Frankly Speaking Piracy: The Catch? Or the Coke?
Just another of my very today.
Recall that two or three columns ago – titled “Stories I’m scared to tell” – I recorded true but scary tales of crooked, corrupt rogue elements of our “Disciplined” Forces. From army to Prison Wardens.
Now today’s lead piece could be subtitled: Piracy- A true story. Again the coward in me surfaces, so I can’t name names or very specific marine locations as told to me by my knowledgeable, reliable and matured Essequibo Countryman-source.
It should be obvious to all right thinking very adult Guyanese that the prohibited marijuana/cocaine transshipment/export trade now constitutes a solid component of a thriving underground - but overt - “economy! From the importation and outsourcing of cocaine to the relentless cultivation of vast farms of the plant Cannabis Sativa, our once-innocent land of my youth must now be counted as pivotal to the Caribbean/USA international drug trade. Shocking, disappointing- but true.
It also does not take any top-class academic “intellectual” mind to appreciate that such an “industry” cannot be sustained without the resources of overseas principals, finance, experienced personal connections and transportation – which working-class folks could not easily access at will. Some claim to know both the sharks and the sardines- the little couriers in this “subsector.” brief, non-intellectual offerings
********************* The Public Servant- Pirate?
So as I was forced to mull upon the current seeming upsurge in discovery, arrest and prosecution of drugrelated felons, the usual query crossed my mind: Where does the cocaine originate from? From whence come these large-scale supplies of the drug into our territory? The “fellows” always “laugh me to scorn” as they regale me with their knowledge of origins, routes and entrypoints. So do not our specific law-enforcement know what “dem boys” know?
Anyhow here is my Essequibian story. Deemed to be utterly true.
An Essequibian Public Servant – (you decide whether he was/is a nurse; is at some Ministry or Regional Agency, a policeman or a teacher) – noticed that his village fisherman-buddies were “prospering” far better in material acquisitions than he was faring after five years in his lowly-paid “government” job.
Whilst on leave he asked to go to sea - off the
Like Dr. David Hinds I won’t get too personal with respect to Minister Charles- Broomes’ arrogance. I agree: that is what power and authority can do to those who might be surprised to be “blessed” with such sudden status.
She is obviously by nature, somewhat aggressive. She declared herself “The New sheriff in town” When she raided the Bartica Night Club of foreign ladies; she starred in her own Parliamentary Bing-Bang-Boom-out video presentation and I liked her no- nonsense interventions as Junior Minister of Labour in the stores along Regent Street
So as much has been written already, I merely ask those interested to consider the responses by her Comrades to her social–status misdemeanour. Condoning or not? There are ways to circle the loyal wagon around the Lady Comrade. Cheddi Jagan once mooted “Critical support” even for Burnham’s excesses.