One Tennis Roll, Really, Pres Ali?

By GHK Lall- Say it is not so, Mr. President! No way, Excellency Ali! Can’t be! Not in this Guyana, Pres Ali. Nevah, nevah, in oil rich Guyana, Master Governor Ali. Guyanese buying one tennis roll on credit? Not one bag, BUT ONE TENNIS ROLL. And a glob/dab of nut butter, if possible. What happened to enhanced discretionary spending and purchasing power? One tennis roll on credit must be part of Dr. Ali’s genius formula.

In the late 60s, the beginning of 28 years of darkness, well-attested to by PPP luminaries, some Guyanese were forced to buy five cents cooking oil and five cents butter. They were that poor, and that was as far as they could make it: five cents oil (one-eight of a pint) and a half pint rice.

It was Guyana’s Ice Age, Pres Ali. Pre-oil. sir. It was a barren, dismal, time; a steel guava season. Now that there’s oil in vast undersea lakes, why are Guyanese forced to the wretchedness of buying one tennis roll, one teaspoon of butter, Mister Ali? Why in this land of plenty, where the currency can’t keep up, and the treasury bursting? Why Mr. Ali is there any Guyanese (one Guyanese) who is so hungry and strapped, family similarly situated, that one tennis roll only on ‘trust’ is manageable, Mr. Ali? Ali is still the president, isn’t he? Or should I address others in the PPP tycoon class, PPP royalty?

Speeches made all over the world: investors, opportunities, abundance, and the roof at home leaking, the toilet clogged or overflowing, and pot empty. Discard the fancy textbooks, treatises, and paradox of plenty. This is perversity of Guyanese running bareheaded, barefoot, and bare-behind while the world is celebrating them. There’s the tragedy of citizens only being able to afford one tennis roll (and a handful of rice). They will have to cook it in the yard, or eat it raw. Pres. Ali is busy singing on the world stage, in love with himself. I think he should hang his head in shame and vacate his office. A failure. A man with such a full hand he was a guaranteed winner. The best he could manage was a spot in the loser’s column.

Big oil. Small population. Fat talk. Feeble people. Leaders swaggering, flouncing. Citizens crawling, grinding it out daily. Guyana cannot be oil rich. Is it a storied oil Nirvana? Yes, it is. The numbers confirm. So, what did the PPP Govt do with all the money and power? Why are there Guyanese who must deal with the humiliation of hiding from seller and counter, then drag themselves home and hide the truth again from their children. What to tell them? How to inspire? I know how.

Look how much the PPP did. The PPP did this. The PPP did that, then much more. More roads. Moe skyscrapers. Silver-tinged and gilt-edged glitter. Yet, there are starving citizens that stand and shame from president to cabinet to every last damn parrot in that zoo doubling as an international circus. When so much is poured into cement and sand (and deep pockets), how much can be left for those who were struggling before, worse-off now?

Pres Ali embarrasses this country every time he opens his mouth, sells what he can’t deliver. Hungry, poverty stricken Guyanese stand as a testimony to the cruelty and depravity of a PPP Govt gone rogue. If all Guyanese can’t benefit when there has been so much over the last six years, then when will they? In 20 years, half of this country could be dead or dead to the brightness of Guyana. Gone or going. When one tennis roll is all that can be had, that dismisses all Pres Ali says to mockery and comedy. The biggest GDP, and one li’l tennis roll is the best way forward for some Guyanese. Perhaps, that should be the new definition of resource curse