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!!