COCKROACHES AND FOWL PARTIES

Just about every Trinbagonian knows the old adage 'cockroach have no right in fowl party', and even if you are not from this part of the world the visual image that the adage brings up is so clear that it doesn't take much to understand its meaning.


I was reminded of this old adage about cockroaches late last week when I heard Prime Minister Rowley, Minister of Communications (and everything else) Stuart Young and Foreign Minister Dennis Moses trying to defend their rather incoherent policy towards Venezuela and Nicholas Maduro (or as I prefer to call him 'Mad-burro').


Dealing with Mr. Young first: I heard Mr. Young on Thursday say (in my words) that Maduro (Mad-burro) was the legal President of Venezuela and that those who were critical of the TT Government's recognition of him should read the Venezuelan constitution. Mr. Young said that Maduro was the legitimate President of Venezuela under that country's constitution. To which, I say, guess what, Stuart? I've read the constitution. And guess what? Maduro (Mad-burro) is NOT legitimately that country's President in accordance with Venezuelan law.


Why do I say that? Well, let's start from the beginning: Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on Sunday, May 20th, 2018 for the Presidential term due to end on 10th January, 2019. Whoever one that election would be the President for the next six years from 10th January, 2019. So far so good! BUT (and it id a big "but") the Donkey rigged that election by locking up his opponents, driving some of them into exile and literally forcing any other potential contenders out of the race. No wonder that the world regards this so-called "election" as fraudulent.  In other words, there was no President-elect after 20th May, 2018.


Now, section 233 of the Venezuelan constitution says that in the absence of a President-elect the President of the National Assembly becomes the interim President. It also goes on to say that the interim President should call an election within thirty days. In other words. the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, has legally become the interim President of Venezuela.


And so, Stuart, your government's recognizing Mad-burro was not exactly in keeping with the rule of law. If you had said something like power comes out of the mouth of a gun and he who has the guns rules, and therefore you are recognizing Mad-burro as the President because he has the guns you would have been closer to the truth. But to try and say that Mad-burro is legal is really too much of a stretch, and quite frankly destroys whatever credibility you may have had in this issue.


Now let's turn to the goodly Messrs. Rowley and Moses. I'll deal with Mr. Moses first. There is another old saying that bears repetition which is that when a man says something that you don't understand 98 percent of the time it is because he does NOT WANT you to understand what he is saying; 2 percent of the time its is because HE doesn't understand what he is saying. Having tried to listen to Mr. Moses various public bleatings I am satisfied that the man is a fool and doesn't understand what he is talking about. And the old adage about never argue with a fool because he will only bring you down to his level and then beat you with experience is well worth taking note of.


Which brings us finally to the Prime Minister. Dr. Rowley says several things: first of all he says that Trinidad  Tobago is firmly neutral and takes no sides. (So far, so good). Next he says that the legitimate government in Venezuela is that of the Donkey's and as such that is the one that T&T recognizes. Then he says that his government has reached out to Mad-burro. Then he says that the T&T Government stands ready to mediate between the Donkey and Mr. Guaido. And finally, he tells the United States to go jump in the nearest lake, not to pass go and not to collect $200!!


Dr. Rowley preaches the doctrine of non-intervention rather conveniently forgetting how T&T found itself in real trouble with (you guessed it...) the Americans in 1983 when T&T refused to support the American intervention in Grenada. I'm not going to debate here the theoretical rights or wrongs of that decision except to note that it definitely was NOT in T&T's best interests. This country paid dearly for its "principled stance"  by a then PNM government. In the same way, whether or not you really do believe that Dr. Rowley's stance on Venezuela is correct (and for the record, I don't ... but that's another debate) my point is that it is certainly not in our best interests right now. We are going to pay dearly for our so-called "independence".


And by the way, would you agree to a mediator who has already come out publicly and said that he supports your opponent? No? I wouldn't either. But Messrs. Rowley, Young, Moses et al apparently don't see why Mr. Guaido should not accept them as mediators. 


