The pacu is a fish related to the pirhana. The sweet water pacu has fearsome, human-like, teeth. However, unlike the pirhana, it feeds principally on nuts, fruit, insects and small fish. Its love for ‘nuts’ is not related to its rumoured taste for men’s testicles. It appears that this rumour is not true. The salt water pacu, which has no teeth and no resemblance, is a popular dish in Guyana.
There is another meaning of ‘pacu.’ It refers to a person who can be easily deceived. Sniffing out for a quick buck, some foreigners were led to believe that Guyanese are a bunch of pacus. They are finding out differently.
As a poor country Guyana is a prey for all those pedalling get-rich-quick schemes. There is no shortage of Guyanese ready to jump on the bandwagon. But something changed in 2015. An accumulation of developments in democracy, accountability and transparency since the establishment of the Stabroek News thirty years ago, came together on a wave of promises of transparency by APNU+AFC. The people of Guyana took them seriously, culminating in relatively large numbers in the street protests, rejecting the monopolistic parking meter secret deal.
