THE budget cuts have had a truly disastrous effect on the economy, and lifestyles of people, and their bread and butter.
The methodologies of the cuts have caused me to lose respect for the opposition parties that flock the Parliament of Guyana.  I am most disappointed with the APNU/PNC. The PNC/APNU group seems to have forgotten the decades of ‘Critical Support’ the PPP, through Dr. Cheddi Jagan, had given to the PNC government, despite its litany of rigging under the leadership years of the late Mr. Forbes Burnham.
Critical Support saved Guyana from destruction and riots, as it was almost impossible to live decently and without dishonesty, he having criminalised almost the entire nation with his ban on all food imports, and in particular flour, which destroyed businesses, livelihoods, and which caused the arousal of citizens to engage in money and food smuggling, using their initiatives to get money out of Guyana, including hiding monies in reproductive tracts of females and the anuses of men.  Then most Guyanese who were found with some form of wheaten flour or flour products were criminalised, hence, criminalising the nation Guyana, making Guyana a laughing entity of the Caribbean.
Guyanese became an unwanted people; looked upon as hungry desperadoes’ looking to take bread out of other Caribbean citizens’ mouths, and depleting their resources.  One could not have gotten a gallon of paint without it being smuggled or a fan, or a pen.  The Guyana Stores supermarket had only liquor and some ugly black sugar on its shelves.  Women had to join lines from 2 am to get a pint of cooking oil, or a pound of garlic, but to get the garlic one had to purchase cups and plates from the WRSM.

Guyanese women started travelling and suffered enormously in the trade, with many giving their bodies to the Trinidad immigration to get access into Trinidad, and even Suriname.  Many wanted the good life for their families, and hence, started to sell their bodies in Trinidad and Suriname and other territories and would use the gains off their bodies to bring back food items to feed the Guyanese nation, and some consumer items.  Vehicle tyres and spare parts were impossible to get, and we had to use various schemes to get a few tyres in the country.

Stores were raided to provide materials for the government and its henchmen, and some in power abused it, even those who had nothing would give false information to the Burnhamite Intelligence Squad, and the House of Israel thugs to make life difficult for certain Afro-Guyanese intellectuals, Indians and journalists like Father Darke and Eusi Kwyanna.  It was during those horrific years-and they were unforgivable ones-that Dr. Walter Rodney was assassinated, and the life of Joshua Ramsammy was almost taken by the assassin’s bullet, but which took away his revolutionary spirit and drive.

It was a time of horror, when certain PNCites will tell lies on their successful neighbours about arms and ammunition to bring the GDF and police to peep into females’ underwears, on their bodies and in their drawers, and when men were humiliated in front of their children and wives.
If not, the ‘kick down the door bandits’ would have been unleashed to make the death look as if it were just criminal and not orchestrated by the House of Israel and/or the Intelligence Squad of Burnham. Rabbi Washington said long after he was released by Dr. Jagan from the prisons for murder, that:  “The House of Israel was a kind of para-military force,” his own words.  Here we saw a fugitive from justice from the USA,  given sanctuary by the Burnhamite regime, in exchange to do Burnham’s bidding of strangling those who Burnham did not like or felt threatened by, even though most was the figment of his imagination.  Desperate dictators are usually known to behave like this.

I recall that the police used to seize the food imports at the No. 63 Village toll gate, and Weldaad, those smuggled from Suriname.  They wanted the food imports for themselves, while imprisoning housewives and traders who wanted food for their families.  Some traders decided to poison the flour.  The police seized and imprisoned those they could, and took the flour home.  Many family members of police died and or got very ill, including policemen and their sweet women families.
I recall also the female arm of the PNC had sent activists to teach citizens of the Crabwood Creek area to cook rice flour and how to cook without cooking oil.  On their way the activists were stopped by the police and they were found with tens of pounds of wheaten flour being taken to their homes.  Of course, we know what the mood of Forbes Burnham must have been like over this and can imagine what he did to them.

The first time I visited the United States I was embarrassed and had to beg relatives for money as the Burnhamite policy  allowed only $25 US for overseas visits.  Such was the wanton shame Forbes Burnham unleashed on us citizens of this great country.

The Burnhamite years were a period of great harm and shame to our nation and our peoples. The above is just a few scraps of the PNC era of leadership. The coming to power of Mr. Desmond Hoyte brought with it some sanity.  The nation breathed joy, and an era of peace and goodwill prevailed.  Mr. Hoyte cancelled the ban on flour, and the nation smiled.  All bans on food imports were cancelled, and monies no longer had to be hidden in vaginas and anuses or taken to the airport risking jail.  People felt dignified again, they had a sense of pride and wellbeing, and Guyana prospered.  But the Burnhamite stench remains on the Guyanese wherever they travel to this day, and to this day they are discriminated against in various Caribbean countries.
The citizens of those countries will never forget the days when we bought out their groceries, causing the prices to soar in Trinidad and Suriname, affecting those citizens, the same period when Guyanese traders made the airport their hotels and will sleep day and night to bring essentials to Guyanese.  In many ways the smugglers saved Guyanese.

But that was the era that caused people to see the idea of exporting their wealth out of Guyana, and caused much of the smuggling that exists today; the pervasive corruption and criminality that we see daily in our lives, in my opinion, started then when there was little.  The minds of people are damaged, and the ways are set.

My question is this: does the new PNC, now APNU, wish for our people to suffer today as we did in the days of their leadership?  Hundred are left unemployed through a $1 insult.

It should have been $0 not $1.   It is known this is merely to humiliate, but I think this attitude will cause a backlash, and those who stayed home, will not do so next time.  Maybe those who switched loyalties will revert as many are annoyed, including someone very close to me.

The undiplomatic statements from both Mr. Granger of the APNU and Mr. Ramjattan were appalling.  They actually stated they do not care and collateral damage will be the reality.  In one case it was definite vengeance for some reason.  Placing Guyanese and their families on the breadline was surprising, and their words afterwards even more so.  Numerous Amerindians will suffer.

The more I listen to Mr. Ramjattan, the more I lose respect for him and his party.  I think the AFC would have been better off with Mr. Trotman, who is now the Hon. Speaker of the House.

While I have friends in all political parties, I owe complete loyalty to none.  Maybe one day soon I may accept an invitation to join a political entity, as I prepare to retire from business.
The budget cuts continue with its woes, as Guyana, the Amerindians, and many unemployed suffer, with the nation suffering indirectly.