Russia Forces Mexican Standoff

The internal news feeds in recent weeks have been choked with the Ukraine/Russia conflict. The ideologues have taken positions. The pragmatists have taken positions. There are those who exist in the world devoid of interest in the geopolitical machinations being orchestrated by the global elite. The current state paints a picture of a world still polarized many years post the Cold War period.

What the Russian Ukrainian conflict has exposed to discerning observers is a continuing struggle of a few powerful countries to protect and grow strategic interests. In the Cold War period it was easy to debate geopolitical issues and conflicts which came to light in the context of communism and democracy. There was the simple conclusion to be made of the Soviet Union and the United States of America with acolytes in tow to explain matters arising. Both sides armed with nuclear weapons that secured the jobs of an active diplomatic corp. 

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THE WEST FECKLESSLY STUMBLES FROM NEO-LIBERALISM TO HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONISM TO WOKE IMPERIALISM TO TECHNO-FEUDALISM TO WORLD WAR111 AND FINALLY TO ITS DEMISE!

Submitted by Pachamama

Vincent Codrington, a few months ago, provided us with the most profound truth about war. His was that the only certainty about war is uncertainty (sic). We would however have wagered that not even Codrington could have estimated the enormity of his statement at the time, even as the Western countries continue to be located on a path towards destruction – lions being led by donkeys!

At that time the Russians were in the ascendancy in Ukraine, on at least two (2) fronts, and given his general disposition we inferred the truthfulness of his statement was predicated on the hope that there would be a turning of the tide in favour of the Western powers. Unfortunately for him things keep going from worse to worst.

We have contended previously that all the titled variables represent forms of war on the peoples of the earth. Neo-liberalism was always a heightened economic war on the masses everywhere to serve global elites. Humanitarian interventionism, like happened in Libya, deployed a humanistic guise in service of the same purpose.

Woke imperialism is the admission by the system that it had failed to address the real needs of people everywhere but purported to give a benefit to a particular societal current while instrumentally using gay people in the service of empire. And like sheep they largely grabbed this pottage. Techno-feudalism invests enormous power in a hand full of tech companies to de-platform people for violating notional rules about woke-ness, specious cancel culture infringements and the refusal to engage demands for virtue signaling.

In Washington we have the spectre of an Alzheimer’s patient surrounded by neoconservative and un-elected war hawks in the State Department and the White House, the likes of Anthony Blinken, Victoria Nulands and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, mainly Clinton acolytes, afraid of the return of another fascist, Donald Trump, now relying on wars abroad to serve as a distraction from current and future regime failures. No grown ups are at home and these children continue to play with fire!

To be employed in this Biden white house one had to have written a critical dissertation on Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Indeed, is was the late Senator John McCain with Nuland, who in 2014 staged a coup while declaring to the many fascist battalions, in Maidan Square in Kiev, that America was with them. Up to then America had invested five billion dollars (USD5,000,000,000) to overthrow a legitimate government leading to eight (8) years of war in the Donbass. The grapes of wrath attends again!

Not having been satisfied that their war aims have failed spectacularly by bringing the economies of all their so-called allies in Europe to their knees; that Western or even global economies are heading for deep recession or depression; that Europeans will be freezing to death this coming winter; that their once reliable allies like Saudi Arabia, India, Turkiye and others are seeking shelter elsewhere; that political instability currently rife within the United Kingdom, Italy and across Europe could lead to a catastrophe in north western Asia; not being able to deter the Russian Federation from seeking to protect its citizens as a consequence of the fall of the USSR; the ‘zeitgeists’ in Washington have found pretexts for sending the always inebriated Nancy Pelosi to Taipei.

We could not make this up even if we tried!

In the angriest of diplomatic moods Beijing has recalled the many-times agreed one-China policy as they threatened to defend their national sovereignty because they consider Pelosi’s visit as an attempt to do in Taiwan what McCain did in Kiev – a regime change project sponsored by the American government. This is making war! For the American Empire has never recognized the sovereignty of any nation state as some right irrespective to the current relationships with it.

Of course, the State Department will argue that Pelosi is the head of a separate branch of government. That the Biden administration has no control over what the Speaker of the House of Representatives does. The Chinese have long read this as a head fake while reiterating a firm determination to protect their sovereignty from America’s intentions to set up a military base in Taiwan – 100 miles from their shores. Images of Ukraine you say!

Like the Russians, the Chinese do not bluff! Readers of Chinese history will have an appreciation of the developmental arc which brought them here. For example, China was invaded by a fascist Japanese empire during World War 2. It suffered mightily under a brutal Japanese occupation in which it lost four million to ten million of its citizens. Project 731, as conducted by the Japs, represented the most grotesque human bio-warfare experimentation known to man, at that time. Today all the fascist countries of WW2 are allies of the West. That should tell us why the many fascist – Banderite, Karken, Azov and other battalions, to this very day, are marching in the Western proxy armies, still. Democracy?

