For a… Merry Christmas

As your Eyewitness pecks away at this piece, blasting away from his neighbour’s wall of speakers he’s put up for tonight’s “Christmas Sport”, is that old standby, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire/Jack Frost nipping at your nose/Yuletide carols being sung by a choir/And folks dressed up like Eskimos/Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe/Help to make the season bright/Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow/Will find it hard to sleep tonight/They know that Santa’s on his way/He’s loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh/And every mother’s child is gonna spy/To see if reindeer really know how to fly/And so I’m offering this simple phrase/To kids from one to ninety-two/Although it’s been said many times, many ways/Merry Christmas to you!”
Now this doesn’t mean that your Eyewitness can actually make out the words to the Christmas song above – as crooned by the inimitable Nat King Cole seventy years ago!! It’s just that over the years – sung much more genteelly at various Christmas functions and over the radio year after year – it’s seared into his consciousness. But the nostalgia the song usually invokes is jarred by the ear-splitting volume that literally rocks his windows! Sadly the neighbour doesn’t seem to’ve heard Pressie pleading that this Christmas we shouldn’t assault our fellow citizens’ eardrums like the Opposition!! He wondered if they’re keeping it down in the Christmas Village outside of the State House!!
He wonders also whether he and our other politicians will be burying the hatchet this Christmas?? And he doesn’t mean in each other’s backs!! It’s the season of brotherhood, innit?? So your Eyewitness suggests in this spirit, Pressie invites the Opposition Leaders – plural, as in Sanction Man and the beleaguered Aubrey – over to State House to not only shake hands but engage in a friendly game of dominoes!! He was gonna suggest a dance-off, but while he’s seen Aubrey shaking a leg at Bam Bam Alley, he ain’t so sure about the dancing skills of Sanction Man!! Or even if he can get down and boogie, whether he’ll be willing to break that carefully crafted image of impassivity he’s cultivated behind his designer dark glasses!!
Your Eyewitness can just see the three of them giving life to the One Guyana motto by indulging in some pepper pot with cassava bread between games!!  You get your Eyewitness’ drift?? Since the Opposition’s constituencies is gonna be otherwise occupied during this time, they won’t appreciate being disturbed. In fact, they’ll get VERY disturbed!! Your Eyewitness is hoping also in this season of goodwill – who knows?? – maybe there’ll be a breakthrough to reconvene Parliament with the breaking of cassava bread!!
Why not??

…coherent foreign policy
With a small nation like ours, you would’ve thought everyone would accept that when we’re threatened by international bullies, we gotta call on other nations that share our perspective on the bully. It’s not a question of the REASON for the shared perspective being the same. As your Eyewitness is never tired of preaching, when it comes to the international world system, there are NO permanent friends or permanent enemies – just permanent interests.
So with Mad Maduro facing the US dangling sword of a naval Damocles, let’s not get too caught up with the hissy fit Antigua’s throwing at T&T’s Kamla!! Her country’s interests align with ours as far as Venezuela and the US are concerned – while we need Caricom’s numbers at international fora. Let her take on Caricom’s hypocrisy on their “Zone of Peace” diversion!! The US has its eyes on the 300B barrels of oil sloshing around under Venezuelan soil; Kamla wants the Dragon Gas Field after mad Maduro’s dislodged.
And we (virtuously!) want multilateralism!!

…low-speed chase!
The US Navy’s been “pursuing” its third sanctioned supertanker, Bella 1, since Monday to seize it for violating its Venezuelan sanctions!!
Gotta be the world’s slowest hot “pursuit” since the tanker’s moving at 15 MPH tops!!