"Holy Sh!t": Plot to kill the elected prime minister of SVG? Hired assassins arrested? This is serious, mindblowing stuff. I weep for SVG. Its one thing when a yankee nutjob takes a shot at a congresswoman in Arizona. It’s a whole ‘nother thing when criminals are hiring hitmen to kill your head of government. The details discussed by the Prime Minister were too serious and specific to make up: He's saying someone tried to kill him, that they have the guy in jail, and that a second killer is at large. This changes everything in Vincy politics. Seriously. Think about it for a second.
Stop The Friggin Presses!: How is this assassination plot not the biggest story of the year in SVG right now?!? I look at the Searchlight, and its tucked on the back page underneath a story about some stillborn NDP demonstration. Really? “NDP HOLDS DEMONSTRATION. (Oh, and by the way, someone hired multiple hitmen to murder the prime minister).” My buddy Kenton Chance reports it with the same importance as when the PM's claim that gov’t workers waste electricity. (Kudos to Abeni in the blogosphere for zeroing in on the importance of this). Am I missing something? This is a frikkin MURDER FOR HIRE PLOT!!
* * *
Stop The Friggin Presses!: How is this assassination plot not the biggest story of the year in SVG right now?!? I look at the Searchlight, and its tucked on the back page underneath a story about some stillborn NDP demonstration. Really? “NDP HOLDS DEMONSTRATION. (Oh, and by the way, someone hired multiple hitmen to murder the prime minister).” My buddy Kenton Chance reports it with the same importance as when the PM's claim that gov’t workers waste electricity. (Kudos to Abeni in the blogosphere for zeroing in on the importance of this). Am I missing something? This is a frikkin MURDER FOR HIRE PLOT!!
* * *
Didn’t listen to all of the debate on the estimates, so I don’t wanna give a review of it. Don’t think I’ll hear much of the budget debates either. Here are my limited instant reactions, for what they’re worth:
"Wash, Rinse, Repeat": more of the same from Ralph and Arnhim. I’ve been following this thing now since the last couple years of the Mitchell/Eustace era. I swear, if I hear Eustace say “amortization and sinking fund” ONE MORE TIME, I might snap. But if you heard them last year, you heard them this year. Wake me when they’re through trying to convince me to (a) don’t worry, be happy or (b) panic, cuz the economy is going to hell in a hand basket.
"The Vision Thing": Listening to the debate, I was struck at the shallowness and superficiality of comments on both sides (and the useless anecdotes that have nothing to do with the estimates). But more than that, I couldn’t discern an underlying opposition philosophy (I heard more of the opposition reps. than the gov't people). Isn’t the NDP the party of big business, low taxes, trickle-down economics, Washington Consensus and small government? If so, Terrance, Anesia and “the major” didn’t get the memo. They were the ones bemoaning the plight of the little guy, beseeching the ULP to spend MORE, and for the government to play a LARGER role on development/social services, etc. I mean, Leacock was actually asking the STATE to rebuild and repair PRIVATE roads in Green Hill!! Last year, when the budget was huge, the NDP was pretty solid in saying it was too large and bloated, and that difficult economic times demanded more austerity. Now, here we are with a much smaller austerity budget, and some of them are complaining that it’s not bigger. Hmmm.
"A Senator is Either a Wannabe or a Has-Been": I only heard senators Vynette, Anesia, and Julian debate. Julian was Julian. Same ole, same ole. But, like most political junkies, I wanted to hear from VinnyVee and Anesia. I was grading them on two different curves: For their presentations to be successful, Vynette had to sound like she wasn’t the village idiot, and Anesia had to sound like she wasn’t a borderline mental patient.
"Wash, Rinse, Repeat": more of the same from Ralph and Arnhim. I’ve been following this thing now since the last couple years of the Mitchell/Eustace era. I swear, if I hear Eustace say “amortization and sinking fund” ONE MORE TIME, I might snap. But if you heard them last year, you heard them this year. Wake me when they’re through trying to convince me to (a) don’t worry, be happy or (b) panic, cuz the economy is going to hell in a hand basket.
"The Vision Thing": Listening to the debate, I was struck at the shallowness and superficiality of comments on both sides (and the useless anecdotes that have nothing to do with the estimates). But more than that, I couldn’t discern an underlying opposition philosophy (I heard more of the opposition reps. than the gov't people). Isn’t the NDP the party of big business, low taxes, trickle-down economics, Washington Consensus and small government? If so, Terrance, Anesia and “the major” didn’t get the memo. They were the ones bemoaning the plight of the little guy, beseeching the ULP to spend MORE, and for the government to play a LARGER role on development/social services, etc. I mean, Leacock was actually asking the STATE to rebuild and repair PRIVATE roads in Green Hill!! Last year, when the budget was huge, the NDP was pretty solid in saying it was too large and bloated, and that difficult economic times demanded more austerity. Now, here we are with a much smaller austerity budget, and some of them are complaining that it’s not bigger. Hmmm.
