Shallow Signifyin Guyana Coughs Up Lame Arguments

The United States based Afro-Guyanese Charmaine Valere (we’re not sure if she will merely loathe or outright despise us for such a classification but we are striving to find out) has responded to our response to her.

It would appear as though she is making three main points and a couple other secondary ones in what must be described as a shallow and rather pathetic response from someone we thought was of a superior intellectual capacity. We will respond to each of the points individually.

Signifyin Guyana: “The hyphenated term ‘Afro-somebody of African descent living outside of Africa’ is no longer used by the people who first coined it. These days (hello enlightenment!) they, and most other people of African descent around the world prefer an identification term that reflects more than a hairstyle.”

So because the term is no longer used by others us Guyanese should follow pattern and do as they do. Right, that is all us Guyanese are good for in the minds of these overseas-based self-righteous guardians of all things right and good. We must merely be followers of the rest of the world. When they jump off the cliff, we must also jump off the cliff, because if they do it, it must be right. Why would we want to bother to engage our brain and think for ourselves? This is the very basis of dehumanization and slavery which Charmaine clearly wishes to resuscitate at least in a psychological if not physical sense.

Nevertheless we had already addressed this in our original post and we repeat it because clearly the Afro-Guyanese ma’am Charmaine missed it the first time round.

Living Guyana: "Of course it may very well be a case of Charmaine and similar thinkers just wanting to be 'follow pattern' behind the Americans as they previously used Afro-American which has now evolved into 'African American'. So because the Americans are doing it they, with their 'mimic men attitudes' are probably of the persuasion that we too should follow because of course Guyanese MUST do everything like the great Americans do."

Just as we thought, they think us Guyanese ast stupid backwater types who are not worthy of being independent thinkers so they must think for us and dictate our affairs because they send a lil freck every now and then and because they live in heaven and we live in a sticking hell hole.

She is also suggesting that the term Afro-Guyanese is derived from the popular retro hairstyle ‘the Afro’. What is this woman smoking?

The term Afro-Guyanese (and Afro-Trinidadian where it is still widely used and where ‘African Trinidadian’ is virtually NEVER used) has been in existence long before the Afro became a fashion fad in the 1960s. Afro-Guyanese preceded the hairstyle and to say otherwise is to perpetuate a fallacy.

Charmaine is yet to proffer a sensible and logical argument as to why the term ‘Afro’ is derogatory and ignorant’.

Signifyin Guyana: “...names are an integral part of the development of any group's identity and upliftment.”

We disagree. Names are a part of the development of any group identity. We notice how she is deceptively trying to sneak in the word “upliftment” there without any supporting evidence. Secondly we recognise names as ‘a part’ of a group’s identity, not ‘an integral part’. This again is another fallacy which is being mainly foisted upon blacks and perpetuated, especially in Afro-America by the purveyors of black power organizations.

If names were indeed as integral as Charmaine would have us believe then the millions of Afro-Caribbean men and women who carry around Anglo-Saxon names should all be walking around like headless zombies as they are not carrying names which truly identify with their roots and who they truly are but are carrying the names, in many instances of their very slave owners and former masters. As they are carrying names which are truly false they are thus identity-less and downtrodden. What about a name like Charmaine? And Valere? Perhaps it is her very name which has poor Charmaine as confused and bazoodee as she clearly is from the lack of substance in her non-arguments.

Signifyin Guyana: “Living Guyana's insistence on pointing out the hopeless antagonistic relationship between people of Indian and African descent in Guyana is not uplifting in any way...”

Whenever did we say we are pointing a finger at the reality of serious ethnic divisions in Guyana in order to bring about upliftment? That is not our business at this juncture. We have said before that we are highlighting the issue of real and entrenched racism in Guyana in order to illustrate that it is a real problem as there are persons going around who are preaching that Guyana does not have race problems. We think this is a lie and it is our intention to expose that lie.

Signifyin Guyana: "Maybe if they (Living Guyana) spent some time figuring out and writing about the real reasons behind the animosities, they'll see that the 28 years of PNC rule may not be the whole story. It can't hurt to dig into the way people really see each other's differences."

Whenever did we posit that the ‘28 years’ was the whole story? We urge her to go back and read this very carefully and very slowly and understand it for what it is. That, Charmaine, is clearly described as PART ONE. Do you understand that Part One means that there are more parts to follow and hence a clear indication that there is more to the story? We hope you visit your optometrist soon enough.

Signifyin Guyana: “Living Guyana has a legitimate space to start a serious discourse on ethnic issues in Guyana. Maybe they should spend some time doing that rather than trying to slam my rass.”

Long before Charmaine started to preach about what Living Guyana should and should not do (and how arrogant for her to seek to dictate our actions and directions) we have been engaged in blogging our frank thoughts on ethnic issues.

Clearly Charmaine is boxing out of her division in this discussion as we have demonstrated above with her many fallacies and inaccuracies and plain old bullshit. She should confine herself to her little cocoon of critiquing literary work which she is at least fairly competent at.

We cannot spend our energies debating serious issues with persons of shallow intellectual make ups who refuse to get out of the mud and discuss major critical issues as opposed to petty non-issues. Don’t come swimming in the ocean darling when yuh drowning inna de gutta wid de lil fish dem. Yuh nah ready fuh dis ya league yet darlin. Gwaan go read some books, inform yourself, broaden your knowledge base and come back to us in a few years time. Til then, hush yuh mouth and stay in yuh karna and listen big people talk.

