Well, we just have a (virtual) meeting with the leaders of BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – and they talked about expanding their cozy little club. While they were all buoyant “emergent” economies at the time (2001), your Eyewitness has a sneaking suspicion that the intriguing acronym of “BRIC” – South Africa was added later in 2010 – coined by a financial analyst from Goldman Sachs, got them together!! Talk about the naming of a thing and creating it!! Anyhow, while they might’ve gone into a bit of a slump after their smashing launch, it appeared they were about to come up with a BRICS reloaded by expanding their base.
Then there was the Commonwealth meet in Rwanda – and no they didn’t actually meet at “Hotel Rwanda!! The Commonwealth – actually the BRITISH Commonwealth, thank you! – has been around for a while, having been formed back in 1931 when “Britannica ruled the waves” and not coincidentally, “the sun never set on the British Empire”. One wag had noted that if the sun did set, imagine the looting that would’ve happened THEN, if we’d been raped so long in broad daylight!! Anyhow, as Britain’s star faded post-WWII, the Commonwealth became their last hope of being something other than the US’ junior sidekick!! The Commonwealth, also was recruiting and in fact by the time their pow-wow finished they’d garnered two new members – Gabon and Togo from Africa!!
And “summiting” right this minute is G7 –the the “top” industrial nations of the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, and the EU – which isn’t a “nation” but a continent!! It used to be G8 up to 2014 but Russia was thrown out after it invaded and annexed Crimea. Sounds familiar?? Well, it should since it’s pretty much this group that has taken on Russia after it invaded Ukraine!! Never mind who poked who first!! This year, they’re meeting in Germany and are also on a recruitment drive. Chancellor” Scholz has intriguingly invited Argentina, Indonesia, India, South Africa, and Senegal as partner nations” at the summit. Senegal, you exclaimed, dear reader? Yep!! You heard that right!!
Well, we know what’s gonna be on top of THEIR agenda, don’t we??!! That’s right…so it’s no surprise their first act was to sanction the sale of Russian gold!! It was noteworthy that Russia and Ukraine weren’t agenda items at the Commonwealth meet – even though Britain still plays an outsize role. But it probably illustrates the importance of G7 that PM Johnson was in Germany while Bonnie Prince Charlie was sent to Kingali!!
As your Eyewitness has noted, the cause of all these group meetings, jockeying and recruitment is a realignment of the global order.
With our oil, why aren’t we at the table??
…and Guyanese politics
There are some who wish for “valency politics” to take over in Guyana – that is, folks who’d vote for political parties whose leaders just want to “do the right thing”!!. Bit that ain’t gonna happens ever!! If you doubt that, just look at all the countries we’ve been imitating politically and otherwise on this voting business. Britain?? Supporting a soap opera monarchy?? With the elected government doing their darndest to keep up?? Partygate?
And the US? Invading the seat of government to overturn an election? The Supreme Court EXPANDING handgun ownership at a time of a mass shooting every week? Hey!! Their voting pattern’s increasingly matching their cleavages? In this case they seem to be FOLLOWING us, who were supposed to be “backward”. So, no dear readers, we better start accepting that our only hope is our political parties are serious about getting into office through the ballot boxes.
Meaning they gotta get cross-over votes – so it’s in their interest to defuse the racial hostilities!!
…in attracting cross-over votes
Now some are knocking the WPA for pushing their proposal to give every Guyanese family US$5000 annually, as being “unrealistic”. Was Roosevelt’s “chicken in every pot” promise during the Great Depression realistic??
Got him elected four times through!!
