Latest update April 29th, 2024 3:41 AM
Oct 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
I return to a point I made on Wednesday – dictatorship as it gets older, as the people’s alienation deepens, leadership qualities evaporates, rut steps in, grows and sinks its governors.
The rulers hang on through naked power. They use the coercive state apparatus to drive fear into the society and they limp from one disaster to another. Nothing inventive, innovative, inspiring occurs and bread and circus become the dictators’ mantra.
It was no accident, no random act that Carifesta came to Guyana after the Bahamas couldn’t afford to host it. The little dictators were overjoyed that the bread and circus opportunity had presented itself, courtesy of the Bahamas.
Carifesta is gone and it has been replaced by a fairground of cricket. West Indian Test players are now invited to the Providence stadium to entertain the crowd for PPP dollars. GUYEXPO has become an exhibition of fast food delights. It is perhaps the only trade show in the world and the only one since trade shows began where all you hear is music playing, all you smell is exotic food cooking and all you see are cell phones and fried chicken.
The little dictators call this a trade show. Now if there was a real pollster in Guyana, he/she could have done a survey and ascertained if those thousands went to see what was being traded or what was there to eat. GUYEXPO was a rare gem for the little dictators. With big money that must be given to the cricketers, they can’t play too often (maybe once a month) but GUYEXPO brought in money while it provided circus fun.
GUYEXPO is gone but the stage is still there. The stage is ubiquitous. Next week the cricketers come again and don’t forget the BIG LIME is around the corner. But this is October and after October there is November and the BIG LIME in late December.
Expect, therefore, between the cricketers next week and the December madness, more bread and circus. Of course the PPP has taken over the duck curry competition. They use Joe Vieira Park and Everest ground for bacchanal.
But the duck feast has its limitation. It does not attract the thousands that the little dictators would like to have. The bread and circus show for it to be effective has to pull in huge attendances. I can’t think of what the little dictators will present between November and Early December but I believe at least two shows with entertainers from Jamaica are being planned.
Remember last week Movado moved in compliments of Mr. Odinga Lumumba. Mr. Odinga Lumumba, I suspect, will bring more bravado (not Movado) before 2009 is over.
Bread and circus preoccupy the time of the little dictators. They do nothing else. Vision has gone from them. As a consequence state functions have collapsed. Policy-making is in shambles. And the region laughs at Guyana and Guyanese. The little dictators cannot get it right.
They are unable to get it right. They are too jaded and faded to get anything right. Nothing is happening in the corridors of power, thus, none of the little dictators saw the wisdom in respecting the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The rut is seeping all over the canvas of power.
The miasma has soaked up the carpet on which power rests. Is it that they forgot to observe the ruling of the CCJ? Is it that they actually confused the court with the Guyanese courts that they so contemptuously manipulate? Or is it that they just couldn’t be bothered with the CCJ because they rule Guyana and nobody can interfere with their power?
Actually, it is a little bit.
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