"A Senator is Either a Wannabe or a Has-Been": I only heard senators Vynette, Anesia, and Julian debate. Julian was Julian. Same ole, same ole. But, like most political junkies, I wanted to hear from VinnyVee and Anesia. I was grading them on two different curves: For their presentations to be successful, Vynette had to sound like she wasn’t the village idiot, and Anesia had to sound like she wasn’t a borderline mental patient.
Only Anesia passed her test.
Going into the debate, I actually thought that Vynette (extrovert, lawyer, loudmouth, longtime PRO) would do better than Anesia (civil servant, self-righteous, socially inhibited) the first time out. Boy was I wrong. Vynette was scattershot, random, unprepared and uninformed. Just ‘cuz you spend a lot of time on facebook, it doesn’t make you an IT expert, Vinny, and it showed. I’d give her a “D” grade.
Anesia, on the other hand, gets a solid “B-“. She was extremely light on substance – just tinkering on the edges of the estimates, suggesting a ‘lil more money here, a ‘lil more activity there – but she nailed the tone. She sounded compassionate, coherent, calm, and most of all, SANE (couple green verbs & subjects, but I’m putting them down to nerves). She also sounded like she sat down and thought about her presentation for more than 5 minutes, whereas Vynette sounded like she was making it up as she went along. And when Anesia implored the boys to stop the crosstalk so that she “could hear herself think,” she sounded like the most mature person in the room.
"Rules are Made to be Enforced": Is Ralph Gonsalves the only person in the Parliament who knows the standing orders/rules of procedure? After Eustace got used to the idea that he was still in opposition, he bragged that his new team would run rings around the other side. He promised vim and vigour. He pledged knowledge and competence. Then the first thing they do is come in and ask the wrong people the wrong questions. Jeez. Learn the damn rules already. Most you have been in Parliament over a decade now.
But its not just the NDP: our venerable, veteran Speaker of the House was flatfooted when Godwin Friday started an (procedurally inappropriate) argument about the minutes of the previous sitting. Gonsalves had to get up and set them both straight. Is he the only guy with a copy of the rules? Can we get copies to everyone else?
"If a major Blows His Trumpet, But Nobody Hears Him, Does He Make a Sound?": I know I’m a politics nerd, cuz these little tactical battles tickle me: See, "the major” usually likes to speak just before Ralph wraps up. That way, he knows people will be listening, and he knows that he and Ralph will butt heads, further enhancing Leacock’s self-proclaimed stature as the only man who can handle Ralph. With the debate starting on Thursday, “the major” figured he’d be speaking on Friday, right before Ralph. You could’ve knocked him down with a feather when Gonsalves said “nah, we’ll wrap it up tonight, even if we have to go 'til midnight.”
“the major” then had a dilemma: 'If I wait to be the second-to-last speaker, everyone will be in their bed and no one will hear me. If I speak now, in the middle of all these mediocre and uninspiring people, no one might be listening anyway!' (Gonsalves doesn’t have that dilemma. He can speak at midnight, and the state radio, plus Star FM will faithfully replay his address the next day during prime time). “the major” split the difference, speaking late, but not TOO late. However, Gonsalves boycotted his performance, leaving the room to take a phone call and not coming back till the end. Without his foil on the other side, “the major” sounded flat and uninspired. I’m hoping he pulls it together for the actual budget debates. I do so enjoy his grandiloquent grandiloquence.
"NDP Locks The City": What a farce. Trucks with loudspeakers woke me up on Wednesday night, exhorting me to take to the streets to demonstrate against Gonsalves’ dictatorship. Arnhim, Friday and “the major” were on my TV, hyping me up for Roadblock Revolution: The Sequel. They even told people NOT TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL. I was told that teargas was a near-certainty. That “tens of thousands” were going to descend on Kingstown and overwhelm the government (by the way, if you’re inviting me to come demonstrate, it might not be the best idea to also promise me that I’ll get tear-gassed. It might make me think twice about coming out. I dunno, that’s just me, I guess). The NDP also requested and received police permission for a 4:30pm demonstration in Heritage Square. Wow. Big tings a gwaan.
Except… nobody turned up. Well, not NObody. When I went to work I stopped and counted exactly 89 people on the NDP side of the demonstration barrier. About 40 of those people were in their NDP gear. Both parties had a much bigger crowds for the ceremonial opening of parliament last week, and that was without loudspeakers, TV time, and Lynch’s radio hysteria. Seeing the tiny crowd, which was even smaller when I went to lunch, NDP scratched their plans for the Heritage Square rally. Not their best moment.
