SO it’s Christmas, a time when utility bills become a major worry for Guyanese, and funny enough, chaos has erupted within the realms of both the GPL and GWI which has Facebook busy with discussion. On one hand, GPL’s CEO Colin Welch get “skin up” after some alleged conversation between him and a Chinese company was leaked. The conversation revealed him asking the company to lie regarding its ability to supply millions of dollars worth in prepaid meters, though the company is seen admitting that it falls short in vital areas. Facebookers had a field day with this one — some even went so far as to assume that maybe the Chinese brand is superior after all since, Welch clearly is willing to go to all lengths to utilise them for whatever self-gaining reason. But above all “text, lies and corruption” seem to be the winning slogan for this issue. If this is true, then many are in agreement with what should happen next: Welch must go!
On the other hand, GWI is having its own issues. The water company is reportedly investigating a possible sabotage of its ICT network after finding a “hidden wireless device” that could be responsible for a shutdown of its system a few days ago. Now, while Dr Richard Van-West Charles declared his intention to carry out a thorough investigation, Guyanese took it upon themselves to make their own assumptions: many are saying it’s “PPP opposition tactics,” but others are saying that Van- West Charles is trying to distract us from the fact that he hired his two friends… I’ll just leave that right there.
Bottom line? Check your water and light bills thoroughly from now on, folks, we don’t know how this chaos could affect us.
And on the Ganja issue…
President Granger has commented on the ongoing ganja issue, stating that the decriminalisation of ganja would be a contradictory move given that the government is currently looking towards legally banning cigarette- smoking in certain places. There’s a bit of objection on this matter with some members of the public stating that decriminalisation is not the goal, but the removal of the mandatory minimum sentence for small amounts. Regardless of what the issue is, however, one thing is clear: there should be strong protections against anything that is addictive and ganja is no exception. The matter of “how strong” these protections are- well, that’s the touchy part. Therefore, despite the assumed misinterpretation of what the people want, unfortunately the decision cannot be made overnight.
Determination
I see the bandits are relentless and are not taking Operation Dragnet’s upped ante as a threat… they’re still coming strong, but they’re also still getting knocked down. The most recent event was one in which a GRA employee was robbed after returning home, but the police were quick on the scene after being called by the woman’s neighbours. Though one of the bandits managed to escape, the other was shot. But it’s not what you’re thinking; this one lived (and hopefully learned his lesson). But perhaps the police listened to President Granger’s call to have criminals arrested rather than killed. So they’re getting better already, maybe next time they’ll manage to not shed any blood at all. Here’s to high hopes!