That American Trinity – don’t mess with it (or them)

May 11, 2019 Letters

---

DEAR EDITOR,

Narcotics, money laundering, and terrorism form a particularly evil trinity found sacrilegious by watchful America divinities. They are angry gods; harsh and unforgiving ones, too. Play games with any of those three sometimes interlinked devils and there is hell to pay at the hands of the still sole superpower around. Comes first through the crippling force of escalating sanctions.
Reaches everywhere; spares no one; not the rich, not the powerful, not the confrontational. And when economic sanctions do not go far enough, then there is always the specter of the purgatory called the Pentagon and its Horsemen of the Apocalypse. There are more than four of them in the American arsenal.
Cross the path and it is curtains. Worse than those black cats of legend and superstition. I warned in the heyday of the early days of this century that this country should not toy with those dangers; nobody listened. Guyanese watched with disinterest, even humour, as its government responded with an upraised finger. Alarm came slowly at the local level.
Against the grain and tide, I did warn loud, swaggering political leaders and groups that to connect with traffickers and washers and plotters was a Faustian bargain, and that there will be a payback time. As usual nobody listened; the going was too good. All that money piling up, all those cash jets, all the real estate and unreal high life made the head swing. The local political swingers capitalized while the good times multiplied.
Something had to give; the ways of the world do not work like this anymore; at least not for too long. I suggest the skeptical familiarize themselves with the alphabet soup of powerful vigilante groups either American or allied with it: OECD, CFATF, DEA, EU, and departments of this and that.
Combined they are more than an alphabet: an armada of observers, scrutinizers, invaders, and troublemakers. At least for those countries and leaders due for correction, subject to interference. I submit that, having willfully violated, or contributed heavily to the violation of the sacred American trinity, this is what did happen in this country.
All diplomatic and domestic speeches and postures are recognized: May 2015 provided the proof. Get to the back of the class and stay there until we (Americans) decide that enough penance has been paid, and that it is genuine. Men suddenly humble, suddenly contrite, suddenly discovering the art of kneeling, did a slow about face.
The talk is different these days: more subdued, more mature, and more temperate. Mess with this earthly trinity at the peril of political longevity and political continuity. Reality-swift, jarring, relentless, and final-introduces humility. No extraditions, no problem (will come in time).
No investigating and apprehending and punishing those pinpointed, not a bother again (then others will have to stand down; think political). There is something entirely clinical about all of this: there is neither the personal nor the ideological nor even the financial about any of this. Simply the inevitability and irreversibility of the will of the divine, as embodied in the chosen people on earth. I trust that none are so ignorant that a tutorial is required.
Nationalism? Guyanese nationalism? What is that? Whenever has it ever been that surging, triumphant essence in the fabric of this nation? Patriotism might be the only vice shunned with a passion in this country. Who said scoundrels did not have any virtues? Think of this: if it were not the American Gods, then there are sure to be some others. Vacuums do not stay that way too long. I offer Eastern airport builders, European reformers, and Latin American magnates of a certain kind. The latter deal in certain varieties of businesses and products.
Today, the administration is viewed with some sympathy. There is recognition that its inheritances include political, commercial, judicial, and social cargos and yokes that almost cripple, certainly limit.
The Americans are supportive, sometimes understanding of the delicate state of the government’s state; that it needs to be nurtured for greater future successes. It is felt that a genuine working relationship could be established; a lasting one.
I have some ideas as to how all of this would mesh after the CCJ, Gecom, and the rest. Of course, the government’s efforts and promises are not helped by the blasphemies of its own faithful. Love of money beats love of country. And the choirboys with the cash are lavish with their gifts. There was a wise Thessalian named Cineus, who once remarked when he came with bribes to court the Romans: there is no shield that immunizes from the irresistible power of gold.
In all of this, there is one simple, infallible truth for the government to worship: remember predecessor. Blessings could follow for the devoted.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

---

---