Countries…
…and leaders
The French have a way with aphorisms and your humble Eyewitness’ favourite one (which his faithful readers would have figured out by now) is “The more things change, the more they remain the same”. Of course they don’t speak English like us and rather actually said, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” Another of his favourites is “Countries get the governments they deserve”.
While that might sound rather gloomily teleological, another aristocratic Frenchman de Tocqueville, after observing matters in the new democracy of America, modified the saying to a more understandable, “People in a democracy get the government they deserve”. We wonder if he was thinking about this fellow Trump who might just be the next President of America. But really, does America really deserve Donald Trump? The question is whether Trump can trump American values – the main one, of course, being money.
Well…Trump just loves his money and he makes no bones about it. No understated reverse snobbery of the British nobility for Trump…he just exults in flaunting his money. Ever seen what he did to the Plaza when he made it to…what else? …the “Trump Plaza”? Remember Fitzgerald and “The Great Gatsby”? Sorta like the other American we in the Caribbean had some experience with – Allen Sanford, who rolled out his money in a wheelbarrow to persuade the English Cricket Board to have him push their 20/20 league. They kicked him out, of course. But then we have to remember, the US did kick out their royalty and are probably driven to show us they’re different.
But anyhow back to Trump. He’s the quintessential democratic leader that old Plato feared would result if you allowed the great unwashed to select their own leaders. The leader, not surprisingly, would just tell them what they wanted to hear. And with America going down the tubes and the lower classes getting it literally in the end, they have to find somebody to blame. And why blame the 1% like Trump who’s now accumulated 40% of the country’s wealth? Blame the immigrants who’re doing all the grunge work that even the trailer-trash rednecks don’t want to do! Folks gotta look down on SOMEBODY, nuh?
So Trump beats up on immigrants because he reads the mood of the key electorate he’s targeted – the white underclass. He also thumps his chest and roars, “America will be number one!!!” And his crowd roars with him.
Never mind those same immigrants –- especially the Chinese and Indians – are the ones who’ve driven America’s success in space exploration, computers and information technology.
But who cares? It’s all about getting elected, nuh?
…and “on top” leaders
There’ve been all sorts of articles recently bigging up Burnham and his bête noir, Jagan. The two men were full of “great ideas”. But it all kinda reminds your Eyewitness of the old saw ( French, of course!) “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Now don’t get him wrong, your Eyewitness knows there are two tribes in Guyana and tribal loyalty demands the “Founder Leader” and the “Father of the Country” be duly acknowledged. But if we’re to do better than the last 50 years, we have to go past “intentions”, don’t we?
One way to do so is to look at their great plans and check out why they didn’t work. Take “national unity”. They both conceded it was necessary. So what happened on the way to them tying the knot? Well, in the inimitable words of the Tradewinds and their honeymooning couple, Jagan and Burnham both wanted to “be on top”.
So can’t the new leaders please be side by side?
…obsolete?
With the WTO in abeyance because of uppity developing countries like China and India, trading blocs are the thing. But in the new mega Trade Blocs formed by the US, corporations will now take governments to court.
So with “sovereignty” gone, whither countries?
