WHY ISN'T THE LOCAL MEDIA REPORTING ON THE VEMEZUELAN CRISIS?

If ever there was a news story that affected not only Trinidad & Tobago but the entire Caribbean it is the extreme crisis taking place in Venezuela. As of today, the entire country has been without electricity for six long days. The supply of electricity since the crisis began last Thursday has been sporadic ... sometimes you get power but most of the time you don't. Foreign news reports say that up to now some twenty-four people have died of which six were infants.


But this crisis might as well be happening on the moon and not a few miles away, if you read the local newspapers or listen to the local radio and television stations. Oh, the papers do put a story on the crisis in their pages from time to time, but then they devote a lot more time and space to whether or not newly appointed Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith should be wearing a camouflage uniform or whether an Opposition politician was wrong to "fat shame" an admittedly large and overweight woman. It seems that the editors and managers of our local media believe that these type of stories are far more important than our neighbor literally falling apart.


No electricity has meant no water. No electricity has meant no gasoline for cars. No electricity has meant no refrigeration and food spoiling which means that people are going hungry. No electricity has meant no telephones, no cell phones, no internet, nothing. If you have an emergency you cannot call either the police or an ambulance! Think about it! No electricity has meant that the airports are shut down.  You can't leave the country even if you wanted to! No electricity has meant that the hospitals cannot function and that people are going to die. No electricity has meant that ATMs and credit cards can't work and the banks can't function. So, if you had all your cash in the bank six days ago you will be flat broke today. No electricity has meant that hungry people are resorting to looting. There is a complete breakdown of law and order. And no electricity has meant that there is no water!!


I could go on, but you get the point. This is a very serious crisis. And if you thought that we had a refugee crisis before this happened just wait for a little while  ... its going to get worse!!


So? Isn't this a serious news story? But you'd never guess this by reading the local newspapers or listening to the local radio or television stations. Why? I have my suspicions ... all of them as ugly as they ought to be unnecessary. And frankly, they are all related to the media's not so hidden support for the Rowley led Government. You see, any proper reporting of the crisis next door to us will by implication show how absolutely stupid and uncaring was the Government's rather obvious support for the Maburro regime and its so-called "neutrality" which wasn't neutral at all!!


But this story won't go away. And people will continue to die. And the editors and managers of our local media will continue to try and ignore it and pretend that they are politically neutral when they so obviously are not! And that's the real sin here!

WHAT DON'T WE UNDERSTAND AND WHY?

When I was a young lawyer a very learned Queen's Counsel who was teaching me the art of cross-examination told me something that I have never forgotten. He said "when a man says something that you don't understand 98 percent of the time it is because he doesn't WANT you to understand; 2 percent of the time it is because HE doesn't understand what he is talking about."  Over the decades I have found this piece of advice to be eerily accurate.


So, I now find myself seeing and hearing about a lot of things going on in this little twin island republic and I find myself  not understanding why they have happened or not understanding the explanations. Let's take a few examples:


First of all, there was the question of Dr. Rowley's famous visit to China. We were first told that he was going to China to attend a conference of world leaders. When it turned out that there was no such conference we were told that he had been invited to go by the Chinese Government. But the Chinese very politely let the world know that this wasn't exactly true. it seems that Dr. Rowley had invited himself. But why??  What exactly was achieved by that visit that benefitted T&T? No real answer has ever come down.


Then we were told that Dr. Rowley and his Minister of Everything Stewart Young went to Australia and ordered some boats for the Coast Guard. But no reason has ever been given as to why the Prime Minister and his Minister sidekick felt it necessary to go all the way to Australia from China in order to buy some boats and bypass the normal tendering process as required by the laws of Trinidad & Tobago relating to procurement. But why?? Again, no real answer has come down. Why? What is it that Dr. Rowley and company don't want us to know or understand? There are a host of other questions that arise from this episode, but hopefully you get the point.


Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. The latest piece of news is that Dr. Rowley has picked himself up and gone to California for certain medical checks when all reports indicate that they could be done here in T&T. Why? all of the Prime Minister's expenses for him and his entourage for this trip will be met by the State. But the trip doesn't make sense. Why did he have to go all the way to California? Assuming (though certainly not accepting) that it was absolutely necessary for the Prime Minister to go to the United States for a medical check up or treatment did he have to go all the way to California for that? Couldn't it have been done in, say, Miami or even New York? What or who is there in California that makes this trip so necessary? Why? It just doesn't make sense! And by the way, for the record, I certainly don't begrudge the Prime Minister seeking first class medical advice. Its just that from all the reports that I have seen none suggest that such advice was not available here!


Look: there are a whole set of other things that simply don't make sense ... the Tobago ferries, for example. Another matter that doesn't make sense is the Prime Minister's obvious reluctance to trigger section 137 of the Constitution to begin impeachment proceedings of the Chief Justice. Allow me a moment to explain why I think that these proceedings are necessary. The office of Chief Justice is one of the highest and most important offices in the land. It ought to be obvious that the office holder ... whoever he or she may be ... should not have nay suspicions of wrong doing hovering over his/her head. At the moment there are some very ugly suspicions that are hovering over the head of the current Chief Justice. They need to be cleared up ... one way or the other. If he is guilty of any or all of them then he ought to be removed from office. If he is innocent of the charges then he ought to be cleared completely. But the only way to achieve either result is by triggering the impeachment process and having a trial. What is wrong with that? Indeed, that was the thinking behind the Law Association's call for impeachment. The Chief Justice deserves ... needs ... a trial if only to clear his name. It is not in the country's interests that the trial does not take place. Indeed, if it doesn't then those ugly and unnecessary suspicions will just grow and grow. Already some people are making scandalous and unrepeatable comments about why Dr. Rowley will not trigger section 137. And if he continues to refuse those ugly suspicions will simply continue to grow and further divide an already badly divided society.


So, I go back to the beginning: what exactly is it in all of these matters that Messrs. Rowley, Young & Co. don't want us to understand and why don't they want us to understand?  Because I'll tell you this: whatever you might think of them they aren't stupid. They understand well what they are saying and doing. They just don't want us to understand. Why?