After Ukraine and the robust defense by the Russian Bear, do they really have to poke this Asian Dragon? For a set of Western powers unable to defeat a tribal society on horse back in Afghanistan, what possesses these people to presume that Russia and China can be taken on at once? Is this not what Brzezinski, circa 1998, warned them about, with Iran making up the unbeatable ‘axis of resistance’ to those seeking to extend global hegemony by any means necessary?

One may argue that the naked desperation in Western capitals requires the mindless throwing of the geopolitical dice. And with elections beckoning, war hysteria at home could act as the instrument to beguile populations which are no less brainwashed about democracy than Germans were under Adolf Hitler even as fascism, as being again supported and represented in Ukraine, cannot be spoken about on YouTube. The revolution will not be televised by media whores on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

This week Russian Federation foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov is on a tour of Afrika. As part of the hybrid warfare systems of the West, the Arab League was sent a memorandum, or diplomatic note, requiring that he should not be met by high officials, that no pictures be taken with him. These were duly disregarded, of course. After Biden was left at the airport by Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the crown prince, and his refusal to increase oil production followed. Instead MBS is emerging as Russia’s ally even as entente with Iran is well under way. Saudi Arabia is now buying discounted oil from Russia.

Only last week, Russia, Iran and Turkiye met in Tehran as power brokers in the Syrian War. A similar meeting took place in Tehran by the victors during WW2. On the sidelines, the equivalent of a forty billion dollar (USD40,000,000,000) deal was signed between Iran and Russia for investments in the Iranian oil and gas sectors. They are also constructing a corridor from Russia through Iran to the India Ocean. This is a minor part of the Eurasian architecture getting readied to deliver the coup de grace to the West, economically.

The world is ‘a changing’ radically. And despite assertions by Borrell and other French officials that Afrika is their backyard. Or the warning to Russia about spheres of interests, we project that ALL of the European powers will be run out of Afrika just now. About time!

In Congo, Lavrov is again receiving a welcome befitting a head of state. The Russians and the Congolese are speaking with one voice. But it is in Ethiopia, which will be the most interesting of all. For had not Russia intervened in Ukraine of February 24, 2022. the neocons in Washington would have mounted a false humanitarian invasion of this part of the east.

Truthfully, this writer has long considered Lavrov as the doyen of diplomacy. These days not so much. The state of war has seen him transformed into a no-nonsense character. He’s told a BBC journalist that he cares not what the West thinks about anything Russia is doing.

Taking a cue from Lavrov, Putin himself has called the West ‘racist’. Spoke of their colonial past and present. Certainty, these are not men representing a government looking forward to a time when hostilities subside and there is a return to the abnormal normalcy of Neo-liberalism, humanitarian interventionism, woke imperialism, techno-feudalism or war as a Western’s main instrument of foreign policy? No!

This writer has previously been accused of trying to tear everything down. However, Ancient Afrika cosmogony of tens of thousands of years ago saw the end of the Piscean Age and the rise of Aquarius as another of the mansions within the house which comprises our universes. Blame these forces not The Pachamama for the end of the dominance of all things fishy! No more centering of fishy ideas.

Geopolitics and Spying on Friends (Satellites?)

Submitted by Kammie Holder

David, does our Defence Force still get computers from the Chinese and other foreign governments?

I remember in either 2016 or 2017 laptops were donated to our parliamentarians. Unfortunately, they were lapped up by our grateful  representatives with the most excitement like kids getting a candy treat.

My concern was expressed and I was assured by the IT person in parliament the laptops would be wiped, which was laughable. Thus, the question begs how secure is our IT infrastructure and what is the protocol on receiving computers from foreign governments by state agencies and government employees?

Something as simple as accessing the Accounts Department of a state enterprise can be a treasure trove. The person with lowest net pay if not of high moral persuasion can be an ideal target for bribery. Just another stupid weird silly concern. The below shows how naive some countries can be and how those who are compromised can destroy any semblance of an orderly society by their stupidity. #TrustAllSuspectAll

  • China denies claim its hacking African Union Headquarters (2018)https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42861276 
  • African Union like sheep renew Huawei contract(2019)https://www.voanews.com/africa/after-allegations-spying-african-union-renews-huawei-alliance
  • China and AU denies hacking  of African Union Headquarters http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/15/c_138558494.htm
  • Independent investigations reveal African Union board room and cameras are buggedhttps://www.theverge.com/2018/1/29/16946802/china-african-union-spying-hq-cybersecurity-computers-backdoors-espionage