"Hate Mail is Funny": I wrote a letter to the editor about private criminal complaints and sent it to the Searchlight. Its something I’ve given some thought to, and while perfectly reasonable minds can disagree on this one, my opinion is that the mechanism is being abused in SVG. Reform, in my opinion, is necessary. Anyway, Searchlight printed the letter and put my email address at the end of it. Before the paper hit the street on Friday morning, my BB was already buzzing with the hate mail of rabid zealots. And when I say hate mail, I mean HATE mail. Take it easy people!
Anyway, now that I am “a cocksucking ulp hore” (Whore? Hare? Hire? Shore? Bore? Who knows), I’d like to establish Roget’s Rules of Hate Mail:
"Rules are Made to be Enforced": Is Ralph Gonsalves the only person in the Parliament who knows the standing orders/rules of procedure? After Eustace got used to the idea that he was still in opposition, he bragged that his new team would run rings around the other side. He promised vim and vigour. He pledged knowledge and competence. Then the first thing they do is come in and ask the wrong people the wrong questions. Jeez. Learn the damn rules already. Most you have been in Parliament over a decade now.
But its not just the NDP: our venerable, veteran Speaker of the House was flatfooted when Godwin Friday started an (procedurally inappropriate) argument about the minutes of the previous sitting. Gonsalves had to get up and set them both straight. Is he the only guy with a copy of the rules? Can we get copies to everyone else?
"If a major Blows His Trumpet, But Nobody Hears Him, Does He Make a Sound?": I know I’m a politics nerd, cuz these little tactical battles tickle me: See, "the major” usually likes to speak just before Ralph wraps up. That way, he knows people will be listening, and he knows that he and Ralph will butt heads, further enhancing Leacock’s self-proclaimed stature as the only man who can handle Ralph. With the debate starting on Thursday, “the major” figured he’d be speaking on Friday, right before Ralph. You could’ve knocked him down with a feather when Gonsalves said “nah, we’ll wrap it up tonight, even if we have to go 'til midnight.”
“the major” then had a dilemma: 'If I wait to be the second-to-last speaker, everyone will be in their bed and no one will hear me. If I speak now, in the middle of all these mediocre and uninspiring people, no one might be listening anyway!' (Gonsalves doesn’t have that dilemma. He can speak at midnight, and the state radio, plus Star FM will faithfully replay his address the next day during prime time). “the major” split the difference, speaking late, but not TOO late. However, Gonsalves boycotted his performance, leaving the room to take a phone call and not coming back till the end. Without his foil on the other side, “the major” sounded flat and uninspired. I’m hoping he pulls it together for the actual budget debates. I do so enjoy his grandiloquent grandiloquence.
"NDP Locks The City": What a farce. Trucks with loudspeakers woke me up on Wednesday night, exhorting me to take to the streets to demonstrate against Gonsalves’ dictatorship. Arnhim, Friday and “the major” were on my TV, hyping me up for Roadblock Revolution: The Sequel. They even told people NOT TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL. I was told that teargas was a near-certainty. That “tens of thousands” were going to descend on Kingstown and overwhelm the government (by the way, if you’re inviting me to come demonstrate, it might not be the best idea to also promise me that I’ll get tear-gassed. It might make me think twice about coming out. I dunno, that’s just me, I guess). The NDP also requested and received police permission for a 4:30pm demonstration in Heritage Square. Wow. Big tings a gwaan.
Except… nobody turned up. Well, not NObody. When I went to work I stopped and counted exactly 89 people on the NDP side of the demonstration barrier. About 40 of those people were in their NDP gear. Both parties had a much bigger crowds for the ceremonial opening of parliament last week, and that was without loudspeakers, TV time, and Lynch’s radio hysteria. Seeing the tiny crowd, which was even smaller when I went to lunch, NDP scratched their plans for the Heritage Square rally. Not their best moment.
"Hate Mail is Funny": I wrote a letter to the editor about private criminal complaints and sent it to the Searchlight. Its something I’ve given some thought to, and while perfectly reasonable minds can disagree on this one, my opinion is that the mechanism is being abused in SVG. Reform, in my opinion, is necessary. Anyway, Searchlight printed the letter and put my email address at the end of it. Before the paper hit the street on Friday morning, my BB was already buzzing with the hate mail of rabid zealots. And when I say hate mail, I mean HATE mail. Take it easy people!
