I’ve been idly wondering what was going to get me back to blogging. Its been a while. Plenty of stuff has been happening in Vincy politics, stuff that I could love (free laptops for kids!), hate (reinstating convicted criminals as police officers!), chuckle at (ULP’s “sea of red” anniversary mobilisation dwarfing all NDP demonstrations combined), weep at (those floods in G-town are serious), or just shrug (another parliamentary walk-out). But with all that stuff happening, nothing was particularly interesting on a take-out-your-laptop-and-blog-about-it level. It all seemed so, well, obvious.
Until Sir James showed up on my TV screen a couple hours ago.
I don’t usually watch Jerry George’s dimwitted platform for NDP greybeards, but I left the TV on channel 45 after Jomo’s monologue and got sucked in. What I witnessed, after a (too) long buildup of correspondence between Ralph and James, was the most brutal act of public political fratricide in Vincentian history. Facing Jerry George’s softball questions, Sir James zealously cut Eustace off at the knees, and then beheaded him for good measure.
After Mitchell’s surgical strike, Eustace is about as viable as NDP leader as Osama bin Laden is as Al Qaeda leader.
I watched the whole thing. Part of it was the morbid curiosity that makes me slow down to watch a car accident on the side of the road. But the other part was that I was struggling to process it all. WTF? Why now? What was said? What was unsaid? Here is my review and instant reaction to what I just saw (caution: final opinions may differ from instant reactions, after sufficient rum shop debate).
Instant Reaction #1 – Sir James: Original VincyPatriot?
The first part of the interview was dedicated to establishing Anansi’s bona fides as a true patriot. He told us, in mind-numbing detail, about his every letter and telephone conversation with Gonsalves over the last decade. What did they talk about? According to Sir James, big issues: human rights, fisheries, financial blacklists, agriculture, and maritime boundaries. Major issues of national importance. This build-up served three purposes. First, Mitchell is showing us how much he loves his country. For Son so loved Vincy, he can speak with the enemy. Second, he’s showing us that his conversations with the Comrade are nothing new, and didn’t start with his self-serving Amajaro cocoa project. And third, it sets him up as the nice guy, which will make his later assassination of Eustace more credible. If you watch a recording of the interview later, you can skip this part.
Instant Reaction #2 – Sir James: The least interesting man in the world?
In Mitchell’s mind, this part is titled “Sir James: Agricultural Expert.” After establishing his patriotic bona fides, he was trying to do the same for his agricultural expertise. I considered turning off the TV here. You know those ads for Dos Equis Beer that star “the most interesting man in the world?” Lets just say that Sir James won’t be drinking any Dos Equis beer at the Frangipani any time soon. Jerry George should be shot for letting Mitchell drone on about the evolution of the cocoa bean. I mean, really. If I wanna know what Montezuma served the Spanish conquistadors for dinner (seriously), I’ll Google it.
Instant Reaction #3 – Sir James: Cocoa Impresario?
You see this Amajaro thing? I aint buying it. I don’t care if its NDP or ULP selling, I aint buying. Amajaro is a group of speculators that stockpile cocoa beans, drive up the price by artificially controlling supply and demand, and engaging in illegal blood chocolate smuggling (think blood diamonds, but with cocoa beans). Through it all, everyone associated with Amajaro gets filthy rich, except the farmers. Ask how many African cocoa farmers have been lifted out of poverty by Amajaro. And how many "slaves" are harvesting cocoa in the motherland.
So my teeth were on edge in this part of the show, where Sir James extolled the virtues of Amajaro and cocoa farming. He made the point – and it’s a good point – that Amajaro wants a private sector partnership directly with individual farmers, “not ULP or NDP government.” But the cocoa segment was begging a whole bunch of questions that Jerry George didn’t ask, so let me ask them for him:
Q: “Anansi, do you take me for an ass?” – The way Sir James tells the story, he independently came up with the idea for cocoa production, and mentioned it at an NDP convention. After he makes this presentation, he coincidentally bumps into an Amajaro executive in Bequia, and they exchange contact info. These execs then show up in SVG, coincidentally at election time, where he and his daughter show them around. Wow.