Signifyin Guyana Takes Issue With 'Afro-Guyanese'

Signifyin' Guyana: "In the post, the writer categorizes two supposedly antagonistic (towards each other) major groups of Guyanese people as "Indo" and "Afro." Although I can, I don't think it's my place to argue against the use of "Indo." But, "Indo-Guyanese" is certainly not as demeaning as the term "Afro-Guyanese." I continue to voice my disapproval of the term "Afro" to categorize a group of people of varying hues and hairstyles. It is derogatory and ignorant. Maybe when we learn to respect difference and empower ourselves with language... Yeah, I dare to be optimistic."

We're finding immense difficulty understanding why Charmaine Valere finds the term 'Afro' as 'derogatory and ignorant'. We use 'Afro' in the same way we use 'Indo', they are both shortened versions of African and Indian respectively. Perhaps Charmaine wishes for us to write out 'Indian Guyanese' and 'African Guyanese', if that is the case she can kiss our black/coolie/dougla/putagee/buck/chinee bamsee.

Or perhaps she is suggesting that 'Afro' is equal to 'negro' or 'nigger'? Come on Charmaine, explain yourself so we can either understand or expose and slam your rass.

"Varying hues and hairstyles"? How ignorant is that? All the hues and hairstyles are descendants of Africans who came here as slaves. They are all Africans just as for the Indians they are from different parts of India and are of different castes but they are all from India. And in fact for the ignoramuses, people who came to Guyana as indentured labourers are also from what is now known as Pakistan and Bangladesh.

These psychopaths who are jumping and hollering at the classification of any little thing need to spend their time more productively trying to uplift their race and the nation rather than baulking at every little semantic classification and in some way trying to fashion it as being offensive or 'derogatory and ignorant'.

Whether we say 'Afro' or 'African' or whatever is not going to cause the ethnic group to be oppressed/suppressed/depressed/demoralized. It is with the leaders in their communities who inculcate into their people's minds that what other people brand them is important, of greater importance than working towards self development. In so doing, they are perhaps also offering their people excuses for failure and wallowing in despair. They are giving them crutches for failure rather than demanding harder work and better results. Oh, is de system pressuring we and got we down so.

Why are people the world over afraid to tell black people that they are the biggest complainers and excuse makers in the world? They are perpetually finding excuses for their condition and blaming others for their condition. Oh, is the white man fault. Oh it is the system. Oh it is Babylon.

What about looking in the mirror? What about taking some responsibility? What about shouldering your burdens, sacrificing and lifting yourself out of the ghetto or slum or wherever you happen to find yourself?

We here at Living Guyana are fed up of it. True the white man had no place to be tricking and enslaving the Africans (let us not forget that they did this with the assistance of African leaders in Africa) but has anyone bothered to ask why it is that the whites did not enslave the Amerindians who they met here (or some other race)? They did try but the Amerindians either escaped or committed suicide and thus the whites had to find alternatives. It has always amazed us here at Living Guyana that blacks allowed themselves to be enslaved for so many centuries here in the West Indies.

Why did it take them so many centuries to resist? Why did they not resist sooner? Why did they not down tools? Fight? Resist? Even if it meant war and death. Let us not forget that they did not cut those canes with toothpicks, they cut the canes with cutlasses so they were a ready made army WITH WEAPONS. Why did they not use them? Was it perhaps because they are a fickle people more inclined to cowardice than bravery and fighting for there rights and freedom? Does it occur to anyone else that contemporary blacks prefer to talk about freedom and equality rather than fighting for it? Is this a strain of their forefathers who allowed themselves to be enslaved for centuries? Could it be?

Sure there were penalties for resisting but we posit that they were cowards not to fight for their freedom sooner. That the blacks were slaves for so long is an indictment on themselves more than anyone else. When one is faced with an oppressive situation one is generally faced with four options. One can become passive and tolerate it. One can try to change it from within to improve the conditions. One can flee. One can fight. The black slaves chose option one for centuries. You be the judge as to what sort of character they displayed.

We here at Living Guyana maintain that they were wronged to be enslaved in the first place BUT we draw a line there. They themselves were the ones who allowed themselves to be enslaved FOR SO LONG.

Returning to the subject at hand, black people are not the only ones who have been and are poor in this world. Indian, Chinese and so many others have found themselves in similar states but they fought, shed blood, sweat and tears and emerged. Let us not forget that India was colonized by the British Empire, that the Chinese, throughout the centuries resisted numerous attacks and stood on their own.

Have you ever noticed that African-Americans (as they now like to call themselves) spend more time discussing (and excusing in some instances) why African-American men call their kind 'nigga' than discussing ways and means by which they can empower those same men into becoming more productive members of the society rather than being statistics in the making for American jails? In fact we can recall viewing several discussions everywhere on television from Oprah to C-SPAN on the 'nigga' topic but can hardly recall viewing any discussions which seek to uncover ways to unlock the great and unquestionable potential of the black male of the nation.

It is the likes of Charmaine who spend their energies harping about one irrelevant terminology or the other who are causing the greatest harm as they focus attention and energies of their people on non-issues and ignore real developmental issues such as the progress of the ethnic group in a meaningful and positive way. We divert to reiterate that 'Afro' cannot be made equal to 'negro' or 'nigger' or 'nigga'. It is a mere shortening of 'African'.

They are fooling their people into thinking that they should worry about what people are calling them rather than working hard to uplift themselves and forcing people to respect them for their worth based on substance. They are putting the cart before the horse.

Of course it may very well be a case of Charmaine and similar thinkers just wanting to be 'follow pattern' behind the Americans as they previously used Afro-American which has now evolved into 'African American'. So because the Americans are doing it they, with their 'mimic men attitudes' are probably of the persuasion that we too should follow because of course Guyanese MUST do everything like the great Americans do.

They, in fact should take a leaf out of the book of the Indians and Chinese who could not care less what the world called them. They put their shoulder to the wheel, worked hard, uplifted themselves and now the world is bowing to them and lining up on their doorsteps to do business. Is it any wonder that India and China are the emerging superpowers of the world and giving Georgie W and his clan shittings and many sleepless nights?

