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We have made the same mistake with respect to the looming threat of pandemics

Dear Editor, W E humans are strange creatures. We often tend to put off making important decisions and taking vital action until we hit a crisis point. We do this in both our individual and collective lives. The problem is that in today’s world, some of the decisions we have steadfastly refused to make can spell the difference between life and death. We are learning this the hard way with the coronavirus pandemic and its twin, the growing global economic crisis.

And yet, there are still constructive choices we can make. Rather than stumbling blocks, we can choose to treat these crises as stepping-stones helping us build an effective system of global governance fit to respond to our collective needs in the 21st century and beyond. We have known for a long time that climate change poses a dire threat to life on earth in many different ways. We have also known that the continuing proliferation of nuclear weapons increases the threat of a nuclear war, which, whether deliberate or accidental, will have horrific consequences. Yet, we have been content to stick our heads in the sand and abdicate responsibility for making collective, global decisions that will ensure that these nightmares are mitigated or never come to pass.

We have made the same mistake with respect to the looming threat of pandemics. For years, we have talked about the possibility of such an event, and yet we have failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that we were prepared to tackle such a crisis swiftly and effectively. While some voices have for many years been calling for the creation of a limited form of global government, most of our leaders have been unwilling to countenance such an idea. Yet, finally, in the face of the enormous physical, economic, and mental suffering we have begun enduring in the wake of the coronavirus, we are starting to hear voices among the world’s leaders calling for the creation of some kind of system of global governance that is capable of responding to the needs of the 21st century. Such voices should be encouraged and applauded.

What an incredible call to action! This is precisely the kind of leadership we need — one that is willing to acknowledge and dispense with systems that are not working and no longer ensure the well-being of those they were created to serve. And one that recognises the need for collective consultation in order to conceive of new global structures, capable of managing collective problems that impact humanity as a whole.

Also recently, the views of Gordon Brown, the former prime minister of Britain were clearly laid out in an article published by The Guardian. He cut straight to the chase, urging world leaders “to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

He highlighted the obvious yet often unacknowledged fact that “this is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” rather, it is something that requires “a coordinated global response,” starting with “some sort of working executive.” This kind of call confirms world historian Arnold Toynbee’s predictions in the last century that — despite our strenuous resistance to any notion of a world government — once we faced an existential threat -- we would rapidly, though reluctantly, abandon our resistance in favour of a world government, albeit limited in scope to what is absolutely necessary to effect the global management of global challenges.

We, the people of the world, have a choice to mitigate our global suffering and to ensure that our hardships have not been in vain. It is up to us, one and all, to demand of our leaders that they seize this opportunity to demonstrate the statesmanship, vision, and courage required to build those global decision-making and enforcement institutions we so desperately need to meet the urgent needs of an inextricably interconnected world.

Regards Rooplall Dudhnath PPP, Mercury and the American politicians

...a threesome involving lust for money, oil and power

Dear Editor, I am so proud of my childhood that you would be forgiven in believing that I was brought up in an affluent society. The fact is, my formative years were an impoverished daily battle. Having said that, I’m very proud of where I came from and will forever talk and write about it. The knowledge I have gained from that developmental period has played and continue to play, a critical role in my adulthood. Two of the concepts I have learnt, that guide my actions to this day are, one should never make threats if one is not prepared to carry through with them. Secondly, not all threats would be carry through but it is difficult to determine which one is going to hence all threats should be taken seriously.

Today will make four weeks since the general elections. Even before Election Day, PPP were complaining more than the woman alluded to in the Bible.The bible made reference to the fact that it is better to live on the roof of a house than to be in a house with nagging woman. That aptly describes PPP before and after the election. But that is not all to PPP, there is much more. PPP formed an unhealthy $34M relationship with Mercury LLC that served as the link between PPP and the American politicians. This Mercury relationship resulted in unusual behaviours by some American politicians, as it pertained to Guyana. Inexplicably, American politicians would, always with fail, echo PPP political position, albeit they are thousands of miles away.

