Summing up… the US aftermath

It’s now about 2 weeks after the US changed the entire paradigm that had controlled the modern world order when they conducted that precision raid to snatch narco-smuggler Mad Maduro! Now when things that had been going one way for decades is suddenly turned around on its head, it’s not surprising that lots of folks in high places are gonna be out of joint!! We’re all creatures of habit!!
Phrases like “international gangsterism”, bullyism, new imperialism etc. are being thrown around by usually staid, button-down politicians in the direction of the US and Pres Trump!! Interestingly, the quarters from where there was expected to come the fiercest denunciations- China and Russia – have gone dumb!! And this had to’ve discomfited the wailing Jeremiahs who thought these American challengers woulda been leading the charge!!
But this just goes to show that they really don’t know what makes the world go around! And this is that no country should be making declarations on what they’re gonna do in the international arena – drawn from any theoretical position about what is “right”. Rather they should do whatever it takes to protect their country’s interests – and the devil take the hindmost!!
America has decided that it’s in their interests to go after the miscreants in Venezuela – led by Mad Maduro – who’d been doping up Yankees while making billions and billions. They explained it was a new type of war – hybrid war – and they decided to nip it in the bud – so to speak!! They softened the Mad Maduro-led drug cartel by bombing the carrier boats out of the water – before their coup de grace: the Maduro extraction! That the US decided to announce they’ll control Venezuelan oil going forward is par for the course in warfare. Didn’t the USSR control the resources of the “Eastern Block” after WWII??
And in Russia and China’s silence they understand the “Great Game” that has been played ever since men decided to mark off “countries”. More specifically, Russia had already invaded Ukraine since 2022 and after millions killed and injured that war’s still going on, thank you!! And China had declared it’s gonna take over Taiwan time, come hell or highwater! And they’ve been ostentatiously conducting war games around the island with increasingly frequency! Your Eyewitness hasn’t heard the equivalent denunciations by the present band of virtue signallers!!
Interestingly, much of these denunciations came from several members of Caricom. And they were especially bombastic against T&T’s PM Kamla Bissessar who supported the American action!! She emphasised that it was in Trinidad’s interest for the Yanks to take out drug smugglers who’d created a (violent) state within a state in TT!!
Well, castigated by the local virtue signallers in Parliament, she bluntly told them she “had nothing to apologise for”!! Our government is also protecting our interests – and have nothing to apologise about!!

…spending our oil revenues
Your Eyewitness believes that the President’s simple articulation on cash grants this weekend is a foundational statement on his government’s philosophy on development! Very simply, Pressie’s saying what should be obvious to any right thinking soul!
While we’re getting some real money from oil right now…to just put that into people’s pockets is just not “sustainable”!! Shouldn’t that be obvious?? As he said – for one we don’t know whether the price of oil will drop to the floor soon! So what do we do if that happens? Wring our hands and bawl?
No…while there can be some cash grants, the bulk of the funds must be used – as it is right now – to build infrastructure, facilitate the creation of jobs and encourage local investment!!
Go out and lift up ourselves by our own efforts!!

…tourism rooms
The opening of the new boutique-sized Plaza Hotel on Main Street opposite State house caps a year of spectacular expansion in the number of rooms in new hotels
That the effort is by a local family that was here in the hard guava season shows faith in our tourism potential!!