PARLIAMENTS throughout the world have always been notorious for their feisty debates, within the realms of parliamentary decorum, so this year it had to be a slip of the tongue that transformed the word goodies in a goadies, and goadies had to later be termed medically as Hydro-cele and yes, the debate centred on the nation’s 2013 Budget.

Odinga Lumumba sits in the benches of the ruling political party and is as fierce a ‘debater’ as they come, with his almost vitriolic attacks on the combined opposition more so, his former homestead the People’s National Congress, which has been an almost annual ritual.
This year, however, the Member of Parliament received a letter that he just had to share with the House and it served to be one of the more effective presentations of the past week as the budget debates raged on.
Many in the opposition benches clearly didn’t agree with some of the assertions of Lumumba and his friend’s account of landing in Guyana with an airport that reminded him of the famed La Guardia, or even looking to reserve a room at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown given its advanced state of completion.
Lumumba’s friend had not been in Guyana for 22 years now and following an ‘outreach’ in the U.S., purportedly by the AFC, Lumumba’s friend decided to travel to Guyana and bring a cheque to donate to the party and help his motherland out of its abyss but had to change his mind upon arrival.
Many in the House including Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, could hardly contain himself nor did the Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee who joined in with those opposition benches such as Dr Rupert Roopnarine and the many others in the House who could do nothing but roll in laughter.
Lumumba told the House that after not being in Guyana for 22 years and reading of the terrible reports emanating from the country, his friend almost dreaded landing at the airport, but when he did, he was pleasantly surprised: his baggage was on the conveyor, the service was hospitable and the uniformed taxi driver broke the news, things will only get better with the expansion of the airport as catered for in the budget.
The House continued to erupt occasionally in laughter as Lumumba’s friend journeyed along the East Bank Demerarqa corridor and his amazement could only escalate at the sight of the lavish ‘concrete’ homes, as related by Lumumba.
Lumumba’s friend, by the time he had gotten to Diamond and taken on a tour of the Housing Scheme, was thrown in shock at the spate of development and took ill, but in the words of the taxi driver, according to Lumumba, ‘have no fear the Diamond Hospital is there.’
The friend recalled, as had been told to him by the taxi driver, and reported to the House by Lumumba there is the Dr called Minister of Health, Bheri Ramsaran responsible and as such big things were happening.
By the time Lumumba’s friend made his way to the Berbice River Bridge and back to Georgetown he was ready to reserve his room at the Marriott Hotel, that upon its completion he will return to Guyana.
The friend decided that he would give the cheque to the PPP instead, given the spate of development it had managed, according to Lumumba.
One Member of Parliament, had prepared a speech, and on that speech there were two photographs, a Guyana one thousand dollar bill with a scissors and the talk of instruments by some ranks in the opposition, while  the first weekend break, saw the Minister of Legal Affairs, not being able to help himself from responding.
Nandlall suggested that the way the goodly gentleman was passionately speaking about the various instruments they intend to use on the 2013 Budget, it was as if they had been in search of a “political orgasm.”
Following the first weekend break in the budget debate this year, the government and opposition members fanned out across the country, both proclaiming imminent victory, but!
A few of the members had returned with messages for their political opponents.
The Minister of Home Affairs told the House that he had returned with two messages directly from citizens with whom he had interacted.
The messages he said were for the APNU’s Shadow Finance Minister, who kicked off the debates on behalf of the Opposition, “rambling rose,” he said was on such message from a male senior citizen but and old woman, according to Rohee had an even deeper colloquial dig.
The Home Affairs Minister in representing his constituent’s voice in the House said, according to the old woman, “Greenidge sounded like he was feeling fowl batty for eggs.”
APNU’s Basil Williams immediately left the House murmuring, “I aint able with this fowl batty business.”
Still on the 2013 Budget one APNU Member of Parliament decided that it was best to serenade the House.
He was able to belt out the note “whyyy” but Chris Jones was promptly stopped in his tracks by Speaker, Trotman.
There were the usual quotations from the bible and the words to the wise and not so wise and by the third day on Wednesday last, the speeches had ended and it was time to welcome a Member of Parliament as APNU’s Richard Allen had to be replaced.
Brigadier (rtd) David Granger lost his cool blurting out “oh shut up,” directed at a government minister, as the heckling across the aisle of the political divide escalated.
The opposition was later accused of putting on a “shameless” charade of speeches in welcoming its newest member, Ms Renita Williams, to be sworn in.
It turned out to be an almost unwelcoming welcome, characterised  by the abundance of heckling.
Speaker Trotman noted the atmosphere of the new MP’s first minutes in the House.
The Finance Minister accused the opposition of stalling for time so that its remaining members would settle in and there be a vote on the order of things and the amount of days for things to come.
With Williams sworn into the APNU benches and with the voting strength in hand, the combined opposition in another move that will forever be inked as historic in  Guyana’s Parliament, delayed  consideration of the 2013 Budget estimates.
Guyana’s legislators will from today set out on the final stretch of the 2013 budgetary process and the stage has since been set for seven more days of charting deeper into uncharted waters with just about $38B identified to be lopped from the national expenditures for this year.