Today America votes!! The country that led the way in overthrowing their monarchy (1776} and opting to rule themselves through the ballot box (1788-1789) will be choosing their next president to govern for the next four years!! If only for historical reasons, we should be interested in what’s going on over there, no? But another reason is with almost as many Guyanese living there as “at home” and busy sponsoring us – and immigration high up on the candidates’ agenda – a lotta folks wanna know what will be going down!! But not your Eyewitness. He figures with us raking in the dollar$ from our oil strike – and the PPP government laying the foundation for a domestic economic transformation – the grass in the States ain’t gonna seem greener for long!!
However, your Eyewitness, is mainly interested in the action the new President might take towards Mad Maduro – who remains the implacable enemy on our western border. He continues to plot and scheme how he will actualize the annexation of Essequibo, which he’s already “legalized”!! Between Kamala and Trump, it’s a case of dealing with a known – Trump, who was president before – and herself, who owes her position more to symbolism than substance!! Trump has shown he’s more willing to practice realpolitik than Kamala who’s still in thrall with the liberal cant.
Trump and his Republicans accept that Venezuela’s 300 billion barrels of oil – larger than even Saudi Arabia’s – must be controlled by America if they’re to hold a trump (pun intended!) in the race to control strategic resources for the rest of this century. While in the short term they’re happy as pigs wallowing in sh*t with our 15 billion or so – Trump knows that with Russia and China making gooey eyes at Mad Maduro, that 300 billion might end up with his strategic enemies. While he has to be circumspect with Putin and Xi, he’s more likely to demonstrate his machismo against the twerp next door!!
But there’s one more reason for your Eyewitness’ interest in the US elections – the widespread fear that it might be RIGGED!! Shades of Burnham!! Now American elections always had a dark underside that belied their enthusiastic espousal of “democratic” virtues as the bedrock of their republic!! New York’s “Tammany Hall” politics was the precursor of corruption and handouts for votes for two centuries!!
But this time, the rigging accusations are quite germane to proposals being floated by the Opposition for us to adopt more digitalized mechanisms in our elections. What the US experience is showing that these can be hacked quite easily by experts for hire – and deliver outcomes completely at variance with the will of the people!!
Let’s stick with our paper and pencil!!
…in honoring
UG just announced they’ll be handing out another eleven “Honorary doctorates” to Guyanese. Last year there were ten and the year before five. According to the University’s website, “Honorary Degrees are awarded in order to: 1) Recognize major contributions, locally, regionally, and internationally, in areas relevant to the University, through significant research or a career in dedicated academic or administrative service. And 2) Acknowledge significant contributions to society through, inter alia, scholarship, humanitarianism, sports, the arts, business and industry.”
Your Eyewitness has no problem with these awards -even though they regularly include some folks who’ve donated funds to the university suggesting that the “honor” may’ve been bought!! But that’s par for the course in these matters, no?? Pro quid quo, and all that!! But he wonders whether these honorary awards wouldn’t be more appreciated if UG were handing out some heavy “real” doctorates? Say like UWI??
Of ancillary interest would be for UG to announce exactly how many of its lecturers or professors have actually earned PhD’s in their fields!!
…in maligning
Mad Maduro’s really teed off at Brazil’s blocking their application to join BRICS+. He’s suggested that Lula didn’t really suffer that injury that caused him to miss the summit in Russia!! So Lula was afraid to face him??
