Dealing with… foreign

The annual September meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) presents an opportunity for leaders of the 200-odd members of the UN – and some of them are VERY odd!! – to speak directly to each other! This year, about 150 of them showed up – even though there’s a lot of talk about the growing ineffectualness of the organisation formed eighty years ago at the end of WWII. While it hasn’t been successful in having its members turn their swords into ploughshares, at least there hasn’t been another World War!!
Your Eyewitness was a tad surprised President Trump bothered to show up since, as he said in his presentation, the UN has failed abysmally to prevent its members from using force against each other to settle differences. Case in point, of course, being Israel in Gaza and Mad Maduro’s Sindicatos attacking our soldiers!! But then, the annual meet does give Trump a bully pulpit in his hometown to speak loudly while wielding his big stick!! Europe and the UN bore the brunt of his ire this year!! President Ali was also there, and as he reported, Trump immediately praised Guyana when they encountered each other – a sign of the growing stature of our admittedly tiny state. And it should be noted that Pressie didn’t shy away from calling for recognition of a Palestinian state!!
We’re of significance not only because of our gushing oil production – heading inexorably towards 1,500,000 barrels/day – but because of two other factors. Firstly, that oil’s being produced by an American company, Exxon, which guarantees an American security shield. Then, we’re strategically positioned next to the drug-smuggling dictator Mad Maduro, who’s in Trump’s crosshairs in his War on Drugs!! Pressie met Secretary of State Mario Rubio to discuss this and other pressing issues – like those pesky tariffs!!
With NYC being our unofficial Region 11 – with probably as many Guyanese there as at home! – Pressie also had to make the obligatory meet-and-greet with them. He made an impassioned call for some of them to return home – not only out of patriotism, but also because of the fantastic business opportunities available to them!! These opportunities aren’t just to renew passports to collect pensions and cash grants!! Your Eyewitness hopes they’ll heed Pressie’s call and not complain later that foreigners are reaping the benefits of our development!! Sadly, too many of them just showed up for the photo ops and the free finger food!! Too late!, shall be the cry amid the weeping of tears and the gnashing of teeth!!
At a minimum, our Guyanese in NYC should organise themselves as a voting block for NYC politics. They’d then be in a position to leverage their numbers for their own – and Guyana’s – benefit!!

…tempests in teacups
The 13th Parliament hasn’t even been convened, and already there’s all kinds of drama playing out in the Opposition camp!! Most, including your Eyewitness, had expected this from Sanction Man’s WIN camp after some stalwarts like Doggie and Fatta didn’t snag their expected roles!! Like Doggie being the finance minister, for which he was quite qualified after doling out so much of Sanction Man’s ill-gotten gains to bring in the Scrapes!!
No… the drama’s come from within the FGM, into which two other entities – Dorwin Bess’s V-PAC and Nigel London’s TPM – had coalesced!! Bess clearly considered himself as the vote getter who secured their one ticket to Parliament!! And posted on Facebook, he should be getting that ticket!! After leader Amanda anointed herself as the sole MP, cloaking herself in the vestments of womanhood, she claimed a supporter of Bess threatened her!!
The fella had evidently simply been calling for her to condemn some racist statements about “coolies”!!
Shades of “intellectually lazy PPP supporters”!!

…Sanction Man’s Lambo
The Acting Chief Magistrate transferred, Sanction Man’s alleged false customs declaration on his Lambo case to another court. He’d claimed the vehicle cost US$75,300 rather than its US$695,000 purchase price – evading $380 million in taxes.
Hot potato?