The PPP Govt will give an arm and a leg to get the MV Barima off the front-pages. I go so far as to assert that some would part with their left nut to hustle the tragedy of the MV Barima out of the media altogether. C’mon folks, it is only 100 dead, after all. And don’t forget from which segment of the Guyana demographic. Thus, it has been this daily sequence of PPP Govt men and women on the move, flashing rhetorically and beautifully so, with that biggest of all baits. It is only money. It is splashed in this region and community, then there is moving along to repeat the giveaways. The Santa Claus travel schedule is long; gift carts are laden with goodies. Projects, projects, projects, all over. I have never heard so many promises made by the same people in so many different places. Whatever it takes, has to be done, just do it. Get the MV Barima catastrophe out of the press, off the airwaves.
I am enthralled by the PPP in action. It is a work of art, isn’t it? If one can forget-or, at least, suppress-the horror of 100 dead, there has to be awed recognition of a machinery that turns on at the right time with the right rhythms. When the issue is another huge instance of corruption, the chains are taken off, and the war machine let loose. Many said that that is the wrong way, implored the top government men to fix the problem. Instead, they sent a battalion of henchmen to fix people who can’t keep quiet, get with the PPP Govt program. Look to where the neglect and corruptions led. From Kingston courting the Atlantic and around a place called Iron Punt. Indeed, it was and is; for it cracked the shell of a government that pretended all was well, when nothing was. Not the paddleboat, not the wharf, not the goddamned people in charge. To be crystal, I speak not of one minister or another. I speak of a political cabal that is responsible for the deaths of around 100 citizens.
Citizens trusted, only to be hurled overboard to a ghastly passing from this life. Since July 18, the PPP war machine has been on leave; the dirty tricks boys and girls get an opportunity to polish a fender, change a tire. Since July 18, it’s the PPP Govt propaganda and money machine at work, and is it a modern marvel or what! Do anything whatever the cost. Smooth over everything. Commit to anything. Just get the MV Barima out of circulation, out of the consciousness of the Guyanese people. Are these guys cold and clinical, or what? Or, as my dear friend from Carmichael Street would insist, possessing a wanton disregard for life and limb. So, whether it is Santa Rosa in Region One, or the East Bank and East Coast of Region Four, and other places up the road, the PPP Govt marching band was in full flow. Drums banging. Bugles pealing. Singers crooning. There would have been some imported spiritual ones, except that the local arranger is suffering from a bout of seasickness. The seas have been that rough around here. Like I said, it is a spectacle of epic proportions to absorb the efforts made by the PPP Govt to fulfill its mission: Objective MV Barima. Moved it off the scene (the map also, if feasible).
There is another side of Objective Barima (purge from memory). Aside from the money, above the cacophony, there is discernment of distortion in action, and PPP Govt disfigurements on display. The more time spent trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the people, the more they see through the circus and charade. Who has taken responsibility? Who has been man enough to step forward and issue an apology? To apologize would introduce another layer to the MV Barima disaster. Smarter to shower with money and this or that facility. Make everybody happy. Mission: move the MV Barima from the media. I regret to report that it is not working.
