We still in Guyana do not often make time to sound off on the above international issues, but we should if even because the world is a global village. Connected by technology – and the Climate! Ask former Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Here are some notes I penned last year and recently.
The Changing Climate(s)
Our Guyanese President Jagdeo MUST know the former journalist-President of the MALDIVES, those islands just south of the Indian sub-continent. Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed is a Climate Change advocate in a hurry. He is depending on the vital Copenhagen Climate Change/Global – warming/Forest Preservation summit to literally “bale out” his country. The islands of the Maldives, you see, will be submerged out of existence in a few decades – if not earlier – unless funding is found to build massive sea-defenses and to implement other “adaptation mechanisms” if the Maldives are to survive.
President Nasheed, however, knows that America does not place Climate change on its list of priorities, even though President Obama will be in Copenhagen. Obama has some targets for carbon emissions but can’t assist the giant polluter China who has actually asked for American assistance in this matter.
(President Nasheed has since been overthrown but the Maldives is still one of the most vulnerable little States Threatened by the Climate – and the Sea.)
And next time I’ll repeat how impressed I was by New York, USA State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who discussed what Climate change is doing to America – even as Hurricane Sandy destroyed some portions of New York and New Jersey.
Islamic Ingratitude?
Arab? Islamic? What ungratefulness? I caught an intriguing conversation instigated by CNN’s Don Lemon the other night. The CNN anchor had an Islamic Middle East-Expert Professor (at Stanford) offer explanations as to why it appears that the Arab World rejects American influence in the Middle East, with Muslims seeming to be downright ungrateful to the USA.
But ungrateful for what? Well, for starters, the USA, over the past decade and a half, has ploughed billions of dollars into the Middle East. Israel and Egypt got and still get the bulk of those billions. Both the Islamic Professor and you, might know just why America invests in certain Arab countries. Oil, general support, influence, balance-of-power can all be factored in.
However, it was conceded that today’s generation of Muslims is aware of past American intrigue, political and economic guile and alleged destabilization in the area, for decades. The two CNN gentlemen came near to discussing how America ensures that she has influence on both sides of the political coin in nearly every Arab/Islamic State. And the pure religious fervor, not ever really understood by the West, adds to the complex nature of Arab-American relations.
The Arab 2011 Spring which ushered in popular but non-institutionalized democracy, has now been introducing an unfortunate Autumn whereby some rogue-American video is a timely excuse for the venting of anti-American sentiments.
Pity a “friendly” American Ambassador who rescued thousands from Libya’s Gaddafi had to die. But we in Guyana should spare time to ponder on Middle Eastern politics. It won’t go away.
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