stories did not have a happy ending -- maybe no-one lives happily ever after from a lesbian setting? Most of the stories were written from a cynical mid-30s white American female point of view and while it reflected a very American ego-centric point of view, I was a bit dismayed to see that it was the protagonist versus the-rest-of-the-world in most of the stories.  I actually liked the first couple of stories about heterosexual relationships bottoming up but then remembered my Loneliness blog (http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2013/08/loneliness.html) and thought how sad the women/people were to not have supporting networks - it seems rather cold-- the one lone person toughing it out in the world -- most of the families mentioned seemed dysfunctional.  There was a funny- in a sad sort of way - story about an American-Korean woman realising her nutty mom had a better sex life than she!
So after the first couple of dysfunctional heterosexual relationships there was mild surprise when half-way through a story you realised it was a lesbian relationship being described.  My main beef would be that Life seems like unremitting misery... there were a few educated jabs at contemporary America and a fairly heavy dash of philosophical musings but on the whole I rather got the impression Love was something to be avoided and later remembered the line from Max Ehrmann's poem, so loved in Guyana - Desiderata: 'neither be cynical about Love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass'...