Protecting…our interests

The President of Guyana, according to the GDF website, is “the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. (He) exercises supreme authority over the GDF, providing strategic guidance on national defence policy, authorising operational deployments, and upholding the constitutional and sovereign interests of Guyana.” One crucial point must be noted from this adumbration – to wit, that our armed forces are subject to TOTAL control of the civilian Government – led by the elected Government and headed by the President!! And this is a point that isn’t emphasised enough in our country!! Both the members of our armed forces and our citizens gotta remember this existential fact!!
As Commander-in-Chief, President Ali addressed the GDF Officers Conference at Camp Ayanganna last Thursday. The point he stressed was that the recent events in Venezuela, where the US sent in a contingent of Special Forces and seized and extracted Mad Maduro to the US to face trial for his narco-smuggling activities, hadn’t changed the status quo as far as we are concerned. “The present situation in Venezuela does not remove or diminish the threat to Guyana’s territory”!! Speaking forcefully to the men and women arrayed in front of him who’re charged with defending Guyana against all and any external threats, President Ali warned, “Guyana must not drop its guard. Guyana must not blink”!!
He, of course, was addressing sentiments expressed by some that since the US would be protective of the massive ExxonMobil investments in our country to exploit our humongous oil reserves – we needn’t worry about our security!! Now ExxonMobil’s presence here obviously means the US has an interest to protect them – and the strategic oil reserves!! This has been repeatedly emphasised by Secretary of State Rubio! But there are interests, and there are interests!! And it’s clear that President Ali’s a very prudent man who understands that one interest – say, Venezuela’s 300 billion barrel oil reserves – can trump (pun intended!) another interest – say, our 13 billion barrel oil reserves!!
Look at how the US had backed Maria Corino Machado and her Opposition group to take power in Venezuela on account of their winning the 2025 elections – which were rigged by Mad Machado and his henchmen and henchwomen!! Few were as pro-communist and anti-American as the most strident Delcy Rodrigues!! Yet here she is, installed into office by the Yanks while Machado has been kicked to the curb!! And no hard feelings – it’s all about interests, baby!! But from our standpoint, she was also the hardliner on the Venezuelan claim to our Essequibo – and that low-hanging fruit will be plucked sooner or later!!
So, Pressie emphasised we gotta strengthen our army, navy and air force!! At least we must show them we ain’t gonna be no walk-over!! That military base in Essequibo??

…our morals
Seems like revelations from the Epstein files are gonna take a very long time to blow over!! This ain’t gonna be your usual news-cycle turnover!! So we might as well try to extract some lessons from the admittedly sordid and downright nasty business. And “business” is the one to produce the wealth; that’s the motivation for that activity. And sadly, the “businesses” most often have absolutely nothing to do with creating anything in a factory or anything you can touch!! Epstein was worth some US$800 million – just by playing with the rich, famous and connected and making FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS based on titbits he would’ve picked up!!
Right up there is the lesson that wealth concentration – and it ain’t just by the top one per cent! – creates leisure, insulation, and impunity!! It allows the elites to detach from the pain their policies and businesses cause!! But just as critically, it creates a reverence for wealth that falsely equates money with intelligence, ethics, and leadership.
We see this in our little Guyanese pond??

…Sanction Man’s sanity
Poor baby!! Sanction Man’s lawyers pleaded with Magistrate Judy to postpone his extradition hearings because he’s suffering from “migraines”!! Were these brought on by the thought of speaking in the Budget Debate – or by his imminent extradition??