Guyana/Jamaica Crime Coverage Comparisons

Two cops were ambushed and killed in Jamaica yesterday. CVM TV in it's nightly newscast has a special feature called 'Nation Under Siege' which highlights the many violent crimes in the nation on an almost daily basis and the police and government's reluctance and inability to deal condignly with the crisis (though they are making significantly greater inroads than their counterparts here in Guyana).

The government of Jamaica has yet to attack CVM TV as being 'unpatriotic' and the Jamaica Tourist Board has yet to attack the media in Jamaica for covering crime and violence as a front burner issue.

See the difference? The people there accept that they have a crisis on their hands and except in communist dictatorships crisis are front page issues. Perhaps Guyana is a communist dictatorship in disguise?

Moseley Calls For Da Silva To Apologise

Star boy repota Gordon Moseley of WRHM Capitol News is holding Geoff 'Fast Mouth' DaSilva accountable.

Good to see a local repota wid lil balls.

Question of the Week

Is it really 'giving a bribe' or is it not, more accurately, 'contributing towards poverty alleviation in Guyana'?

We certainly do not feel guilty because we think that that so called 'bribe money' is going toward buying bread for that policeman's kids. We feel sorry for that poor policeman who is working for GY$28,000 a month. How can you not want to contribute to his and his family's survival?

More Excuses

Let's see what kinds of lies and excuses the honchos over at public will provide this time around.

Rotee Jilted by the Boss

The PPP/Civic government is not a united one. The members of this party who sit in decision making positions are clearly not thinking and acting with straight, united and conscious heads.

It is evident that certain factions will always willingly decide to distance themselves from other factions whenever the need arises. The party and its members never seem to be speaking with one united voice. This has been evident over the years of PPP rule and it continues even today.

The Minister of Home Affair's lashing out at the Acting Chief Justice for a ruling obviously shows that the Minister has very little to do and he seems to be running out of propaganda material.

Why doesn't he lash out at his police force for not being able to find Fineman and his gang? Why doesn't he lash out at the incompetence in the force for not being able to solve so many crimes?
Why doesn't he lash out at the police for allowing so many darkly tinted vehicles to be traversing the roadways everyday, many of which pass his office window daily?

Instead he chooses to dabble quite embarrassingly in matters of which he has little knowledge. It is not his job to worry about decisions made by the judiciary, that's the job of the Attorney General. But like everyone else in power, he too thinks that he is an expert on everything and anything.

Why didn't the Minister lash out when the son of another Minister was granted bail after causing the death of another young innocent Guyanese on the roadways. That case was subsequently settled out of court.
Is the Minister dealing double standards here? There are many other instances where persons [friends with friends in high places] are granted bail for various offences when they should be locked up.

Many a time persons are released on bail after the prosecution [police prosecutors] fail to show up with the necessary case jackets to prosecute those cases.

Why doesn't the Minister clean his own house instead of knocking on the doors of others where it has become quite evident that he is not welcome.

The Neo-Guyana Socio-Political Construct - Part 1

The urban middle class (a classification and its parallel partner we will explain and discuss in a subsequent post) of Guyana decry the popular ’28 years’ cliché electioneering and rallying call of the People's Progressive Party as cheap politricking but the galvanizing force that that rallying call is among PPP Indo-Guyanese support base is lost upon those on the outside.

To understand its impact and effect requires an appreciation and understanding of aspects of the neo-Guyanese socio-political structure which has evolved into taboo discussion and/or analysis at any level – governmental, academia, commentary or otherwise.

It is Living Guyana’s considered view that in Guyana Indo-Guyanese do not trust Afro-Guyanese to the extent that they will decidedly entrust them to govern the nation or otherwise manage the affairs of the state.

This is despite how knowingly incompetent, corrupt and autocratic the Indo-Guyanese administration i.e the PPP chooses to be. It is the quiet and accepted view among Indo-Guyanese that it is better for the Indo-Guyanese government to pilfer, plunder, dominate or otherwise mismanage the nation than the opposing Afro-Guyanese who are seen as already having their turn at the top.

Combine that with the blatant, unapologetic sufferation, trauma and dehumanization that the Indo-Guyanese were forced to endure for 28 years of Afro-Guyanese/PNC domination (to deem it as ‘PNC rule’ is a further insult to their already gaping emotional wounds) ending in 1992 with merciful free and fair and democratic elections.

To further develop the point one needs to observe that current illiteracy levels are bordering on extraordinary. Any cursory or in depth survey on this subject is certain to reveal that illiteracy levels are higher among Indo-Guyanese than they are among Afro-Guyanese. All categories of employment in Guyana which require a moderate level of literacy are dominated by Afro-Guyanese.

The Indo-Guyanese is an overwhelmingly illiterate but more importantly uneducated group though admittedly they are making inroads on this reality but pertinently the prevailing reality is that they are still lagging behind.

Therefore to ask Indo-Guyanese as the majority ethnic group to comprehend that the actions of a few Afro-Guyanese cannot be used to paint the entire Afro-Guyanese community with one sweeping brush of contempt and mistrust is to ask Indo-Guyanese to reason beyond their capacity, it is to ask them to act unnaturally.

Indo-Guyanese tolerate Afro-Guyanese but they do not like them or trust them. That is not to say that all Afro-Guyanese are bad but it does illustrate that in the minds of the Indo-Guyanese as a group the Afro-Guyanese are not only unfit to manage the nation but they cannot be trusted to be so engaged.

Add this to the prevailing disintegration of the main political opposition that is the People’s National Congress and one can forecast that the PPP, with the ingrained mentality of their Indo-Guyanese support base, will not allow itself to lose the national general elections in the foreseeable future.

