H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – From paranoia to dementia

Apr 25, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Both candidates are dangerous, neither is a laughing matter.  First, there was the raucous, rage-filled Donald Trump, and then there is Joe Biden, a dodderer and plodder of note.  But this is where Guyana’s new colonial master has been and is today in its leaderships ranks.  Kamala, anybody?  A Camelot comeback?

The former White House occupant has no more than passing consideration for coloreds, so dismissive he is of their presence, existence.  Other than for a handful of pseudo-Caucasian people around, they are best not seen nor heard, better off staying in El Salvador or Guatemala.  Guyana is insulated from Mr. Trump’s scorn and disparagements because of oil.  Guyana has utility, so a brave face is put on in having to deal with these people who don’t know what they have, don’t know what they want, don’t know where they wish to go.  The Don is the best godfather in such circumstances: he will make the decisions for us, show the way.

I see him bonding well with leading local political operators: simply business, mere toleration.  My concern with the man is that he is so erratic, bombastic, caustic, and gets so sick when he doesn’t get his way.  In an ordinary individual that is fearsome; in a powerful leader, it is urine-inducing.  Now, imagine the two: the American and Guyanese political players doing oil business under the same tent. Look at who would be involved, the mere collateral matter of less than a million people, a certain kind of people in an oil hole converted from another kind of hole: his word not mine.  I paint this nuanced picture, so that my fellow Guyanese get an idea of the caliber of American leadership at the very top.  Thank God that there is Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch to hold the fort and bring some sanity to the situation, Marriott Hotel and all.

I wish I could say the same about Uncle Joe Biden.  First, he lost his memory, then he lost Saudi Arabia, next he lost Iran, and now he has all but lost what is left of his mind.  In the 1950s and afterwards, Republicans used to love goading their competitors with the jibe: Who lost China?  It was the Democrats, silly.  Now Joe Biden went and outdid them all, losing allies all over the place, while stumbling about in a haze.  The frightening thing is that he is serious about running for president in 2024.  If this is not the height of hysteria: first a paranoid former President filled with delusions of his own grandeur; and now this Democrat who has difficulty putting one foot before the other, or stringing together a stream of sensible syntax.  One may be tolerated, even managed, but two of them at the same time!  God help America!  Forget America, God help Guyana!  I am looking out for myself.

It is beyond my comprehension that two near octogenarians still harbour ideas of running for President of the United States.  The ousted Chief Executive can’t get his business in order, and his stories straight, while the incumbent putters about with the business of America, and accelerates the country into bankruptcy, and ridicule too.  But both are determined to be in the 2024 US presidential race.  The world is coming to an end.  Don’t take my word for it, simply study the implications of either of these two Americans in charge for most of the rest of this decade.  I think I should check-in to the nearest facility, a mental one.  I don’t mind the economy in their hands, I can deal with that specter.  What is numbing is the hands of either of these two grumpy and grumpier old men near to that briefcase, the one with the football.  Think nuclear button, folks.  It is time I find some isolated island as a relocation contingency.  Re-migrants have to be always on the move since nobody likes them.  Particularly perverse politicians in leadership positions and their platoons of like-minded domestic paranoiacs.

None of this would matter for the Guyana of old.  The problem (a big problem) is that Guyana has oil today, and in quantities that only Exxon and the State Department know.  This makes Guyana into a player.  It doesn’t matter that we may be 12^th man or on reserve, we are still a presence to be dealt with, a player for delicate consideration.  The Chinese take the ascendancy (they will sooner than later), and Guyana could be left stranded.  That is, unless our leaders jump ship.  It was President Ali who said that we have no quarrel with anybody, determined not to get involved in their fights, and friends to all.  Nice going, sir; but the choice is not really ours.  We are too close to and too tied to America, and that worries me.  They are not going anywhere, certainly not from here.

This is what America offers the world, Guyana: Papa Don, a real-life godfather, and Uncle Joe.  The former knows where lesser people should be (below); while the latter doesn’t know where he himself is (planet).  Good luck, fellow Guyanese!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• dementia, Donald Trump, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, paranoia

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