GLOBAL ISSUES AND
OUR OWN NAVEL
(October 5, 2003)
Sir S.S. RAMPHAL suggested that we be pre-occupied with local issues but not to the exclusion of wider global developments that are changing the course of our lives.
We tended too much to look inwards, he said…
“to gaze at your own navel…to ignore, forget, put out of consideration that wider, global issues beyond the Caribbean which are having such a tremendous impact on the lives of Caribbean people…governments…. countries...and which really are going to shape our lives in the 21st century.”
Today, this column continues to look at global issues but also to gaze at our own navel.
Based on information from the internet – and one friend adds out of my own instinct – I have been pointing to oil as the reason for the destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those wars have little to do with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Remember on 9/11 the WMDs were four passenger planes. There has been no suggestion that the world cease production and operation of passenger planes because they were used by terrorists as weapons of mass destruction.
BBC news (Oct. 5, 2003) tends to lend credence and substance to my instincts. Mr. ROBIN COOK was Tony Blair’s foreign minister. Robin Cook’s diary has now been published. He claims that two weeks before the war in March 2003, “Mr. Blair knew that Iraq had no usable weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Cook made reference to a briefing at which that fact was disclosed, and he Mr. Cook told Mr. Blair. The disagreement in Cabinet, by the way, went beyond the two ministers who resigned from Blair’s government. Mr. Cook named two other ministers who expressed strong reservations even if they did not resign.
A spokesman for Mr. Blair has described the allegation as “absurd.” Yet something seems certain: Assuming that Israel and the Bush regime are determined as is alleged to escalate the mid-east conflict to the bombing of Syria and Iran, the published diary and other episodes are damning enough to restrain Blair from instant and open participation in that escalation. This is good for world peace.
Long ago, in a song of classic dimensions, Calypsonian LORD NELSON of Trinidad/Tobago made reference to “big-shot liars from all dem foreign countries” (“KING LIAR”). The rest of the world which may not yet have made up their minds may now begin to determine who is “King Liar” between Bush and Cook. One of them is not telling the truth.
BBC is also reporting (Oct. 5), that trade unions in Nigeria are threatening a national strike in protest against high fuel prices. This surprised me because I once believed that President OBASANJO’s country was a major oil producer and member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which controls oil prices!!
On October 2 CNN reported that there was a new study which showed that oil and gas reserves on this planet were running out much faster than expected. Earth oil reserves of some 18,000 billion units sounds massive to us the uninitiated.
But CNN interviewed KJELL ALEKLETT on that study. He is Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden. Now that this information is public, I do not want to speculate how it will affect the appropriate policies of “the Cheney-Bush Oil Junta.”
In its insatiable appetite for oil the junta attenuates everything else, especially good sense. Their media tell the world that their invading forces caused 400,000 Iraqi soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender; they would be taken care of. The care turns out to be a lump-sum termination and pension payment of US$40 each; no job and no further consideration.
The week ended October 4, 2003, when even that $40 was not forthcoming, a group of former Iraqi soldiers broke the queue and began to protest. American soldiers said they exercised restraint. Other reports said they opened fire killing an Iraqi and wounding many more.
GEORGE MIKES said that an Englishman, even when he is alone forms an orderly queue of one. But I believe in the circumstances even Mr. Blair would break any hitherto disciplined queue of one.
On October 2, 2003 a brand new president was sworn into office for Dominica. No one doubts his massive credentials. Everyone wishes him well. Everyone also agreed that the outgoing Excellency V.L. SHAW upheld the dignity of the office.
Permit me here, once only, to take a little liberty and mention that the incoming candidate has a sense of humour. Optimist that he has professed he is, his habitual and standard response to a greeting “What’s happening, Nick?” is “Things are bad.”
I remember him teasing the “leftists” with an interesting observation: despite strong criticisms of the United States the leftists tended always to choose New York or Washington as their destination. “They never try a little Havana or a little Moscow,” Dr. Liverpool told me.
Congrats your excellency. I pledge my support.
But the night of your ascendancy to office something happened which aggrieves me enough to merit complaint to you and to the country at large.
I hasten to put this preamble: that I want no job at DOMLEC. I want the man in question to keep his job but to change his attitude. After all, I am not like those politicians that believe that a new job is created if a new administration takes a job from A and gives it to B.
The day DR. LIVERPOOL was inaugurated I went to bed at 8.00p.m. Later, I learned DOMLEC had an unscheduled power outage at Fortune. But the power was restored before too long. I am sure I awoke about 1.35 a.m., October 3, and immediately developed the ambition of getting some work done. Five minutes later there was another black-out. I lit a candle and later employed a flashlight and called DOMLEC.
There comes a time in everyman’s life when, irrationally perhaps, he becomes so accustomed to persistent inefficiency, that some more of the same makes him sad but not angry. I have even accepted the perception that some people are giving comfort to the inefficiency instead of castigating it. So, I was cool and courteous to the DOMLEC employee who answered the phone.
“Kindly advise me when power will be restored at Fortune,” I said. “This morning!” he answered. What did he mean by “this morning?”
He repeated, “I say this morning.” By that time I was beginning to get angry. I reminded him that this morning could mean in five minutes, or ten hours later.
He then said that he did not know when. “Why the hell won’t you say so in the first place?” I asked, and put down the telephone.
In calming myself, a Sparrow calypso came to mind (“LYING EXCUSES II”):
“You think I’m an idiot
You think I’m a damn fool
Any one who believe that
Never went to school.”
Power was restored in about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, DOMLEC should not adopt “an attitude” nor be rude to consumers who dare call at 1.45 in the morning. Not all of us are foolish. After all, we pay the big bill for electricity consumed at all times. This is to say we pay your salary, CDC management fees, and shareholders’ return on investment.
And we call at 1.45 a.m. thanks only to your gross inefficiency.