The politically correct and politically aligned analysts and commentators who are engaged of allowed to dominate the mainstream media will baulk (and probably have their minions respond with contemptuous indifference) at frank and blunt but equally undeniable and incontrovertible analysis as this but it is for this reason that they are ‘politically correct analysts’.

We, like them, could have opted to provide you with the usual flowery analysis littered with pretty pseudo-academic catch phrases. Instead we have decided to cut the crap, cut to the chase, scrape away the male bovine faecal matter (credits to Ruel Johnson) and give it to you straight and in simple, easily comprehensible terms. After all we do have intellectually fledging Indo-Guyanese readers to cater to as well and the simpler the language, the easier it is for them to digest in this, their infancy of enlightenment.

Ramon's Amount of Police

Aye! Ramon Goings of the programme Law Enforcement & You on Hen C Hen Channel 11. A police station is not manned by an amount of police.

A police station is manned by a number of police you clown. You use amount when you cannot identify the exact figure. Amount of sand, number of people. Get the drift?

Didn't you pay attention to Pat Persaud's ENG 115 at You G? Or were you too busy shaving your head and dreaming of one day being bought by the state?

Now go buy a Comprehensive English Course from Austin's Book Store. Let the Hen C Hen driver give you a drop.

MAILBOX: Tourism Website Is Crap

Dear Media Critic,

I am a daily devote reader of your blog. I find it refreshing to see someone actually pointing out the real issues in the face of traditional and new media propaganda, issues that seem to be multiplying as weeks go by. With respect to your posts on tourism I totally agree with you that Crime is one of the many areas that needs to be immediately addressed before even considering destination sales and marketing. One thing however that will do a great job in scaring potential visitors away is the Guyana Tourism Authority's newly redone website which was launched today. Have a look Guyana Tourism.

Compared to destination websites such as Bahamas tourism, Go Trinidad and Tobago, or St Lucia tourism or even far away from the Caribbean in Peru, the GTA website is terrible. It is a poor reflection of Guyana, It is slow to load, has too many links and all in all is a confusing jumble of badly written and presented content (The Grammer is awful).

No visitor would give the site the time of day first of all due to it's slow loading time. The search feature is a laugh. I could go on and on. The GTA needs to stop using amateurs and spend some of that money to hire a professional. This website is a disappointment. I Would love to hear your professional media view.

Best regards,

Alphonso Gary

Fire at the Skranickle

Lord of mercy! The toilet paper Skranickle nearly burn down yesterday and they haven't even reported it in today's edition. Instead the people over at the Kouture paper had to give us a brief of the story.

And to think that a gas station is right next door. Coupled with the age of the derelict looking Skranickle building, all the toilet paper on site and the gas next door would have made for quite a bonfire indeed.

The wata man on the opposite side would have had to assemble his troops quickly to assist the fire service in quelling the bonfire with water from the smudgy canal at Shelter Belt [would that have constituted as water wastage?]

Ban Pitbulls Now!

How many more attacks will it take for the authorities to do the right thing and ban pitbulls?

How many more must be attacked? How many more must die?

Turd Watching 101: The Greater Propaganda Hack

Last week (actually just two days ago but “last week” in blog time and dog years) we showed you how to spot the common propaganda hack, that easily baited, spineless creature that has spawned and overrun the state media in Guyana.

This week, we will deal with the greater propaganda hack, dividable into two main groupings: p. actualis and p. peones honorabilis.

Premmisirus actualis

This is the lead subspecies in the greater propaganda hack grouping. A reclusive creature in public, it often enjoys smearing its viewpoints and columns fecal matter on NCN and in the Guyana Chronicle, after which it goes home, stands up in front of a mirror and touches itself inappropriately. When engaging in non-masturbatory sexual activity, its favourite lekking ground is a place called the Crimson Wyrm, not far down the road from its natural habitat of Fortress Freedom House. A pudgy wingless turd bird, it nevertheless engages often in soaring flights of fancy. Its natural enemies are truth, logic, reason, multiculturalism and f. kissoonus prolificus, the latter of which has the annoying habit of sneaking up on p. actualis and tearing its carefully constructed pseudo-theories to shreds. There is strong evidence that supports the conclusion that premmisirus actualis is, doctorate notwithstanding, stupid as fuck.

Premmisirus peones honorabilis

There have been arguments made in certain scatolo-ornithological circles that p. peones honorabilis warrants a genus or sub-genus of its own but for the purposes of this basic course we will use the traditional definition of a specific grouping of sub-species. These are as follows:

Premmisirus peones tokenus – otherwise known as the reverse albino of the sub-species, p. peones tokenus is remarkable among p. peones for its ultra black plumage. Has an also remarkable capacity for digesting government sputum and regurgitating it in shit of such disproportionately copious quantity as to defy the known characteristics of propaganda hack physiology. A fussy, high-strung and often rabid creature, its diet is primarily large amounts of sausage – Guyanese generally, but Brazilian, Jamaican, Scandinavian, Japanese, Australian, Turkish, or (cut) Jewish if available. Distinguishable by its alliterative cry of “Policies, programmes and projects”, or PPP for short.

Premmisirus peones subanus – so named because there (sub-anus) is where it can be found, its beak usually so far up the cloacal cavity of p. actualis that it is often impossible to distinguish where p. actualis ends and p. peones subanus begins. Strange behaviour indeed, but apparently effective for rising fast in the pecking order. It should be noted that this sub-species is perpetually pending reclassification because of its facile migratory habits and its remarkable ability to molt and adopt the plumage of whatever political party genus is serving its favourite food – soup – in greater quantities.

