…in Guyana
After all the sturm and drang of the past week over US Secty of State Mike Pompeo’s visit, the gentleman is finally here, and the sky hasn’t fallen!! Before we get to the nub of the angst – mostly from the Opposition APNU/AFC, who’re a pretty nubby bunch, to begin with! – your Eyewitness couldn’t help but wonder about flying to any destination in the world in your own full-size jumbo jet! And also to have another Jumbo just to ferry around your advance team! Imagine that!!
Back in the day, sometime around 1980, the megalomaniac Burnham – with visions of grandeur to stride like a colossus on the world stage – had rented a Boeing 707 Jet and flown off to some summit or other in Africa. He carried along a retinue of eighty of his insiders, and had Dom Perignon with filet mignon served by waistcoated waiters as part of a six-course dinner!!
The only problem was that Guyana had just been turned down for an IMF loan, and later in the year, Carl Greenidge would have to declare that the country was bankrupt!
Now back to the Pompeo visit and the kvetching by the PNC-led Opposition. We have to consider their reaction against the background of Pompeo leading the charge to save Guyana from another 28 years of an illegally- installed PNC regime via their patented rigging technique. Save that this iteration under Granger was so blatant that even Ray Charles would’ve been able to know the elections were being hijacked under his nose!
How dare Pompeo? snarled Granger and crew!! Hadn’t the Americans put up with Burnham and his rigging for 28 years?? Hadn’t they been presented with Ivelaw Griffith’s piece that claimed the PNC’s “strategic culture” was a more perfect match for the Americans than the PPP’s?
Point of the matter, however, was that Granger was just too stupid, and the Americans don’t do stupid! The Americans had stood by their side and placed their hands on the scale for the PNC in 2015. Remember the “Vote like a Boss” roll-outs?
When they got in, the Americans ostentatiously praised the “multicultural and multiracial” coalition victory. Then Granger blew it all when he kicked the AFC in the nuts after he shut down the sugar estates and threw 7000 mostly Indian workers into the streets.
The PPP under Jagdeo, on the other hand, had dumped all Jagan’s Marxist cant and become aligned with their supporters’ free enterprise imperatives. They were also demonstrating that they had cross-ethnic support, since their core constituency was now below 40%.
The PNC’s rage against Pompeo is misguided. They should be looking at Granger!
…with its interests
If it’s one thing about Americans, they’re quite up front about admitting that their diplomacy is all about furthering their interests. As such, they really don’t mind when countries they’re dealing with are also up front about standing up for THEIR interests. It’s for that reason they had problems with those who were pushing “world communism” – even after they’d seen what it had done to the people who lived under it for decades.
A happy relationship can be worked out when our interests are balanced – as they are right now, with democratic governance. We can’t be hypocrites and accept that it was okay for the US to push for “our side” – remember the PNC also hired lobbyists in Washington? – and now denounce “US interference” in our democracy!!
The US obviously have economic interests, but why would they have any concerns about the oil contracts, when Trotman already gave away the store to the IOCs??
He said it was because we needed the US multinational to stave off the Venezuelans. So, what’s different now??
…and will help
Who’ll complain about the “Shiprider Agreement” being reactivated to allow US ships to operate in our national waters – with Guyanese aboard as “ship riders” – in hot pursuit of drug traffickers?
Once again, a happy coincidence of interests!
