…on US interests
The combined Congressional-Military delegation from the US landed so discreetly the local media didn’t even get to record them disembarking from the military plane that brought them to our shores. Now, compared to the three-man delegation that jetted in back in 2015 to reassure the new PNC-led Government, this time the number has multiplied threefold, PLUS there are at least 16 military personnel and others!!
Such a large delegation for such a small country deserves an explanation. After all, this trip can’t be one of those “junkets” which Congressmen are routinely accused of indulging in with such gusto!! Congressman John Curtis did bring his wife Sue, but then he announced he wouldn’t be standing for re-election next year!! If the truth be told, we qualify on every criterion that President Trump might’ve used to define “shithole” countries…and such locales don’t attract junkets; for that they would’ve gone to Barbados!!
If you were to read the comments of every American Ambassador or other Embassy official who was posted to Guyana –it’s on the Net!! – hopefully, dear reader, you wouldn’t be offended to discover they viewed this posting on par with being sent to the Gulag Archipelago in Siberia!! Their descriptions make that much-criticised report in the NY Times read like a travelogue to Paradise!! So no, this ain’t no junket.
Since this isn’t a privately-funded trip, it means that the large delegation is on OFFICIAL business; and therefore, as the US always is at pains to point out, they’re here to protect or further AMERICAN interests. And that is as it should be. Why should the US be funding a trip that doesn’t benefit the US? We hope the Guyanese Foreign Service and other governmental officials could imbibe this lesson. From the comments of some, you’d think their mission is to bring ‘peace on earth”!!
So what are the US interests in Guyana?? PM Nagamootoo alluded to the strategic interests back in the sixties during the sixties’ Cold War that dictated they ensure the PPP be kept out of office. While some believe ideology is passé with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Congressmen would want to ferret out whether the US is being played like they were by the PNC back then. President Granger was Burnham’s ideologue in the army. Will he revert and nationalise?
Then there’s the economic interest represented by Exxon’s 4 billion oil find. They’ll be concerned the PNC’s policies don’t make Guyana into a “failed state” once again, to threaten their economic and other interests, such as sending another wave of Guyanese refugees into America. Not to mention all those Venezuelan refugees joining the “missing” Cubans and ending up in Florida!!
Hopefully, the Congressmen don’t fall for the BS!!
…on Eid’s Sacrifice
Your Eyewitness spent a quiet day on Eid, reflecting, as he was exhorted to, on the significance of “sacrifice”. Now, in a multi-religious society, one doesn’t have to be Muslim to commemorate Eid in this fashion. The sacrifice to God is, of course, paramount; but sometimes we forget the sacrifice if not FOR God, but for ourselves!! After all, God doesn’t need anything, does He?
We, however, do; and the sacrifice reminds us from where everything we get comes. If we remember this, you wouldn’t see – or feel — the hubris and arrogance that characterise so much of the actions of the “big ones” in our society. It’s rather sad that some of them actually may believe THEY are God, going by the way they carry on! Sacrifice teaches us humility, since, at the very best, we can be blessed if we accept we are merely conduits of God’s will.
And finally, Eid is certainly not about getting “free beef”, as a growing number of persons seem to believe!!
…that PNC smash-up
No one has been charged after the PNC Congress’s BIG BASH at the Georgetown Club. It was poignant that the “Remembering Alicea” ad – about the tragedy of DUI – ran alongside the report.
Mothers in Black should enquire!!