Premmisirus peones ramotarus – a newly emerged species which has risen (the state media, like nature, abhorring a vacuum) to take the place of premmisirus peones kanus, a sub-species forced into early retirement extinction. Originally showed atypical signs of a vertebral column, but which quickly turned out to be that flexible cartilaginous material that acts as a pseudo-spine in the propaganda hack genus. Whereas p. peones subanus is well known for its fondness for soup, p. peones ramotarus prefers the sauce.

We will continue to explore these fascinating creatures next week.

Grow More?

They tell de people to grow more. The people obey and grow more. Now they're destroying the people's crops.

Dis guvament got to decide what dem really want.

Friends & Buddies Deals

Living Guyana makes it clear that we are not against tax concessions for legitimate investors. Lord knows Guyana needs massive investments.

Living Guyana does have a huge problem when tax concessions are doled out the friends and buddies though.

And it is not that these tax concessions are going to supporters of the party (which is not all that unusual the world over) but there is a more incestuous relationship going on here because the major tax concessions and major contracts are all going to close and personal friends.

So unless you suck up and become a close buddy of the big kahuna himself regardless of your competence, professionalism or other positive attributes your company will stand zero chance to seal any government contracts or deals.

The lesson in this is that you got to kiss ass and become bosom buddies to get any leeway.

More BMU Personnel Exposed

Here's another one of the monitors at the Blog Monitoring Unit who spend their days infesting this blog with horse shit comments.

Memory Lane

Remember the good old days?

Photo ripped from Guyana.org without permission.

Horsewax Exposed

Stabroek News: "Speaker of the House, Sherod Duncan, took his job quite seriously and on numerous occasions reprimanded members whom he thought were being disruptive to the session. He actually suspended shadow Finance Minister, Romeo Seenjan for two minutes after the member said "Thank God" when his colleague on the opposite side, Ronald Horsewax, was told by the speaker that his time was up."

Horsewax is one of the hacks there at the Blog Monitoring Unit. Looks like our boy does not have such a good profile, after all people were delighted when it was time for him to shut up. Hilarious.

Now he has moved on to bigger and better things - commenting on Living Guyana.

BMU Alert

Folks we just wanted to bring to your attention that the operatives over at the Blog Monitoring Unit are not merely monitoring this blog anymore but they are swamping the comments section of virtually every post with their asinine spewings. We allow all the comments however inane and idiotic they may be so that you can see what your tax dollars are being used for.

In this case they are being used to pay some lil pickneys GY$2000 a day to sit at two offices in Georgetown and swamp this blog with comments, lies, nancy stories and the like.

We know that it is the BMU because we can see the IP addresses and we know exactly where they are located. They can try but they cannot hide.

Guyana = Drug Transit Cesspool

International Narcotics Reports 2008: Guyana is a transit point for cocaine destined for North America, Europe, and the Caribbean, but not in quantities sufficient to impact the U.S. market. In 2007, domestic seizures of cocaine were three times higher than the previous year due to improved counternarcotics measures at the working level, although all but one of these seizures were minor in scale.

The Government of Guyana (GOG) laid the groundwork for an enhanced security sector by agreeing to a reform program sponsored by the British government; it also arrested Terrence Sugrim, an accused drug trafficker wanted by the U.S., and initiated the extradition process.

More than two years after launching its National Drug Strategy Master Plan (NDSMP) for 2005-2009, the GOG has not effectively implemented it. Cooperation among law enforcement bodies is fragmented and minimally productive; weak border controls and limited resources for law enforcement allow drug traffickers to move shipments via river, air, and land without meaningful resistance. Guyana is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.

Guyana is a transit country for cocaine, and to a lesser degree marijuana. Guyana’s vast expanse of unpopulated forest and savannahs offers ample cover for drug traffickers and smugglers. Government counternarcotics efforts are undermined by inadequate resources for law enforcement, poor coordination among law enforcement agencies, an inefficient judiciary, and a colonial-era legal system badly in need of modernization.

Murders, kidnappings, and other violent crimes commonly believed to be linked with narcotics trafficking are regularly reported in the Guyanese media. Guyana produces high-grade cannabis and is not known to produce, trade, or transit precursor chemicals on a large scale.

QED

In relation to our post on the common propaganda hack, we received these comments. Quod erat demonstrandum, bitches, QED.

SN Gets Off High Horse, Responds To GMC Advice

Wow! Stabroek News is responding in a positive way to Living Guyana. Well done.

We pointed out to them that they needed to properly link to other articles on their website and they have taken our advice and have done so.

Wow. Nice to see that they have descended off that high horse and have humbled themselves and are taking good sound advice. And how ironic that the linking has appeared in an Iana Seales article? Iana has been known to be one of the most arrogant of the lot at Stabroek News.

Looks like the bossman has told her and the others to humble themselves and behave like decent human beings. Well done folks.

Model Anchor Micheal

Micheal the modelling bwoy Younge anchored the Evening News tonight. Seems like Rose Petal got sick or there was some other reason she was missing. Model bwoy didn't do too bad anyhow but the suit he wore made him look like a starved Sammy Davis Jr.

Maybe the other one time model bwoy lent him the suit without having him first do a dress rehearsal.

Seems too that he wanted to flounce up himself the way he did after winning the model search competition. However, sense seemed to prevail and he moderated his physical antics on screen.

Delly's Mix-up

Delecia Fletcher of the Hen C Hen 6 a' clack news seemed to be floating in deep space tonight.

While introducing a story on Carifesta she referred to Dr. Frank Anthony as the Minister of Health. Nuff lay lay, her co-anchor Aveenash prappa got she bazoodee. She can't even read properly how she so confused.

What it is

There is a campaign going on to completely install and fortify the government dictatorship and to further perpetrate the aggressive hoodwinking of the nation.
The propaganda machine was running out of material until the Opposition made a number of idle and silly statements regarding a certain event that is to be staged in Guyana later this year.