Fast forward to 2020. Some African leaders are compromised into sheep or risk exposure of their dirty dealings. The greatest treat to humanity, are humans who corrupted and compromised. Future of generations are destroyed and the present becomes chaotic and meagre https://www.reuters.com/article/ethiopia-african-union-cyber/exclusive-suspected-chinese-hackers-stole-camera-footage-from-african-union-memo-idUKL1N2GS2BM

The Grenville Phillips Column – Brace for the Consequences

My last article on Barbados’ vote against the US received sufficient feedback to justify a further explanation.  Some felt that it was simply a case of the US bullying another country, and Barbados’ courageous stand against the US’ offensive threats of retaliation against countries who dared not vote with it.  But is this true?
In assessing claims of truth, we should evaluate evidence.  What is the available evidence?  The US decided to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem.  Israel did not object.  However, the UN objected and tried to force the US to change its decision.  It did this by crafting a non-binding resolution to condemn the US before all nations at the UN General Assembly.

This type of targeted sanction is normally reserved for nations committing highly offensive actions, like genocide.  The US objected to being singled out for this type of sanction, and the US responded by noting those who voted to condemn it, in order to re-evaluate their friendship agreements.  This is not bullying, rather, it is a response to being bullied.

What is Barbados’ bullying experience with voting against US interests in Israel?  I have found no evidence that Barbados has ever been bullied into voting the way that the US votes.  The evidence shows that every year, it is typical that 100% of our votes are against the way that the US and Israel votes, and this has never put our friendship with the US at any risk.  So why are some claiming that the US bullies us when there is no evidence whatsoever to support such a claim?  Perhaps we are being manipulated.

Let us now address this last UN vote.  This vote was unlike anything that we have ever done as an independent nation.  It was not the typical vote that targeted an issue favourable to Israel or the Palestinians, this was a massive vote directly targeting the US for international condemnation.  That is why the US Ambassador issued her unprecedented warning, which persons have mis-defined as bullying.  This is the first and only time since our independence that we have ever put our friendship with the US in such jeopardy.
To put this in perspective, let us assume that China was singled out for severe criticism at the UN on human rights abuses, and China warned Barbados not to disrespect them before all nations.  Would our principled UN representatives vote to publically embarrass China?  Probably not.

Guyana is currently trying to exploit significant oil reserves in waters disputed by Venezuela.  In my opinion, Guyana has a strong case, but let us assume that Guyana was singled out for criticism at the UN for this action, and they asked us not to disrespect them before all nations.  Would we vote to publically embarrass our Caribbean friend and neighbour?  Probably not.  Why not?  Because we are principled hypocrites?  No.  Because that is not how we treat our friends.  But perhaps it is how we treat perceived enemies.

Errol Barrow summarised our foreign policy as friends of all and satellites of none.  It seems that we are being manipulated into adding … and enemies of the US.  The question is why?

Some have justified our vote by claiming that we have no beneficial relationship with the US, and therefore, nothing to lose by derisively criticising the US in front of all other nations.  This is simply not true.  Barbados is a highly favoured trading partner with the US.  Barbados does not just have a good trading (double-taxation) agreement with the US, or a very good trade agreement like that of Trinidad and Tobago who had an active US military base at the time. We have a rare exceptionally favourable (to Barbados) trading agreement with the US. It is almost unheard of internationally and it is the envy or every country that learns of it.

Being the 2014 winner of the National Innovation Competition, I train groups of individuals, free of cost, to start and grow profitable businesses.  Participants learn to trade with the US and take advantage of this highly beneficial (to Barbados) trade agreement, with direct access to the largest consumer market on the planet.  So I know of what I write.

We are currently on the brink of economic ruin.  The main thing that may keep Barbadians from losing their mortgaged homes, and out of dire poverty if we are surrendered to the IMF, is that favourable trade agreement.  Regrettably, we carelessly treated our friendship with the US with reckless indifference.

Our representatives’ excuse that we were just voting on principle in support of International Law, seems to confirm that they simply misread the UN vote as just another typical vote against Israel’s interests.  The US Ambassador’s uncharacteristic warnings should have prompted them to take a closer look.

So, if we could do it all over again, then how should we have voted?  In my opinion, the most appropriate course of action for complex disputes where we do not have all of the facts, is to abstain from voting.  We should remember that when a vote was taken to give the Palestinians non-member observer state status in the UN in 2012, Barbados did not get involved in the dispute and simply abstained from voting.

The approximately 70-year Arab-Israel dispute qualifies as complex.  Adding a bilateral agreement between the US and Israel that is of concern to the UN further complicates an already complex issue.  Therefore, the most appropriate course of action in the interest of all Barbadians was to abstain from voting.  Eight of our Caribbean neighbours voted in the interests of their citizens and did just that.

Most Barbadians are completely unaware of the grave danger that our UN representatives have now placed us.  If we actually misread the vote as I am charitably assuming, then the damage can be repaired.  However, if it was intentional, then they should have at least warned us to brace for the likely consequences.

