Wednesday, May 20, 2020
BLOWS, MORE BLOWS, FAKE NEWS AND WHETHER STUART YOUNG WILL RESIGN
There is an old Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times. Well, it's hard to see how things could get any more interesting as they are right now. Let's start from the beginning of this week, Sunday 17th May: the Trinidad Express newspaper publishes a front page editorial calling on Stuart Young, the Minister of National Security, to resign. Then the next day the newspaper headlines are screaming about the resignation from the Cabinet of Robert Le Hunte, a former banker and the Vice Chairman of the ruling PNM. Then on Tuesday comes the extraordinary statement from the American Ambassador where he says that it is not true that he didn't discuss the breaching of the Rio Treaty with Mr. Young. The Ambassador says that he did! This is, of course, basically calling Mr. Young a liar. Guess who the country believes is lying? Mr. Young has since come out with an explanation that can't be repeated here because it simply doesn't make sense. Basically, he seems to be saying that while the Rio Treaty was mentioned in his conversation with the Ambassador it was not mentioned in the context that he meant that it was not mentioned and so he didn't lie or mislead anybody. And if you can understand that you are better than I am!
And today Aruba has said that they didn't purchase any gasoline from Trinidad!
But it is absolutely clear that the Rowley regime has been dealt some very, very serious blows over the last few days. You can't help but wonder what will happen next?
Then social media is full of stories ... most of them fake. One such story that gained prominence over the weekend was that Dr. Rowley's daughter were being deported from the United States. It took about three days for this story to die (it was fake news) but up to today, Wednesday, there were still those asking whether or not there was any truth to it!
It is a measure of how little faith people have in the statements emanating from those at the head of the Government that people were willing to believe that this piece of fake news was indeed real. It was only the fact that the girls have simply not turned up in T&T that finally convinced many that the story was not true. Because most people do realize now that we have not only been consistently lied to by members of the Rowley regime, but that their collective actions have led us into dangerous waters putting us squarely in the cross hairs of the United States.
Nobody believes, for example, that Mr. Le Hunte resigned over a disagreement about WASA. There are stories circulating that there are other, more sinister, reasons as to why Mr. Le Hunte resigned. But your guess is as good as mine as to what the real reasons might be. Certainly, the WASA story is not very credible.
Take yet another story making the rounds right now: it is an established fact that Iran has loaded five tankers with fuel from its refineries and that these tankers are heading for Venezuela. There is intense international speculation as to whether or not the United States will allow the tankers through or whether or not the USA will use its powerful navy to stop the ships from getting through. I definitely (and most unfortunately) do not have a crystal ball so I can't say what will happen, but if I had to bet I'd bet one dollar to one doughnut (we'll decide later who pays the dollar and who pays the doughnut) that the USA will stop the Iranian tankers from getting through. So far so good! B-u-t there is a report that I have seen that the Iranian tankers are diverting to Trinidad! To which I can only say : they've got to be crazy if this is true!
Iran is subject to American sanctions as is Venezuela. As the old people used to say, 'cockroach have no right in fowl business', and in this case we definitely would be the proverbial cockroach! And if we were so stupid as to allow Iranian sanction busting ships to enter our waters ... well, I shouldn't have to spell that out!
I can only pray that this latest story is also fake news, and that if there is any truth whatsoever to it that the powers-that-be think again and do not allow these tankers into our waters. And if you really have to ask why, then perhaps you need to go back to kindergarten. It will simply take too long to explain.
And I have another bet with the same stakes (one dollar to one doughnut): my bet is that Dr. Rowley will NOT accept Stuart Young's resignation but will call an election instead.
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"Then on Tuesday comes the extraordinary statement from the American Ambassador where he says that it is not true that he didn't discuss the breaching of the Rio Treaty with Mr. Young. The Ambassador says that he did!"
ReplyDeleteMr. Montano,
Seeing that people are intent on splitting hairs with regards to what Minister Young said as opposed to what the Ambassador's press release said, lets go down that road a bit, lets split hairs and examine both Minister Young's exact words and the Ambassador's.
Minister Young stated "....the United States Ambassador, had a conversation with me, as a representative of the Cabinet level of the Government, and there were other conversations and there was no raising of the breach of any treaty"
The Ambassador's release stated, "....I wish to affirm that I expressed concern to the Minister in that conversation about the consistency of Delcy Rodriguez’s visit to Port of Spain with Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations as a party to the Rio Treaty." then he goes on to state further," Article 20 of the Rio Treaty makes it unambiguously clear that all measures imposed by the Organ of Consultation — like the travel restrictions on Ms. Rodriguez — are binding on all treaty parties, whether or not they voted in favor of such measures."
Expressing concern about the 'consistency' of the Delcy Rodriguez’s visit with Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations as a party to the Rio Treaty is not a categoric statement that the Treaty was breached. My understanding is that the Ambassador had concerns [was merely worried, not certain] about whether the visit was in keeping [consistent[ with T&T's obligation. Had he said outright that the visit was 'inconsistent' with Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations etc, etc, he would have stated definitively that the Treaty was clearly breached and then Minister Young's previous statement can be said to be not accurate.
The rest of the Ambassador's press release that" Article 20 of the Rio Treaty makes it unambiguously clear that all measures imposed by the Organ of Consultation — like the travel restrictions on Ms. Rodriguez — are binding on all treaty parties, whether or not they voted in favor of such measures." is simply a clarification, ex post facto the conversation with Minister Young, for the benefit of those reading the Release that Trinidad and Tobago is bound by the measures of the Treaty, whether or not we voted in favour the measures. It cannot be inferred that he told Minister Young that in the conversation.
I simply don't understand how any T&T loving national would choose to give the benefit of the doubt to the representative of a foreign Government with an historic record of contempt for political truths, political morality and respect for the sovereignty of other nations; that regards those ideals as matters of nuisance value, mere irritants, to be trampled on and discarded in pursuance of its geopolitical objectives.