For all our history, we, Guyanese, have been taught we were all one happy British imperial family…on which the sun never set. Oldsters would remember looking with pride at those splotches of red across the globe that signalled our “togetherness”.
As Independence loomed, the Brits lumped our colonies into one conglomeration or another, supposedly for easier administration. There were, for example, the Federation of Malaya (1948-1957) and our Federation of the West Indies (1958-1962).
In our case, since we all came out of slave plantations and were ruled and schooled by the same iron fist, we developed a strong bond of “West Indianness”. But that didn’t last too long. It all fell apart in 1962, when Jamaicans felt they were carrying the “small islanders” on their backs, and voted to leave the Federation.
Trinidad soon followed, when Eric Williams snorted, “One from ten leaves zero!!” While you may think the Oxford grad was mathematically challenged, the point he was making was that, with all our WI “oneness”, the different territories would be weighing the benefits versus the burdens of remaining together. As such, he was channelling Plato – whom he’d swotted at Oxford!! – that “there can only be real friendship between equals”!!
Trinidad duly left in 1962!! And, of course, from then onwards – even though his old friend Arthur Lewis begged and cajoled – he left the “Little 8” on their own as his burgeoning oil industry made Trinis live high off the hog!
The only place left for the “West Indian Family” was on the cricket field; and even then, there was constant squabbling about why players from some countries were never picked!! In the new millennium – looking at us -Trinidad complained that the now “Caricom Region” looked at them as an ATM machine!
And we arrive at the present, when certain Caricom PMs are splitting all sorts of hairs when it comes to Venezuela!! Some insist that we “keep the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace”, even in the face of Venezuelan threats to our sovereignty. Who among them has condemned that bridge to Ankoko as a “Bridge too Far”?? Even before the Argyle Meet, last December, your Eyewitness had also noted that some were sucking up to Mad Maduro of Venezuela as their “socialist friend”!! So, socialists are ipso facto incapable of bullyism??
Plato’s student Aristotle reflected on his master’s aphorism and concluded there are actually three types of friendship. The first two – based on usefulness and pleasure given – are based on self-interest, while “true friendship is only between good people similar in virtue”!
So, does Ralphie think Mad Maduro’s his friend due to sharing similar “virtues”, or because of cold self-interest, as in PetroCaribe??
Your Eyewitness says, “Show me your company….”!!
…at the ballots
The courts have affirmed that the recount of the March 2020 elections is constitutionally valid. But your Eyewitness notes the Opposition and their camp followers ain’t quitting with their nonsense about an “illegally installed regime” in power!! However, with them courting the same Yanks, whom they accuse of “installing” the PPP, aren’t they revealing they’re just “tryin’a t’ing”, like with the 33 vs 34 “majority” BS??!!
But, simultaneously with their insistence that the PPP rigged the elections – from the outside! – some of them have then jumped on the limb that claims the (now legal) recount uncovered enough “discrepancies” to show that the PNC won in any case! They claim the recount showed “150 stuffed ballot boxes; 47 ballot boxes without papers; 1278 missing oaths of identity; 61 dead voters; 4687 absent voters”!!
So, how did Mingo suddenly have an epiphany about these “discrepancies” – when all had complimented the conduct of the elections – to move from SOPs to Spreadsheets to announce the votes??
…on state friendships
The defining elements of friendship between states are: “setting aside grievances, escaping geopolitical competition, and constructing a relationship that precludes the prospect of armed conflict”. Brazil has qualified for quite a while now!! Venezuela has failed. But what about Suriname??
The post A friend …or foe? appeared first on Guyana Times.