Are we experiencing the calm after the storm – even though it’s supposed to be “the calm before the storm”?? Or was it “a storm in a teacup”, and we ended up at Argyle because it’s “any port for a storm”?? Well, frankly, the way your Eyewitness sees things, ever since Mad Maduro slid into office in April 2013, only because his mentor Chavez croaked – it’s been nothing but stormy weather. Folks seem to’ve forgotten that’s the year the Venezuelan Navy seized that oil prospecting ship Teknik Perdana…which had nothing to do with Exxon, but with Anadarko Petroleum, which had been carrying out a survey of the seabed off the coast of Essequibo!!
And ever since, we’ve had to be weathering storms in the wake of Mad Maduro’s frenetic tantrums to cling on to power – even as he destroyed the economy and forced more than SEVEN MILLION Venezuelans to flee with just their clothes on their backs!! Some of THEM are still trying to “ride out the storm” in the jungles of Region 1 and the even more dangerous jungles of the Georgetown slums!!
But your Eyewitness wants to get back to the storm Mad Maduro created when he announced the “annexation” of our Essequibo – after a referendum that was even more ridiculously fixed than the one Burnham scammed in 1978 with the “mouse against the house”!! The question, of course, is how long will this calm occasioned by the Argyle Declaration last?? Surely you didn’t think, dear Reader, that this calm’s permanent, and we and Mad Maduro gonna live happily ever after??
Just think of it: our position is that the PERMANENT solution to the Venezuelan controversy over our Essequibo region will be settled legally by the ICJ. We don’t actually KNOW what the outcome’s gonna be – even though we think our case is solid – but we’ll accept whatever they rule.
Mad Maduro, on the other hand – and every hand you can conjure up – is that he’s gonna reject whatever the ICJ rules!! Does that mean even if they rule for him and Venezuela?? Well, that’s what it means, if you follow his assertion to its logical conclusion!! Mad Man!! But we know – and he knows – that he has no LEGAL claim, and therefore thinks he can browbeat us in the New Mixed Commission being set up after the Argyle Declaration!!
And this is when the next storm’s gonna be swirling over us: when he discovers that our position is “Not a blade of grass; not one spring cuirass”!! We’re gonna be seeing all sorts of bluff, bluster and tantrum-throwing when he doesn’t get his way!!
And who knows – to mix metaphors – maybe the sh*t will even hit the fan in that storm!!
…and the Brits
Well, if it’s one thing the Brits should know something about, it’s storms. Why’d you think the first thing they do when they meet each other is comment on the weather? And then, with “Brittania ruling the waves” and all, they had to be dealing with storms big time!! It’s not for nothing that one of their most famous painters – Turner – specialized in storms!!
Anyhow, they seem to’ve gotten the Venezuelan Défense Minister’s buckta all in a knot when they announced they’d be sending their warship HMS Trent for a visit off Port Georgetown! But that’s his worry, innit?? We know that, now we’ve struck oil, the Brits are merely offering us a reason for dealing with their Trade Missions a tad more favourably. But jeez…can’t they offer more just bangers and mash pub grub?? The Trent ain’t dropping anchor at a wharf, cause the Demerara River bar’s too high.
Could you imagine if they’d been offered to berth at the new Island in the river – sponsored by Exxon?!!
…in Brooklyn
Your Eyewitness can’t believe the amount of ink being consumed over whether or not service of a magistrate’s warrant can properly be executed in Brooklyn!! Wouldn’t it be better to set a honey trap to lure him back??
