Dear Editor,
THIS year’s Nobel Peace Prize went to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its “efforts to combat hunger”, and its “contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee has described the WFP as “a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.” The WFP, a United Nations agency, represents the best of the international community and its collective action to create a more hopeful world, the USA being one of its biggest donors. This is another blow to President Trump, who was overlooked for the third time for this prestigious award. Despite the fact that Trump did help forge agreements between Israel and two Arab states that previously refused to recognise the U.S. as an ally, his misleading presentation of himself to the world was incredible.
His actual national security record features a massive troop deployment to the Middle East, brutal U.S. interventions in places like Yemen and Somalia, a disdain for diplomacy, and frequent fantasies about inflicting violence abroad. President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, told reporters that her uncle, who was hospitalised for treatment of COVID-19, was brought up to view sickness as “unacceptable” and a “weakness”, and it may sound cruel, but it happens to be true.
She added, “That’s why the U.S. is in the horrible place we’re in, because he cannot admit to the weakness of being ill, or of other people being ill.” Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden may well have been referring to Guyana and David Granger when he summed it up best at the last debate, saying: “Under this president, we’ve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided, and more violent.”
Guyanese would recall the nation’s sad state of affairs when the PPP/C government took over from APNU+AFC on August 2, 2020. The man-in-the-street was poorer and suffering; medication was scarce, while millions were wasted on expired drugs and the renting of a warehouse; their COVID-19 Task Force was ineffective; people were more divided from a fraudulent election attempt; violence was gradually agitated by the political rebels.
Again, Guyanese became frustrated after a tedious waiting period of some five long months, during which time, many were forced to become dependent on aid, alms, handouts, help and charitable distributions. Many were uncontrollably resorting to begging, and being reduced to the embarrassment of pleading for donations while looking and searching for food, because they knew not where the next meal would come from.
How can Guyanese ever forget this inhumane and abominable catastrophe, and forgive the APNU+AFC Party for reducing them to disgrace and shame? They will ride with this stigma all the way to the next election. The caretaker government was never up to the job, and a number of their members and those from GECOM were viewed as questionable candidates for psychiatric treatment. Their behaviour left much to be desired, and also left many wondering!
Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and visiting professor at George Washington University, said she would perform a psychiatric evaluation on President Trump if he were her patient, and left the hospital while still infected with the novel coronavirus “to go for a car ride”.
How can Guyanese ever again place trust, faith, belief, hope and depend on any promise the APNU+AFC Party will make to try and convince people to support them and accept them as honest leaders who will genuinely work in their favour and protect their interest? They (APNU+AFC) have continuously shot themselves in the foot, and daily, Guyanese are finding out for themselves how wrong they (Guyanese) were, and what a terrible mistake they had made when they voted for such cruel, callous, corrupted and collusive culprits!
From the $329 billion budget presented by the PPP/C government, some $170 billion are inclusive as expenditure from the previous APNU+AFC Government for a seven-month period this year, most of which are not properly accounted for. The magnitude of misappropriation of funds and unaccountability is so infamously magnificent that the Auditor General and team would need more than magnifying glasses to muster courage and memorable moments, in order to ascertain the manifestation of this unbelievable phenomenon. Oily hands do stick in many corners to create bulging pockets. Doubling the staff at the Auditor General’s office is not only plausible but possible, also because there is enough work to outlast the size of that department.
That 50,000 employment mark by the President will be further reduced. President Irfaan Ali’s budget does cater for the many immediate needs of the people, and is intended to return money in the hands of the working people, and at the said time to reduce their pain and suffering. The PPP/C will ensure that no more will Guyanese have to undergo any more inglorious and undignified trials, whereby they will have to succumb to hunger, poverty, suffering, begging and other demeaning habits that were enforced upon them by the ruthless, heartless and merciless APNU+AFC that was only in power to serve their own, greedy needs to make only them live the good life.
Respectfully,
Jai Lall