The propaganda machine is now back in full swing and certain operatives who were tasked with fabricating and attacking sectors of the media can now retract back into their docile shells and live peacefully.

From the clamp on freedom of speech to abusing the state's resources in peddling lies Guyanese can brace themselves for another few months/years of propaganda that will only serve to create a false sense of safety.
Life has become dangerous and its time people wake up and smell the direction of the stench.

Tourism 101: The Common Propaganda Hack

As you may know, the Guyana Media Landscape is a diverse one, filled with a variety of fauna. In this week's lesson we look at the Common Propaganda Hack (Premmisirus peones), a species defined by its almost incredulous ability to digest anything the government says, and spew it out in copious amount of shit. This species is also known for the congenital absence of any vertebral column.

You can usually spot the common propaganda hack at two shitting grounds, one on Home Stretch Avenue; the other on Lama Avenue. We should also note that there is a ritual of meeting of Greater Propaganda Hacks (Premmisirus actualis, Premmisirus peones honorabilis) every Wednesday at the Office of the President but that is for another post.

The common propaganda hack is a curious creature. While a small amount are bred in the wild, most are hatched within the safety of PPP constituencies on Guyana's coastal plain. Fledgling hacks usually spend their adolescence in the confines of the PYO, feasting on a steady diet of Mirror and Guyana Chronicle with a little bit of pseudo-Marxism thrown in for taste.

Depending on their gullibility and basic (in)competence in writing, they are selected for future journalism or information based work. It should be noted that contrary to behaviour observed in other brainless bird species, regurgitation for consumption is actually a trait noticed in younger members of premmisirus peones - this is most strange.

The newly mature common propaganda hack usually migrates from whatever country ass school environment they come from straight into the state media. There they spend their days digesting government sputum and defecating it back on to the airwaves and Chronicle's letter pages.

Certain technologically inclined hacks are placed higher up in the pecking order and given the responsibility of monitoring blogs such as this one, saturating them with as many asinine bullshit comments as appear in the letter pages of the Chronicle. Said comments will nonetheless be published because that is how the free media is supposed to work.

Premmisirus peones is most easily identifiable by its droppings a sample of which can be found below.

"I distinctly remember that during a protest march organised by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) in April, the call was made for no Carifesta until the suspension of the CNS Channel 6 licence for four months is lifted. During that protest march PNCR Leader, Robert Corbin, stated that protest actions would be taken in an effort to make Carifesta ‘unmanageable’ if Sharma’s suspension was not revoked.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, which to my knowledge has never been in the centre of any controversy, was attacked on the evening of May 16, by persons who fired indiscriminately and hurled a channa bomb.What is also interesting is that the incident occurred just after gunmen discharged a number of rounds on the Water Chris hotel on Waterloo Street a few minutes before.

Why such callous attacks on these two buildings? Is it to send a strong message to the visitors coming for Carifesta X that they should be fearful of staying in hotels during the period, or is it an attempt to affect the Culture Ministry which is the main body spearheading activities for Carifesta? I am left to wonder if there is a link between this recent development and PNCR’s intention to make Carifesta unmanageable. (Guyana Chronicle, May 19, 2008)

The common propaganda hack is virtually indistinguishable from the general media hack at the average press conference, except by its natural softball, lame-duck questions. While no scientific studies have been undertaken to prove this, there is enough anecdotal evidence to surmise that common propaganda hack is completely blind to reason and logic.

Next week, we take a look at the Greater Propaganda Hack.

Politics For Dummies 101

For all those who disagree that the Putrid Patacake Party are neo-Fascists, may we remind you that the era of political absolutism has ended. We no longer exist in an age of clearly defined heroes, maidens, monsters and chains. What remains are not whole, strictly definable ideologies but chimeras of beliefs and practices that mostly resemble one thing or the other from the absolute principles but always possessing elements of other “principles”, for want of a better word.

The PPP is a chimera of corruption – corrupt Marxism; a [corrupt] ethnocracy; corrupt democracy; unjust enrichment through usurpation of the mechanisms and the resources of the state; liaisons with the international narcotic industry (primarily economic but with necessarily political manifestations as well); public favouring of the criminal enterprise; and nepotism.

The usual excuse from the PPP apologists is that "things are getting done in the country, and that things are not as bad as under the PNC." For all those asswipes who seem to have not only drank the Cool Aid but willingly went back for seconds, just to make sure that every freethinking brain cell and shred of decency they had left is completely obliterated there are three key things to consider:

The first is that the Poor People Plunderers have been in government for the past sixteen years and will be there until 2011. In terms of democratic politics, that is as close to absolute power as you can get…and you know what they say about absolute power – it breeds absolute assholes. Check the Buddy’s Trial of Errors, the Buddy’s Hotel Deal, and the Sanata Deal – all in which the principle beneficiaries are known to have strong personal ties to the President.

Secondly, contrary to popular backdam belief, the government is supposed to get things done in a country. The government is employed by the people to do just that.

“Imagine abbee own a roti shop, and abbee not too good with figgas and dem things duh… plus abbee too busy fuh cook roti and chicken curry and sell am. Is abbee flowa, is abbee peas, is abbee oil, is abbee chicken, is abbee curry, is abbee fyah, is abbee stove. Suh abbee get wan wan people who seh dey know fuh cook roti and curry good good good so abbee seh yall cook this, sell am and mek sure abbee get enough money suh abbee could eat and live good. Abbee is de people and dem wan wan people is de guvament.”

(Source: L. Iving, Guyana et al; Backdam Remedial Politics Handbook; 2^nd Edition (2008); Anywhere But Freedom House or Congress Place Publishers Inc.)

