…in world affairs
There’s the old saying, “money talks and bullshit walks”!! But what happens when money and bullshit work together?? Before answering the question, your Eyewitness hopes you dear readers out there don’t get your drawers in a knot over the explicit use of the term “bullshit”. He reminds you this is a term of art defined by the philosopher Henry Frankfurt in his bestselling book, On Bullshit.
Frankfurt makes the seminal distinction between “lying” and “bullshit”. The liar is someone who KNOWS the truth but just doesn’t want you to accept it. So he concocts the lie that he wants you to follow. The bullshitter, on the other hand, doesn’t even CARE whether what he says is true or false. He just says whatever comes to mind just so you form a good impression of him!! Bullshitters, then, are more dangerous than liars when it comes to the truth.
So we return to the original question, and the answer is when the two work together, you get somebody like “Trump”!! He just says whatever he thinks will make him look good to his supporters! Take this case with the Arab journalist Khashoggi who disappeared in the Arab Embassy in Turkey. What are the known facts based on empirical evidence such as camera footage, voice recordings and visa entries?
That the man entered the embassy and never exited on his own. That a team of Saudi intelligence operatives – at least one pictured with Crown Prince Salman – entered Turkey, with a forensic pathologist and his bone saw and went straight to their Embassy. Then there’s a voice recording – don’t ask how the Turks obtained it – of the horror of Khashoggi’s last moments as he was being tortured. His fingers were evidently first cut off one by one, just like we see in those cheap “thrillers”.
And what does Trump say to all of this? That the Washington Post columnist, who was a US permanent resident, “disappeared in Turkey and wasn’t a US Citizen”!! After denying that the man had been killed, he then said “rogue killers” might have been at work! Vowing to investigate what happened, the US President then condemned those who were condemning the Saudis for their actions!! That’s exactly what Professor Frankfurt had in mind when he defined “bullshit”.
And it all comes down to the power of money talking…the US$110 billion Saudi arms deal, for one, is just the tip of the iceberg. The lesson in all of this for Guyana, of course, is to recognise the bullshitters in Guyana which shouldn’t be hard to do.
Just examine their statements on the murder of the sugar industry!! Any one of them!!
…in attracting creditors
When we were down and out – the result of the US$2.1 billion debt the PNC saddled us with in 1992 – Bharrat Jagdeo had to travel the world over like the Ancient Mariner of yore – buttonholing our creditors and asking for “write-offs”!! One Prime Minister of Jamaica rejected Jagdeo’s advice of getting debt write-off, saying he wouldn’t take advice from a “panhandler”!! What does he say now that Jamaica’s on its knees to the IMF??
Anyhow, look how the world changed for us since Exxon struck oil!! Right now, the big ones are lining up like ducklings behind their mother trying to give advice on how to use our money. The US, Britain, Canada, and all their banks are even offering money on the cheap to build whatever we want to build! Even if we don’t want to build anything – if you include China!! Against that background, when Ramjattan says he can’t get foreign funding for a new prison, it’s quite clear that “goat bite he”!!
Money goes to money!!
…and Merrill Lynch
Your Eyewitness was intrigued to see Merrill Lynch – now the investment arm of Bank of America – asking to advise us on investing our Sovereign Fund-to-be.
Does this mean Bank of America will now restore “corresponding banking services” to us, which it severed in 2016??
