Dear Editor,
I AM pleased to announce the formation of a new civil society organization, “Citizens Against New Things (CANT)”. As it says in the name, we are against new things; no bridge will ever be good enough for any of Guyana’s rivers; no power plant can be environmentally-friendly enough; no project will create enough benefit to be worth the effort. You get our drift; it is No! No! No to anything new (except new organs of civil society)!

I quite expect to be joined by the usual Doubting Thomases who form and join organisations to give weight to their agendas. I look forward, with eagerness, to a call from Chris Ram, the doyen of dubious doubters everywhere: He who proclaimed the Marriott would fail; the Hope Canal was in the wrong place, etc, etc.

Editor, CANT cannot fail, for, if we do, Guyana will become a very different place; one with enough cheap electrical power from Amaila Hydro and the gas-to-shore plant to make unthinkable industries viable; new hotels will dominate the skyline; free flow of traffic over high-span bridges; new highways to ease commuter traffic jam woes. Why, we may even see the demise of the backyard clothesline as dryers enter the affordable home-appliance field. We urge you to urge others to join this new organisation against new things, and preserve our image as a backward people from a proud backwater country. Retrorsum in aeternum.

Yours sincerely,
Robin Singh