It looks like the line of big ones jetting into our dear Mudland will never end – and they keep getting bigger, if not necessarily better!! Who woulda thought that fellas who ruled the US and the UK would actually deign to even step foot into our backwater? So, what it is that’s drawing fellas like Clinton and Blair down here? We gotta be honest and accept it’s not our famed hospitality – but simply for them to trade on their fame and smooth the way for companies and countries to try to get a piece of our newfound oil wealth!!
And this is on top of the locals who would be greasing palms so as to get an inside line into all the multi-billion-dollar projects that invite bids every day in the newspapers. And we have the inevitable swell-mouth that some folks are getting unfair advantage. Now, it’s always been like this, no? Folks trying to influence power holders to get “their way” and have an advantage over their competitors. In our own history, weren’t we told about the influence of the “West Indian Lobby” in the British Parliament?? Then later about friends and relatives getting their young’uns plum jobs in our Civil Service? And later still, having “lines” to get anything done during the Burnham dictatorship?? Does anyone believe those “lines” didn’t mean “payoffs”??
But that doesn’t make having “lines” right, does it? If it ain’t a moral question, then at a minimum it’s an economic one. We’re told that such payments are “economic rents” and make transactions “inefficient”, since the market isn’t “free” to deliver the optimum outcome!! The system is being gamed!! The question is what’d we do about it. Let’s look at the Yanks, who are our model in all matters political and economic!!
Very simply, as with all institutions providing “checks and balances” and such like, they created an institution to deal with this aspect of human nature, and called it LOBBYING!! But soon the lobbyists got outta hand. And we’re informed: “The Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946 is a statute enacted by the US Congress to reduce the influence of lobbyists. The primary purpose of the Act was to provide information to members of Congress about those that lobby them. The 1946 Act was replaced by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.”
Lobbyists to members of Congress have to be registered, and as of last year, there were 12,937 of them!! Some even for “furriners” like us to use – as we well know during the attempted PNC elections heist of 2020!! We need this fix, since we’re on an inevitable spending spree that’ll attract these “middlemen” like bees to honey!!
Let’s introduce legislation to register lobbyists!!
…or ousting?
Well, whadya know?? We always knew, and they always knew, that the big powers worked behind the scenes to oust governments inimical to their interests. Sometimes they didn’t bother to stay behind the scenes, like when the USSR invaded Hungary in 1956!! To show that oustings aren’t just about ideologies, look at Russia invading Ukraine. A big power’s gonna do what a big power’s gonna do – and deal with the consequences!! They even have a name for it nowadays – “regime change”.
But they don’t normally admit these behind-the-scenes manoeuvres – even when they’ve been confirmed by declassified files etc!! “When asked, don’t tell!” was the rule!! Up to now, that is!!
The US has made no secret that Maduro over in Venezuela gotta go – even when he was probably getting elected legitimately!! He just made matters worse when he started fiddling around with elections!!
He’s about to repeat his rigging routine – and your Eyewitness wonders when – not if! – the Yanks are gonna take him out!!
…French charm?
France just announced they’ll be opening an Embassy here. Your Eyewitness wonders whether the move is connected to them being thrown out of those four Sahel African states?? Will they be sending those displaced troops in addition to the patrol boats??
