…media The old folks say you can take the boy out of the country, but you just can’t take the country out of the boy. All that mud from under his fingernails just won’t come out. And we arrive at the latest turn in the saga of Moses Nagamootoo, our man from Whim. And you have to hand it to him: handed a bunch of lemons (some might say, “larwah”&rdquo and he’s making lemonade.

So he didn’t get to handle governance. So he didn’t get to chair the Cabinet. So he didn’t get to advise on Cabinet and other appointments. But he did get his old job of running “Information” that Cheddi’d given him back in 1992, no? The fella was always a “news carrier” so “information” for him was like duck taking to water. So too his support for Ramjattan “carrying information/news” to the U.S. embassy. Nagamootoo, though HAD left to pursue “law”, even though he was a sexagenarian, but he soooo wanted to get ahead and took the lemons.

Now starting over, law degree and all, he’s really roiling the waters. But he does seem to be confused and this is where the “mud under the fingernails” allusion comes in. Only a couple of weeks ago, he “uppsed” a reporter for writing that the government had “blundered” with the budget presentation. One thing led to another with Nagamootoo hopping from one limb to another. Man was like a cat on a hot, tin roof!

In the end Nagamootoo couldn’t get his foot out of his mouth, in placing undue pressure (to be very kind) on the young reporter for his assessment of a governmental action. No matter how he cut it, sliced it or diced it, Nagamootoo was trying to influence the journalist because the Chronicle was a GOVERNMENT newspaper. Nagamootoo’s bottom line was -and “is” – that State and government are one and the same when it comes to exercising power.

And we arrive at the latest chapter – Nagamootoo having to appoint members of the Boards of Directors that’ll run the Chronicle and the NCN. And here Nagamootoo placed his other foot into his mouth. Which manoeuvre leaves him flat on his gluteus maximus. How could it be otherwise when he’d promised after the “blunder affair”, the State media wouldn’t be run by “political hacks”? And now he’s stacked the boards with so many hacks, they could hack their way out of Alcatraz with plastic spoons. Will someone please throw Nagamootoo a lifeline? It’s beyond pathetic!

…gears Another pathetic display on show was Nagamootoo’s “gears” – as his generation would say. Now it’s not too kosher to get personal and all that. But Nagamootoo has to realise he’s one heartbeat away from the presidency (Please don’t say he isn’t!!) and he has to play the role by the book. And no book on protocol allows the Prime Minister in olive battle fatigues that could only evoke guerrillas emerging from the Cuban Sierra Maestra after a battle with Batista’s troops.

While the PM doesn’t have to be a fashionista, he must protect a positive image for the sake of the country. While we’d critiqued him in the past for his Mafia costuming during the hustings, we would suggest that even his ill, fitting suits send a message more au courant with what his government’s trying valiantly to project. That is, pro-west or more to the point “pro American”.

He mightn’t get a Michael Kors to fit, but then there’s always Bill Blass. Or Target?

…rhetoric At the unveiling of his “not party hacks” media boards, Nagamootoo kept knocking a previous regime about controlling the State media for their own nefarious ends. He should remember that even though the PNC banned newsprint from the Mirror when he was there, he can’t keep on ripping into the PNC like that, they’re still the largest party in the coalition! And paid for his $22M SUV!