And just about every major western democracy has said that it recognizes Mr. Guaido. The British have been reported as placing $1.2 billion in gold reserves under Mr. Guaido's control. Frankly, it looks like the beginning of the end for the Donkey and his narco-kleptic regime.  Venezuela is becoming increasingly isolated and the regime's days are looking decidedly numbered. And so, Dr. Rowley, my question to you is what are you going to do when the Donkey falls? What will happen to your Dragon Gas deal when Mad-burro is gone? Have you got a Plan B?


Quite honestly, I think that Mrs. Persad-Bissessar was acting in T&T's best interests when she said in Parliament that the Opposition recognized Mr. Guaido. It is only a matter of time before he  gets de facto power in addition to the de jure (legal) authority that he now holds. Mr. Guaido is bound to take note of who supported Mad-burro and who did not.


The public castigation of the American ambassador could not have been in our best interests. Further, Dr. Rowley left yesterday to try and meet with the UN Secretary General today AFTER the UN Security Council debated the Venezuelan problem on Saturday. What is wrong with this picture?


And you wonder why I opened this post with a reference to cockroaches in a party of chickens'?

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRIENDS AND INTERESTS

It is a truism in international affairs ... and one well worth remembering ... that countries don't have friends, they have interests. You have only to look at the last fifty years of the Twentieth Century to se how true this is. Germany and Japan went to war with the United States and most of Europe, yet today, these two countries are stalwart "friends" of both the USA and Europe. Indeed, Germany looks set to achieve by peaceful means what it failed to achieve with two world wars that killed millions. Ironic, eh?


So I have to ask again: who is more important to Trinidad & Tobago: the dictatorial regime of Nicholas Mad-burro or the people who live in Venezuela and who he is grinding into dust with his criminal, cruel and undemocratic policies and actions?


You see, I really hadn't planned on dealing with this subject again ... or at least, for a little while ... but when I read in this morning's newspapers that the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago was defending his government's support of Mad-burro and company I just couldn't let it go, nor could I let Rowley, Moses, Young and company get away with it.  According to the newspapers Dr. Rowley says in essence that Trinidad & Tobago has pursued since independence a strict policy of nom-interference with all nations and this means that we must not interfere in the internal happenings in Venezuela.


Well, that is basically true up to a point, but it tends to ignore the injunction quoted at the beginning of this post. Let me put it to you this way: if you saw your neighbor literally beating his wife to death should you intervene and save the woman's life or should you say "well, that's none of my business", and stay out of the fight and let him kill the woman? If you believe that you should do nothing (not even call the police) then don't bother reading any more, for obviously nothing will convince you that a maniac ought to be stopped and prevented from doing harm to others.


It cannot be in the best interests of Trinidad & Tobago that Mad-burro and company turn that once beautiful country of Venezuela into a basket case where the people ... the ordinary people ... can't get basic food and medicines. It cannot be in our best interests where the policies of a ruthless dictator are forcing the biggest mass migration in history and tens of thousands of refugees are coming over to Trinidad placing a strain on our society. It cannot be in our best interests where the fact that Mad-burro and company are actively encouraging and facilitating the drug trade and are exporting drugs and guns to our country. It cannot be in out best interests where the collapse of the security systems in Venezuela has allowed piracy (from Venezuela) to flourish in the Gulf of Paria threatening the lives of our fishermen and yachtsmen.


No, Dr. Rowley. Maybe you are personally friends with Mad-burro. I can't comment on that except to quote the other old adage: show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are. You want to be friends and dance with him, go ahead. That is your business. Your personal business.  But being friendly with the Donkey's  regime is definitely NOT in our country's best interests. Sending your hopeless and hapless Foreign Minister Dennis Moses to the Donkey's fraudulent inauguration last week was certainly not in our country's best interests. Signing a gas deal with the Mad-burro regime might have been in our best interests, but (and it is a big "but") we don't know what the terms of that deal were. In the circumstances we can't really comment except to note that just because you say that it's a good deal for us doesn't necessarily make it so. Indeed, if it is such a good deal for us then why can't we know what the terms of the deal are? And don't tell us that the figures are confidential as your Energy Minister attempted to. There are other things that we need to know, e.g., how are the expected profits to be shared? Fifty/Fifty? Sixty/Forty? How?