For example, PPP demanded that Region 4 results must to be verified and the American politicians demanded that Region 4 results must be verified before they are deemed credible. The well learned Chief Justice subsequently said results verification is nonsense. PPP then silently whispered oops and the American politicians also silently whispered oops. And it got more disconcerting when PPP posited that GECOM should use statement of polls rather than spreadsheets for tabulation of the Region 4 results. The American politicians instantly mirrored PPP’s argument and instructed GECOM that only statement of polls and NOT spreadsheets should be used for tabulation of Region 4 results, for it to be deemed credible. By now most Guyanese were wondering why these American politicians are not relocating to Guyana to become the official opposition party. Anyway, PPP maintained the quarrelsome woman mentally and cried that the Region 4 results are not credible since they have no confidence in GECOM statement of polls. OK PPP but you demanded that they be used. Unsurprisingly, like the PPP locally daddy the PSC, The American politicians proclaimed that the results are not credible even though the preferred statement of polls were used. By now a very tolerant President Granger had enough of this synchronised dancing between PPP and the American politicians hence he used his political clout to arrange for a CARICOM high level team to recount all the votes. Surprise, surprise, PPP were elated and made it publicly known. Let’s see what the American politicians had to say. They argued that results are only credible if CARICOM supervise a recount. Anyway, I wrote a missive to the editor titled, “Tweets and facebook postings are not official routes for diplomatic communications” on the 25th March. In essence I asserted that if the Americans have concerns about our General election then the Secretary of State would summon our Ambassador, Mr. Riyad Insanally to explain as he expresses his Administration concerns. Within 24hrs of that letter, the Acting Assistant Secratary for US Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, summoned Ambassador Insanally to explain while he raised his Administration concerns. These clearly can’t all be coincidental.

It is clear than there is a communication link between PPP and the American politicians since the American politicians’ statements are always consistent with PPP narrative, verbatim.The fact is that America and the entire world are battling the Coronavirus pandemic. Also, the fact is that America has registered the highest cases so far. It is without doubt that many of these American politicians are up for re-election in 7 months. They are too well aware that they will be judged on their managing or lack thereof, of the coronavirus in America. This is undoubtedly a battle for their political lives. The fact is that they don’t know about Guyana. The fact is that they have never heard of Guyana. The fact is that they are to busy with domestic matters to make the time to research and read the news on a nation with a population of less than one million.Therefore, I would humbly submit that someone is doing the work for them. That someone would be employed by a lobbyist group. That lobbyist group is Mercury LLC. I would opined that these statements and diplomatic summons are orchestrated by Mercury LLC. Don’t tell me that the Americans politicians would have educated themselves on our electoral vernacular vote tabulation processes eg, verification, spreadsheet and the fact that our voting is not digital. They don’t know and they careless. As I have stated earlier, all threats should be taken seriously since we never know which one is going to be carried through. The Guyana Government is clearly taking that approach as it pertains to the threat of sanctions.

Finally Mr. Editor, there must be a brilliant neologist in PPP. First the new word battylion was coined.Then recently the phrase, “Caretaker President.” Now we have “Government in waiting.” I do recognise this phrase “President in waiting” but “Government in waiting” is new to all of us. My understanding is that once the President in waiting is inaugurated he then selects his cabinet which forms the Government. Also, I could not help but notice that our well learn neologist missed an opportunity to add a new word to the dictionary. You see, from 2011- 2015, Donald Ramotar led a minority Government but strangely the PPP neologist did not consider him a Minority President. Therefore, to add clarity to this new concept of “Government in waiting”, I thought I should put a few questions to the PPP political scholar.

1. How long they anticipate the “Government in waiting” will be in this transition state before they are they are deemed the real deal?

2. Is there a waiting list of “Government in waiting” and what position on that list is PPP?

3. So far APNU-AFC are ahead of PPP on the GECOM “Government in waiting” list, based on official results. How do they plan to manage expectations when considering that they will be on that list for quite a few decades?