Which means you backward incestuous swine reading this from your little cubicles at GINA, NCN, Chronicle and the “covert” BMU, before you rush off to kumbayah with BJ and Gang at the upcoming PYO soiree, consider that technically speaking you and ma and pa and all the rest are really the ones giving the PPP hierarchs (dem people pun top dat is drive big big car) their jobs.

Thirdly, using the PNC as a yardstick or baseline for governance is like saying that “We may smell like stinking, rotten shit, but at least we don’t smell like dirty, stinking, rotten shit.” The truth is, the PNC during the eighties (which is the time period the PPP apologists like quoting from the most to show how shitty things were in Guyana) was the PNC in their second decade in power. At the rate we are going, it’s safe to project that PPP’s second decade in power isn’t going to be much better.

More to come.

Ramoutar's Slip Is Showing

Donald Ramoutar: "The fascist Minister of Propaganda in Hitlerite Germany Herr Gobels is on record as having said that a lie is more believed when it is a big lie. He is further reported to have said that the more often a lie is repeated the more it tends to be believed."

Is it surprising that Uncle Donald is so versed in what the Minister of Propaganda Herr Gobels preached?

Who Is GT's Best Doctor?

Someone who wishes not to be identified emailed us saying that they enjoyed the Visitor's Guide To Surviving Carifesta but asked about medical services.

It is a good question and one that has been asked of us previously.

If someone gets ill and does not want to go to one of the many city hospitals is there a good, competent doctor that they can visit at his/her clinic?

Which doctors offers the best patient care in Georgetown outside the hospitals? Which doctor has a good clinic and which doctors diagnoses well and explains details of the situation to the patient? Which doctor is the most caring?

Which doctor should one go to if they want a solid diagnosis and excellent patient care.

Do you know? If you do, leave a comment in the comment section of this post or email us at guyanamediacritic[at]gmail.com

Chuck-A-Sang Is Missing The Real Problem Facing Tourism In Guyana

Renata Chuck-A-Sang, the president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana recently slammed the local media for what she deemed to be their negative reporting on crime. Ms Chuck-A-Sang wishes that the local media tone down their reportage of crimes in Guyana so that the tourism industry will not suffer cancellation from potential tourists who allegedly cancel after reading the many crime reports on newspaper websites.

Backward, selfish and shallow pseudo-analysis such as this must be highlighted, exposed and condemned whenever it surfaces. Rather than dealing with the problem at the root, Ms Chuck-A-Sang is shooting the messenger and seeking a dangerous band aid solution. It is shortsighted and outrageously stupid.

Ms Chuck-A-Sang would be better served dedicating her energies to feverishly and relentlessly campaigning for the increasingly fascist PPP government of Guyana and the under-equipped and problem plagued Guyana Police Force to do what is long overdue and now desperately necessary to get a handle on the rampaging and pervasive crime crisis in the nation. There can be no question or reservation that crime in Guyana has reached catastrophic proportions and to understate, tone down or otherwise veil that fact would be disingenuous, deceptive and propagandistic.

A minister of government was brutally assassinated along with other members of his family and his security and that brazen crime has, to date, gone completely unsolved. Ordinary citizens are being gunned down on an almost daily basis, there were two massacres earlier this year and there are barefaced robberies on an almost daily and nightly basis.

A prominent businessman was kidnapped for a month then his head was severed and dumped a block away from his business while his body was dumped meters away from the national police headquarters. We have had police stations and policemen shot at on a regular basis and this includes the headquarters of policing in this nation.

All of these crimes go mostly unsolved and the gunmen who infest parts of the coastland are carrying out their mission, emboldened by the knowledge that the likelihood of them being caught and brought to justice ranges between 'very slim' and 'zero'.

Here's breaking news for you Ms Chuck-A-Sang your problem is not "the reportage of crime in Guyana", it is "crime in Guyana". How much of an intellectual juvenile must one be to not be able to figure that out without guidance and assistance?

If there is moderate or little crime in Guyana then there will only be moderate or little crime for the media to report. This is a nation under siege by criminals, robbers, bandits, gunmen-for-hire and gangsters. The local media have many shortcomings and despite Ms Chuck-A-Sang's inane criticisms we feel that the local media is not doing enough in highlighting exactly how dangerous a society we have degenerated into. The media, for the most part, merely report on the crimes without any follow ups or investigative pieces in the aftermath.

Ms Chuck-A-Sang and the tourism aficionados ought to think themselves and their industry as being fortunate that the local media, due largely to laziness and rank incompetence, are not highlighting the stifling and frightening crime problems which is ripping Guyana asunder.

By advocating that the local media tone down their reportage of the crime crisis in Guyana Ms Chuck-A-Sang and by extension THAG are demonstrating that, rather than caring about the welfare of tourists, they care little about safety and welfare of the foreigners they wish to woo to these shores. In effect she is saying that she and her association prefer for the media to hide the truth about the crime crisis in Guyana from the potential tourists so that they will be duped into coming here thinking that all is well and they will be safe when in reality the situation is a seriously dangerous one.

We would advise no one to come to Guyana at this time for tourism purposes. No one. Allow us to repeat that, crime in Guyana has reached catastrophic proportions and no tourist should contemplate visiting Guyana as long as the crime crisis remains. When that problem is eradicated and crime exists only in a manageable proportion then we would certainly encourage tourists but not now. The life and limbs of locals, let alone tourists, are under serious threat at the moment and have been for several years running.

It is an exceptionally selfish position for Ms Chuck-A-Sang and THAG to advocate that tourists visit Guyana currently. No sane tourism authority anywhere in the world would advocate such a position and by doing so Ms Chuck-A-Sang herself has exposed THAG's position for all potential tourists to see. One can deduce from Chuck-A-Sang's comments that the members of THAG do not care about the welfare of the tourists and further that the members of THAG only care about making money for itself.

