Most of our news outfits were down during the last couple of days; it was Christmas, stupid!! So, you might’ve missed the Venezuelan Défense Minister Vladimir Padrino López kvetching that the British warship HMS Trent, visiting this week, brings into question Guyana’s sincerity about the Argyle Declaration!! “A warship in waters yet to be demarcated?” queried Vladimir on his X account. “How does that fit with the commitment to good neighborliness and peaceful coexistence? And the agreement not to threaten or use force against each other under any circumstances?” And then he went on to issue a warning to us: “We remain alert to these provocations that put the peace and stability of the Caribbean and our America at risk!”
Now, let’s explain a few home truths to this tin-pot henchman of Mad Maduro, who’s obviously totally oblivious to how international agreements work. “Obviously,” because even though they accepted as “full and final” the Arbitral Award on our Essequibo border in 1899, they not only raised a controversy about it in 1962, but have studiously misinterpreted the 1966 Geneva Agreement on how to settle the controversy!! It would seem that Venezuelan leaders all follow the Humpty Dumpty school of thought on the meaning of words: “When I use a word,” Humpy Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less”!!!
But the nub of the Venezuelan arrogance is captured in Alice’s retort to Humpy: “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” And that’s what it’s all about, innit?? Because Venezuela’s armed forces are so much greater than ours – on land, sea and air – they feel they can dictate to us whatever they want, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it!!
In the same year of the Geneva Agreement – spelling out how the controversy was gonna be dealt with – their army pushed us out of our half of Ankoko Island, and we had to eat humble pie!! And so it’s been throughout the decades: using their navy to chase away an oil exploration ship in 2013; sending criminal syndicatos over the border into Region Seven; and now “annexing” the entire Essequibo!! Talk about being given an inch and taking a mile; here it’s 56,000 square miles!!
So, back to the Argyle Declaration that Vladimir bitched we ignored with the Trent’s visit. Heck… the Declaration’s only 11 paragraphs, so you’d think that even a troglodyte like Vladimir could read it. The 4th paragraph clearly states that if one party thinks the declaration is breached, he should inform the parties who were at Argyle with pressie and Mad Maduro!! Not throw talk like a market huckster!!
…about Boxing Day
There are some folks who feel we oughta do away with “Boxing Day” – cause it’s a “relic of British Imperialism”!! Yet these same folks put up Christmas trees, hang mistletoes, and look out for a fat guy from the North Pole riding on a sleigh being pulled by reindeer!! Those ain’t relics of British Imperialism?!! Your Eyewitness believes that many of the customs handed down by our erstwhile colonial masters oughta be reinterpreted for our time, place and circumstances. We eat pepperpot on Christmas Day, rather than turkey and Yorkshire pudding, don’t we?
So here we have it: we’re the “fastest growing economy” in the entire world, but we know we still have lotsa folks who’re dirt poor – cause it takes time for EVERYONE to benefit from the new opportunities etc. So, what your Eyewitness suggests is: all those who HAVE benefitted up to now oughta donate boxes (“Hampers”?) of goodies to the poor during the entire hard-guava month of January!!
Our local noblesse oblige!!
…about necromancy
Your Eyewitness doesn’t know what all the snickering about Massy execs communing with the dead is all about!! Can’t one of the local Execs who did the course get in touch with LFSB and channel his advice to the PNC??