So my main point is that if we feel disrespected by another country at the UN, we should vote for the best interest of Barbadians.  If we feel bullied, we should vote for the best interest of Barbadians.  If the US bullies or does not bully another nation, we should vote for the best interest of Barbadians.  If the Palestinians want to establish a runway in Gaza and a central bank in the West Bank, we should vote for the best interests of Barbadians.  In my opinion, our recent vote was not in the best interest of Barbadians.  I am willing to be convinced otherwise with additional evidence.

The only reason why we should not vote for our own self-interests is if there is genocide and the like in another country.  Otherwise, we should do what every other country at the UN does – vote for the self-interests of our citizens, and be wary of being manipulated into voting for the interests of others at the expense of our citizens.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer, an analyst of history, and the founder of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

The Jeff Cumberbatch Column – Things Fall Apart…

Jeff Cumberbatch - Chairman of the FTC and Deputy Dean, Law Faculty, UWI, Cave Hill

Jeff Cumberbatch – Chairman of the FTC and Deputy Dean, Law Faculty, UWI, Cave Hill

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity…” –The Second Coming –William Butler Yeats

Frequently, on the Facebook social medium, one will come across an invitation to title a random situation with the name of some film, song or other creative work. Were I invited to do the same with a book title for a global assessment of the year 2016, I would submit that of “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. This work was part of my exposure to English Literature at secondary school, although I do not now recall the year. I choose this not because of the motif of the plot, although this itself (the conflict between tradition and a new culture) is not inapposite; but because of the seeming correlation and the direction in which the world seemed to be heading for the past twelve months.

More over, the title is likely, given its source, to find favour with those who believe that we are rapidly approaching the end time. The phrase comes from the poem by Yeats, “The Second Coming”, itself an event that has been prophesied to mark that occasion. According to Yeats,

“…Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!”

Mankind is, however, if nothing else, an animal of hope. And no matter how inauspicious things may seem, we have managed to transpose the hope wrought by the traditional story of Christmas into an integral aspect of the change of the Gregorian calendar from December 31 of one year into January 1 of the one following.

Hence, despite our apparently intractable adverse economic circumstances, the deplorable state of the roads; our significant loss of standing as state debtors; the damaging and unfortunate categorization of our nation as a tax haven; the uncertain outcomes of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the US and its implications for a settled world in future, we somehow expect, albeit illegitimately, since we have no reasonable basis for doing so, that 2017 will give rise to a brave new world of peace and prosperity.

…Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned…

Today, as we greet the first few hours of the week, month and year, it is worthwhile to contemplate what the months ahead portend for us personally, nationally and globally.

I had stated earlier that the human being is an animal of hope. He or she is, arguably no less, a political animal, and I use that epithet in its populist sense. For Barbadians, 2017 marks the final full year, constitutionally, of the current governing administration since next year, 2018, will be the fifth anniversary of the last general election in 2013.

And as is constitutionally provided by section 61(3) -“Parliament, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date of its first sitting after any dissolution and shall then stand dissolved”. Of course, under our system of governance, these considerations, as stated, do not preclude the Prime Minister from exercising his awesome power to advise the Governor General to dissolve Parliament at any time prior, thus clearing the way for a general election.

This colloquial “ringing of the bell”, whenever it occurs, is likely to result in a cavalcade of partisan campaigning inclusive of the usual promises and representations by all concerned to ensure electoral triumph. Much as it was in the US in the months leading up to October where, in spite of his alarming manifesto of xenophobia, intolerance and vain boasts of imprisoning his Democrat opponent that resonated with a plurality of states, Mr. Trump now finds it appropriate, thankfully, to recant from those very stances that served so significantly to ensure his success. We should hope for a more sincere electoral courtship in our circumstance whenever that fateful day arrives.

At the global level, we would wish too for a more equitable treatment of those nations with less geopolitical clout by those that are more substantially resourced in that area. The frequent changing of the goalposts as to the definition of a tax haven and a crude reluctance by some to recognize that one salient characteristic of these entities is their affinity for secrecy; a factor far more evident in and synonymous with well known larger jurisdictions- have led to an unwarranted labeling of Barbados as a tax haven with all of the disreputable connotations attached thereto. The struggle to correct this error that might only do further damage to our fragile economy should be national and not merely partisan.

The personal aspect should be particular to each of my readers and I should not be so presumptuous as to suggest how you should lead your lives during the coming year. Nevertheless, as we begin 2017, permit me to wish you good health , prosperity and freedom from distress during the months ahead. In any case or those of us of a certain age, the phenomenon of the apparent shortening of periods of time, whether owed to our slowing metabolisms, heartbeats and breathing rates or to the logarithmic scaling of time -that we perceive a period of time as the proportion of time we have already lived through, it should, hopefully, soon be time to wish you a blessed New Year again!