Dancing between…the US (Caribbean) raindrops

The Chinese have a saying, “May you live in interesting times,” and it ain’t as benign as you may suppose it to be at first hearing!! It’s actually a CURSE!! So, the “interesting times” they wish on you may be more along the lines of “challenging times” – at its kindest interpretation!! The saying popped into your Eyewitness’ mind as he followed up on the fallout from the just-concluded meeting of the CARICOM HOGS!! In it – as your Eyewitness recounted yesterday – T&T PM Kamla Bissessar had come out swinging at 13 of the leaders sitting in front of her when she said that they’d stood mute as Guyana and T&T were being attacked by Mad Maduro!! And now they had their knickers and bucktas in knots after the US removed the man who had no compunction in ANNEXING SIXTY THOUSAND SQUARE MILES OF GUYANESE TERRITORY!!
Barbados’ Mia Mottley – who your Eyewitness mentioned yesterday – had taken an early stand against the US by condemning their move when they gathered a fleet in the Caribbean. She declared her position last October on any subsequent use of force – which did occur in January: “We equally do not accept that any nation in our region, or the greater Caribbean, should be the subject of an imposition upon them of any unilateral expression of force and violence by any third party or nation.” Talk about talking fat!! Well, Mottley attempted to contain any confrontation when she ran into Bissessar on the side-lines, and the latter made a joke about their common legal background by saying they were “sisters-in-law”!! She said she was gonna deal with disagreements behind closed doors – away from cameras!!
Well, Jamaica’s PM Andrew Holness showed how interesting the times were when he tried to finesse his way on the new point of contention – Cuba – after the US had seized tankers of oil from Venezuela which had kept their electricity going!! While sympathising with the plight of the Cubans now shrouded in darkness, Holness must’ve figured he was on safe ground when he took the middle ground by saying while Jamaica would continue to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people, “This moment calls for responsible leadership and constructive dialogue, particularly between Cuba and the United States, to ease tensions and promote reform and stability.”
Well, who told him to say even that!! US Congressman Carlos A Gimenez, R-Fla (Floridian Republican) – who, not coincidentally, like Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, is a Cuban American from near Miami who’d fled Castro’s Cuba as a youth and now sees the island as facing its “Berlin Wall moment” – ripped into him by saying, “Jamaica would have to face consequences”!! Gimenez advised Caribbean leaders to “follow the lead” of T&T’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar!!

…the US (Iranian) raindrops
Well, the talks between the US and Iranian teams on the latter’s nuclear bomb programme are over. While it’s said there’s some “progress”, it doesn’t seem enough to rule out another attack by the US – which would certainly lead to war!! Now as an oil-producing country approaching that 1M bpd production – that’s gonna impact us hugely!! Not only would Iranian oil production be impacted, but also the strategic Straits of Hormuz – and therefore oil prices!!
But in a larger sense – as part of the “interesting times” in which we all now live – we’ve gotta look at the big picture and make some decisions about where we stand in the face-off between the US and the rest of the world. We’ve seen – as with the demand to purchase Greenland from a NATO ally – that all the old verities have been thrown out of the window.
With Pressie heading up to Mar-a-Largo any day now, band-wagoning seems to be the only option!! A military pact??

…hemispherically
Such a pact would fit in nicely with the “cooperation framework” that was worked out between US Secretary of State Rubio and CARICOM.
This showed that evidently, the 13 errant CARICOM leaders have now seen the light!!