WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN T&T?

I don't know about you, but I'm getting more than a little fed up with not knowing exactly what is going on in Trinidad & Tobago ... OUR country! I feel that we are not being told the truth about anything ranging from how many tests ... exactly ... are being conducted (and if it is really only a little more than 1,400 since the very beginning of this crisis, then why has there been so few?) to was there really a tanker here in Pointe-a-Pierre  collecting gasoline bound for Venezuela?

On this latter point, you do realize that if the story is true (and it was first reported by a very, very respected Venezuelan journalist) then why has our mainstream media soft-pedaled the story and not checked it out thoroughly? This story (if true) could have disastrous consequences for us as it would represent a clear attempt by the Rowley Government to assist Venezuela in defeating the sanctions imposed on the Maburro ... I'm sorry ... Maduro regime by the Americans. And the Yankees ain't gonna be too happy with that one little bit! And if you are so stupid as to ask what can the Americans do to us? The answer in two words is A LOT!

Look, I'll  be the first to admit that I don't like Maburro. I think that he is a crook! A big crook! He deals in drugs and is a murderer and a bloody dictator, amongst other things. His policies and the rape of his country have left millions of Venezuelans impoverished. (More than 4 million of them have fled as refugees!) And if he wants to sue me for defamation  I would welcome that for he will have to go into the witness box here in Trinidad and my lawyers will get a most welcome chance to cross-examine him.  My defence is justification. Everything that I have said here is  the truth.

But the real point here is that countries don't have friends, they have interests. In a thousand years it canNOT be in our best interests to be friendly with such a corrupt regime as is The Donkey's. And it HAS to be in our best interests to side with the Americans against him. (Again, if you are so stupid as to ask why then I really can't help you.)

But back to the point: the daily (or almost daily) briefings by the Government are absolutely pathetic.  I have been watching these daily briefings with mounting horror. The briefings (if you can call them that) are the exact opposite of what we need right now. We need, in one word, leadership. Our leaders have to be calm, they have to be factual, and above all they have to be honest!

I mean, look: there are so many things going on and rumours are rife. For example, the Prime Minister called a press conference this afternoon for 2pm. At a time when the mainstream media was focused on the Head of Government a rumour surfaced on social media that two flights from Florida (NETJETS FL# N134QS and FL#160QS) were scheduled to arrive at Piarco. So, first question: Is this true? Yes or no? We don't need a long meandering explanation that explains nothing.

Second question: if it is true, then who were the individuals on these private jets? What were they coming here for and who were they coming to see?

The country is crying out for leadership  ... honest leadership. If things are bad, then tell us how bad they really are and back it up with facts ... facts that can be verified. And please, let's stop all the politicking. I'm sure that we are all at that stage where we really don't care about scoring political points. That may work well with the respective bases of the two main parties, but the rest of us don't care. Just give us the facts ... and make sure that we have all of them.

And please, don't tell us that you are going to do only a mere 700 "random" tests between now and the 15th May. We sit somewhere near the bottom of the testing scale worldwide and it ought to be obvious that much, much more testing is required.  And while we are at it, can you tell us how many people have been reported as dying from pneumonia since this whole thing started? You see, there are rumours going around that a lot of COVID-19 deaths have been misreported as pneumonia. Is this true? You have a responsibility to separate fact from fiction and, yes, it is most important that you answer everyone of these rumours, uncomfortable though it may be.

The bottom line is that we have not been told the truth about too many things. I, for one,  for example, simply do not believe that the Venezuelan Vice President came here to discuss COVID-19. Convince me that is all she came for and you can start by telling the country who was in her entourage. Is it true that the President of PDVSA (the Venezuelan equivalent of Petrotrin except many times bigger and hasn't been shut down) came with her? If it is, then was his visit tied to that mysterious gasoline tanker I spoke about above?

And as for the mainstream media I have only this to say: you fellows should be ashamed of yourselves. You are NOT doing a good job of reporting what is going on. Instead you are simply repeating everything that the Government chooses to hand down and you do not follow up or ask the hard questions. And you should be. Not only is it important for our democracy, but it is even more important for our lives!