There is another Cold War

Feb 08, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Lots of folks still have difficulty with the alphabet: what comes first; who follow; how the letters relate to each other. I thought I would put them out of their misery by lending a much-needed hand, through a lecture on lettering, and in the hope that it clears the fog and enlightens those who prefer to wrestle with the mud in their heads. I will try, but am not so certain of making progress.
A comes first. A is number 1, as in A1. Nothing should be simpler and more comprehensible than that. To be sure, A has lost some luster; it makes up today with presidential bluster. But let no one be misled: power, purpose, and will are all omnipresent; resources and capabilities, too. That is the first lesson. And having pledged allegiance, I so salute. Remember, I am not running for anything; not pandit, not president, not parliament.
The second lesson for dunces (never easy) is that B and C follow A. Incidentally, this C is not by the Himalayas. But both B and C look for signals and take their cues; A is lead vocalist, has top billing, and draws the biggest crowd. Sometimes, but not always, it garners the most applause, too. All of this should be decipherable, with no need for tea leaves to be read, or surreptitious visits made to a spiritualist.
The third lesson in this alphabetical lecture, is that E is right on the heels of B and C in its adherence to the programmes set by A. Now if anyone is so daft as to require some additional assistance, then I gladly do the honors.
Go all the way down the line to almost the bottom of the alphabet (I do hope that the narrow can get so far) and single out U. There it is: E joined to U. I refuse to accept that there are issues with any of this. Just look at good neighbour Venezuela, and it is clear who is leading the charge, calling (no firing for now) the shots, and paving the way.
Then take a moment out from kicking tyres and shooting the breeze, and identify who in this alphabet soup are right behind in lockstep and form a single voice. As soups go, this one is rather thin and thus transparent.
Guyanese would say, there are not many obstacles and not much grums (grounds). So there! And yet, for some unfathomable reason, people persist with so much dotishness. By the way, that is not Brooklynese.
Here is one classic example: The Cold War is over. Well, that is only partially accurate; or many matters considered, not at all. That was Cold War I in the antiquities of the early 1990s. Cold War II is up and running (unannounced) in a very palpable manner.
Presences and arrangements and alignments in Syria, Middle Eastern rebalancing – with the powerhouse Saudis leaning this way and that, but not altogether along the old way. Venezuela is a ballooning hot spot with all kinds of powers taking sides and squaring up; my hope is that this does not build up to the stage of a South American Cuban Missile Crisis.
Local fallout is inevitable. Cumulatively, if all of this jousting and reengineering are not of a growing Cold War reality, then I don’t know what is. Guyanese might be caught in two minds as to the pluses of the neighbourhood descending into a flashpoint, especially given increasing external bellicosity.
Further, that decades-old nuclear treaty has now been scrapped by both sides in determined steps reminiscent of the gathering brinksmanship of John Foster Dulles’ time and thereafter. The footprints are all there; the character and creep (and dominoes) and lengthening shadows (specter, too) of an emerging Cold War II are all ominously present.
Oh, and by the way, any dismissal of colonialism and imperialism as things of the past has to be flushed away with castor oil.
For those in denial, I offer the unrelenting pressure on the supply side of the narcotics business and comprehensive suffocating anti-money laundering regimes. I submit, as I wrote in a Demerara Waves article last year, that those are the new colonialisms and imperialisms.
Sir Francis Drake never operated under such restraints; and the Chinese did not have the luxury of first refusal, only the bliss of a long opium haze.
Still further, those businesses about increasing and very sensitive cyber-attacks (happening in both directions) are for big stakes; those are not board games or covert theorizing, but the struggle for the upper hand, once again, and in a primarily technology-driven world. Those are not imagined developments and for French fries.
To the uninitiated and limited, I tender these exhibits. They are part of the global apparatus, powered by those letters at the top of the alphabet. I believe that this may help some to appreciate that the world is in another Cold War. May it stay cold.

Sincerely,
G.H.K Lall

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