In any case, assuming (though certainly not accepting) that the Dragon Gas deal is a good one for us, is it really such a good deal that we can close our eyes to the suffering that Mad-burro is inflicting on his people? Put another way, using the example above of your neighbor murdering his wife, is it acceptable to do nothing and not stop him from killing her because your neighbor has promised you a big contract?


And by the way, Dr. Rowley, you do know, don't you, that for that Dragon Gas Deal to be law in Venezuela it has to be ratified by that country's National Assembly? And guess who does not control the National Assembly? That's right: your good friend, the Donkey. And the deal hasn't been ratified!! Interesting, eh? And if it is not ratified then Venezuela can at any time legally withdraw from it!!

WHO SHOULD WE BE FRIENDS WITH? THE PEOPLE OR THEIR GOVERNMENT?

This post could almost have been headed "WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT? THE PEOPLE OR THEIR RULERS? let's understand something: Power comes out of the mouth of a gun (Chairman Mao). Or put another way, he who controls the guns rules. Now, Nicholas Mad-burro (or in English "Mad Donkey") controls the guns in Venezuela. He ruthlessly and cruelly incarcerates and murders anybody who is a threat to his regime and his lies would make even Donald Trump blush (which is saying a lot)!


Mad-burro has taken to locking up and torturing family members of his opponents who have gone into hiding in an effort to find where they are hiding and killing them.


In the meantime, Venezuela is now a complete basket case. People are literally starving and the average weight loss over the last year or so is close to twenty pounds per person. But the erstwhile President of the proud Bolivarian Republic has gotten fatter!! You doubt me? Look at his photographs of, say, five years ago and look at his photographs today! Of course, it is always possible that it is the fault f the Americans that he simply appears to be fatter as they (the Americans) are always responsible (according to Mad-burro) for all of Venezuela's current problems!! Yeah! Right!


In an editorial this week the Washington Post said "what was the region's richest society was swept by epidemics of malnutrition, preventable diseases and violent crime. Three million people fled the country. Yet Maduro(sic  ... his real name is Mad-burro), having orchestrated a fraudulent reelection, presses on with what the region describes as a socialist revolution, with tutoring from Cuba and predatory loans from Russia and China."


Sixty years ago Venezuela had the highest standard of living in the Hemisphere outside of Canada and the United States. Its health care system was the best in the world! Its GDP was the highest in Latin America! And now? Don't even bother to ask. The UN estimates that by the end of this year 2019 the number of refugees will have grown by five million people. Five million more than the three million that voted with their feet last year out of a total population of some twenty-eight million!


Mad-burro is a dictator. He has enriched himself, his family and his corrupt cronies like Caballo at the expense of the very people that he says he wants to help. The corruption and destitution in Venezuela has created the worst humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen.


So, I ask the question: who should Trinidad & Tobago care about? The people of Venezuela or their corrupt and dictatorial rulers? Surely, the answer ought to be crystal clear!?! And yet, the TT government sends its hopeless and hapless Foreign Minister Dennis Moses to Mad-burro's inauguration (or coronation as some have called it) thereby confirming our support for a corrupt and incompetent regime. And all in the name of 'that's none of our business'.


Well, Mr. Moses, for your information it IS our business. The corruption and maladministration in Venezuela is forcing refugees to flee to Trinidad  Tobago. Your government has been distinctly unfriendly to them and have even conspired with the dictator to repatriate some of them in dubious circumstances.  And you say that the collapse of Venezuela has nothing to do with us?!? What are you going to say when the number of refugees from  Venezuela doubles this year? Oh! And please tell me: who should we be friends with: Mad-burro and company or the people? And don't try and tell me that Mad-burro is a legitimate President. I'd sooner believe that Mexico will pay for Trump's wall!!