And further the local media, in highlighting the crimes in Guyana may be doing the tourism product in Guyana huge favour. If it is true that potential tourists are reading the crime reports online and then canceling bookings to come here then how can that be a bad thing for the tourism industry in the long term? What does Ms Chuck-A-Sang prefer? For tourists to risk life and limb to come to Guyana at a time when the government nor the police force has no control whatsoever over crime and have one (or more) of the tourists lose their life?

If that were to happen then it would be plastered across the international newspapers, newscasts and websites and then whatever little standing Guyana has as a tourist destination will be shattered and stained forever.

That someone who expresses such daft thoughts can be in charge of THAG underscores how backward, impotent and intellectually bankrupt the association truly is.

Again Ms Chuck-A-Sang, 'crime in Guyana' is your real problem, not 'the reportage of crime in Guyana'. By publicly declaring that you and your association wish for the problem to remain but the reportage of it to be stifled is as shocking as it is boneheaded.

Quackos At KN Get Themselves In Trouble

So the quacks at Kaieteur News took this, edited it a little and published it as a letter in their newspaper and attached the name Malika Alleyne-Persico to it.

Obviously this bit was written by us so it was completely odd that KN published it as a letter and with someone else's name to it.

What apparently happened is that Mrs Alleyne-Persico copied and pasted the piece from this blog into an email and sent to her friends and colleagues. The mail, having been forwarded quite a few times, ended up in the KN inbox and the editor must have been either drunk, totally incompetent and lazy or deliberately mischievous to print it with Mrs Alleyne-Persico's name attached.

This obviously made Mrs Alleyne-Persico quite upset and she sent a stern letter to KN. See that letter below.

17 May, 2008

Dear Messrs Adam Harris and Nigel McKenzie:

Kindly Retract Piece Titled “A Practical Guide to Visiting Guyana for CARIFESTA”

Pursuant to our telephone conversations on the morning of Saturday 17 May, 2008,
I am hereby requesting the IMMEDIATE retraction of the piece titled “A Practical Guide to Visiting Guyana for CARIFESTA” published in the letter section of your paper on Saturday 17 May, 2008 and attributed to Malika Alleyne-Persico. I am also requesting that you publish this letter, unedited, no later than Sunday 18 May, 2008, with equal if not greater prominence as the purported letter.

I would like to emphatically and unequivocally state that the piece WAS NOT written by Malika Alleyne-Persico. This piece can be readily accessed online at http://livinguyana.blogspot.com and someone, whether or not with devious intentions, sent it to your newspaper and attributed it to me.

I would also like to register my deep regret and disappointment at the fact that an item, whether newsworthy, satirical, comical or otherwise, can be published in your newspaper and attributed to a private citizen WITHOUT first verifying the veracity of its content or that of its source.

By your actions you have brought me, my husband and family into disrepute and public odium. We also suggest that you make attempts to identify and find the writer of this piece and attribute it to them, as I am not interested in taking credit, whether good or bad, for someone else’s work.

I have been advised by my Attorney-at-law that in attributing such negative comments to me, you have caused severe injury to my reputation and that I am entitled to sue for libel. Further, in so far as the purported letter illegally and recklessly attributes to me, the literary work of another person, I will hold you liable for any damages for copyright infringement that may arise.

Thank you,
Malika Alleyne-Persico

Hard at work

It's good to see the $2000 a day work at home in your spare time employees of the Blog Monitoring Unit are trying hard to earn their keep. At least we can sleep at ease knowing our tax dollars (not those that went into Buddy's Hotel) are being given away for something. Wassup Prim Misere?! Big shout out to Token McCoy!!

Dear Land of the Black-Shirts

Let us get one thing straight. There is no other CARICOM country where gunmen have the cause or the ability to bomb and shoot at a government Ministry in broad daylight…and get away with it. There is no question at present that Guyana is a country whose government is under siege.

What is also clear is that intelligence on exactly where the attacks are coming from is sorely lacking. The arrest of the Opposition Leader’s bodyguard is indicative of one of two things.

The first option is that there is legitimate reason to believe that he (and by extension his boss) are connected to whatever they questioned him about, circumstantially speaking, the “insurgency” in Guyana. If that is the case, then clear, unequivocal and legally sanctioned moves need to be made against those suspected of involvement.

The second option is that we are entering a phase of neo-Fascism (an interesting twist coming from a Party steeped in communist doctrine), characterized by ad hoc detentions and complete disregard for habeas corpus; suppression of media entities seen as hostile to the government’s agenda; the creation of elite sections within the state security forces.

Indeed the only central tenet of fascism that seems missing from the trajectory of the current regime is the militaristic component – which frankly isn’t necessary within the present geopolitical context. If anything, the PPP seems to have evolved other characteristic elements of Fascism – corporatism defined not only by the clear political links with the sugar industry, but with the narcotic trade and fuel smugglers as well.

The third option, and the most likely, may be both. The attack against the Ministry is obviously political and in opposition to the government, and please Dr. Anthony, is not just or even primarily to derail CARIFESTA so get over yourself.

Whatever the case, unless Guyanese start acting up against these two political parties, the collateral damage will continue to increase, and all that in the midst of rising food prices, VAT, climate change, oil prices, and Crook-Deo blatantly helping he friends to make a windfall on taxpayers’ dollars.

Bajan Based Guyanese Man Abused At St Maarten Airport

Nation News: The Guyana-born man said they were placed in a room that was "very cold" to sit with about seven others and the abuse stepped up from then. He said things went downhill after he complained of hunger.

Nixon claimed he was kicked, punched in the forehead and his camera case ripped in an attempt to grab his camera and he was "slammed" against a phone booth before taking the return flight back to Barbados.