Anyway, now that I am “a cocksucking ulp hore” (Whore? Hare? Hire? Shore? Bore? Who knows), I’d like to establish Roget’s Rules of Hate Mail:
1. Blood-curdling hatred/anger is not an excuse to ignore the established rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. I wanna be scared, I really do, but if I have to stop to figure out what you’re trying to say, it ruins the moment;
2. Threats have to have some basis in reality. If you don’t know who I am, I doubt you can box me when you see me, deport me, or have me fired;
3. Threats, or derogatory descriptions of me, should at least be anatomically possible. Otherwise they’re just funny;
4. If everything I’ve ever written is “stupid bullshit,” maybe you should stop reading everything I’ve ever written. I mean, that’s what I’d do.
"A Million Here, a Million There, Pretty Soon You’re Talking REAL Money": Countries around the region and the world are cutting back. Last year, the international word was “stimulus.” Now its “austerity.” Look at England’s budget. At Barbados’. At Germany’s. At Jamaica’s. At St. Kitts'. At Greece's. Our budget has also shrunk, so clearly there is some belt tightening on our end too. But where is it? I still don’t have a good handle on this budget. There don’t seem to be any attention-grabbing cuts – taxes didn’t go up (did they?), bus fare is steady (isn’t it?), jobs aren’t being cut (are they?), wages aren’t being frozen (right?). But, the money went somewhere, right? Will someone, on either side, tell me what this budget means for ME? Or is the budget just a new scenic backdrop for the ongoing pissing match between Ralph and Arnhim?
We’ll see next week, I guess.
"A Million Here, a Million There, Pretty Soon You’re Talking REAL Money": Countries around the region and the world are cutting back. Last year, the international word was “stimulus.” Now its “austerity.” Look at England’s budget. At Barbados’. At Germany’s. At Jamaica’s. At St. Kitts'. At Greece's. Our budget has also shrunk, so clearly there is some belt tightening on our end too. But where is it? I still don’t have a good handle on this budget. There don’t seem to be any attention-grabbing cuts – taxes didn’t go up (did they?), bus fare is steady (isn’t it?), jobs aren’t being cut (are they?), wages aren’t being frozen (right?). But, the money went somewhere, right? Will someone, on either side, tell me what this budget means for ME? Or is the budget just a new scenic backdrop for the ongoing pissing match between Ralph and Arnhim?
We’ll see next week, I guess.
lol thanks for the exactly one additional reader. I agree about the silence but I figure folks think it is a case of crying wolf.
ReplyDeleteOn another note I even missed my rep's maiden speech at parliament. Can you grade the honorable member for South Leeward?
I agree with you on the seeming lack of knowledge about the rules of the House - did you see the first sitting of the House, when Ralph had to direct the Clerk of the House as to what section was to be applied for the voting process of the Speaker of the House?
ReplyDelete"Vynette had to sound like she wasn’t the village idiot, and Anesia had to sound like she wasn’t a borderline mental patient."
ReplyDeleteI swear you write those things with me in mind. You give with one hand and then take back with another. Tsk. Sigh.
I have no comment on the alleged assassination attempt just to say that I would be happy to see the attempted assassin(s) paraded on the t.v., in handcuffs and prison garb, as testament to the efficiency of our police force. You know, to assure the people that they are doing their jobs in keeping our people and leader safe. Seen?
I read your letter in the paper,and while you may or may not be correct in asserting the need for reform, you must realize that the amendments suggested by the PM/AG/DPP represent a short sighted, short term reaction with long term consequences. The particular amendments are knee jerk and are not in the best interest of the people.They protect the politicians real good though. Your call for reform, while it does not overtly support the contentious amendments, suggests in its tone that you might favor said amendments and their implications. And I think that is what people latched on to, hence the hate mail.
That being said, people need to be civil. The kind of response you receive is exactly why I am extremely cautious in venturing into political discourse. That type of response is backward and unproductive. I'm glad you could laugh it off though.
Despite my inner vigilante/Alan Moore, I personally would not support shutting down the city. I condemned it when the ULP and others did it back then, and I will condemn it now. So I have no problem with the NDP taking up their beef in the court. Let a JUDGE decide on the merit of their case and if there is no merit then I would be satisfied. But the way this DPP is operating I suspect that there will not be many people who would have much faith in our justice system. Let's hope we don't get to a stage where people are fed up enough to take their beef to the streets cause that is never pretty.
can u post the searchlight letter u mentioned? i live overseas and u cant get the searchlight online without paying an arm and a leg
ReplyDeletethere are some who only see evil if it is the ulp doin something wrong. they will bury their head in the sand til someone gets killed. even if drug runners hired someone to kill ralph, they would still blame ralph for getting killed. this is an issue that we should all rally around. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI suggest that Vincies do some reading on the function of fear and villainization in politics. However, this is an unfavourable situation whether or not the PM was speaking the truth.
ReplyDelete