Your Eyewitness had commented earlier about T&T’s PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s condemnation of the “surreptitious and odious process” used by Caricom leaders to reappoint Carla Barnett as SG of the regional grouping. In effect, she said she’d been constructively “disinvited” when she wasn’t asked to stay behind after the formal Heads of Government Heads of Government (HOG) meeting for a special “caucus”!! And she wasn’t gonna go along with no decision cooked up to deliver a fait accompli in her absence!!
At the time, your Eyewitness thought the leaders who did show up at the Caucus didn’t want Kamla around ‘cause she’d shown them up in her fervent support of the Donroe Doctrine!! This – not so incidentally – resulted in the spiriting away of Mad Maduro to face some special music in Florida!! The same locale Kamla (and Pres Ali) met by special invitation with Pres Trump to participate in his “Shield of the Americas” initiative!! The implied ‘sour grapes’ on being excluded by Trump seemed to explain Kamla’s snub!!
But with the matter just not going away – and the repercussions spreading like ripples in our Caribbean Sea and washing up on the several islands – it’s clear that there’s more in this mortar than the pestle in this “he seh; she seh” story being peddled. To wit, that while the HOG Caucus is usually for HOGs only but they could be represented by their Foreign Ministers, Kamla’s FM said he was told he couldn’t substitute!! And most pertinently this was because Secretary General Barnett had SPECIFICALLY mandated “only PM’s and Presidents invited!! This was followed by fervent denials and just as fervent avowals that has left a pretty bitter taste in the mouths of most!!
Kamla suggested another rationale for the snubs – there were three other HOGs who hadn’t attended, including Antigua and the Bahamas – that it was all a plot to reappoint Barnett!! As the controversy escalated, she vowed to bring an end to “the hiring of friends, party hacks, relatives of politicians and affiliates of regional sister parties at the CARICOM secretariat to maintain the old boys club order.”
She concluded truculently: “Therefore, this matter will continue to be ruthlessly and relentlessly, publicly escalated and prosecuted until persons are held accountable for their odious actions and proper reforms are made to the organization to ensure fairness, accountability, effective management and non-interference in the domestic politics of CARICOM members”!!
Regional heavyweight Antigua’s Rep to US Sir Ronald Sanders just weighed in to suggest that Barnett should hand in her resignation – since the goal of Caricom is to foster unity and Kamla won’t be showing up if she remains in the position.
Your Eyewitness thinks this is an eminently sensible suggestion!!
…the Mid-East Stand-off
As the standoff in the Mid-East continues, the effects are being felt in our local aviation sector as operators begin hiking their prices to offset higher fuel prices. And we know unlike their crafts, these increases ain’t ever be coming down!! So, more reasons to follow the goings-on over there!! The latest is that America’s Secretary of War weighed in to assure Iran that his military resources are being buttressed to hit them as never before!! Their blockade designed to end Iran’s blockade continues – even as it appears there might be another round of “talks” mediated by Pakistan in the offing!!
Meanwhile, with Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi coming up, the vexed matter (to the Yanks!) of whether the latter’s been supplying Iran with war materiel and information is in the air. It’s widely thought that the Chinese supplied Iran with satellite pics to assist them in targeting the US sites they bombed in the Gulf States!!
President Trump, however, predicted Xi will give him a big hug”!!
…the status quo
A day after signaling we’re considering refining some of our crude in T&T’s idle refineries, Pressie announced we’re also reconsidering the DR offer to set up a refinery of our own right here!!
The man’s trying heroically!!
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