Q: “So hold on, Arnhim has NEVER met with Amajaro?” – Remember during the election, when Arnhim had his hasty, 11th hour, weekend news conference where he announced concrete plans to build the airport, a hotel, a banking centre, and a cocoa plantation? Well, Arnhim said that he’d been in lengthy discussions with all these people. When pressed for details, the only detail he could muster was the word “Amajaro.” He’d met with Amajaro, and they wanted to do business with SVG. But to hear Mitchell tell it, Arnhim NEVER met with Amajaro! In fact, when James and Louise Mitchell asked Arnhim and Godwin Friday to meet with Amajaro, they refused! So, um, on what basis was Arnhim presenting this plan to the Vincentian people? And on what ground can he claim ownership of it now?
Q: “What has Amajaro given you or promised you?” – James says that Lenny Daisley met with Amajaro. He says that Lenny later told him that Arnhim wanted to know “where is the cocoa money?” Um, what cocoa money is that? Apparently, Arnhim and his wife think that James put “the cocoa money” in his daughter’s account. Um, again, what cocoa money? Did someone plant, harvest and sell cocoa when I wasn’t looking? C’mon Jerry, do your job!
One thing that Mitchell made perfectly clear is that Amajaro doesn’t give a fast flying fuck whether the ULP or the NDP is in power. They had some questions about SVG’s topography, and the ability of our farmers to plant and harvest cocoa. Mitchell pointed out, quite rightly, that our farmers are the best. But when Jerry asked him if Amajaro had any issue with the fact that ULP won the election, Mitchell said no. Of course, the Eustace line straight through the election was that Amajaro would never ever do business with the communist-terrorist-Cuban-Venezuelan-Iranian-rights trampling-idiot Gonsalves. This, apparently, was not true. So Arnhim never actually speaks to Amajaro, but then also invents their motives for doing business?? And THIS is the guy who’s the business savvy option in SVG?
Instant Reaction #4 – Sir James: Political assassin?
All of this TV show, of course, was leading up to Mitchell’s murder, beheading, disemboweling and dismembering of Eustace as leader of his beloved NDP. For those of you who missed it, let me paraphrase Mitchell for this section of the interview:
Damn! I mean, damn! Has that ever happened in Vincy politics? For a former party leader to take to the public airwaves and brand his successor a loser while calling for his resignation? This is what Mitchell came on TV to say. All this Mitchell the patriot, Mitchell the cocoa expert, everything was leading to this premeditated attack on his handpicked successor. It was great theater. It was brutally efficient. But it was also sad. Who, exactly are Arnhim’s friends in the NDP? It aint Mitchell. It aint Linton Lewis. It aint “major” Leacock. Who does he have? Anesia and Vynette? You’re leader of a party since 2000, and your main allies are two unelected rabble-rousers that emerged in the last 24 months? Wow.
Instant Reaction #5 – Sir James: Money makes the world go ‘round?
Mitchell offered an interesting, and unsolicited window into his overarching political philosophy. He was talking about SVG’s long history of one-seat majorities, and what it took for them to fall. In a word, it takes money and bribes. Labour bribed someone $50,000 back in the day to switch sides. Not to be outdone, P.H. Veira chipped in a $75,000 bribe in the PPP era. The “Road Block Revolution” was successful in Mitchell’s mind, not because of the involvement of the teachers, nurses, police and civil servants, but because of money spent to rent trucks and mobilize the masses. It all comes down to cash. Sir James' entire political thesis is that what you need to form government is plenty money. Not ideas, vision, plans, accomplishments, alliances, charisma, luck, nada. Hard, cold cash. That's what you need.
Mitchell didn’t say this approvingly or disapprovingly. He just said it as a matter of fact. If you wanna bring down the ULP, you don’t demonstrate, you bribe. Now, if only I could figure out what’s the equivalent of that $75,000 bribe in 2011 dollars...
Until Sir James showed up on my TV screen a couple hours ago.
I don’t usually watch Jerry George’s dimwitted platform for NDP greybeards, but I left the TV on channel 45 after Jomo’s monologue and got sucked in. What I witnessed, after a (too) long buildup of correspondence between Ralph and James, was the most brutal act of public political fratricide in Vincentian history. Facing Jerry George’s softball questions, Sir James zealously cut Eustace off at the knees, and then beheaded him for good measure.
After Mitchell’s surgical strike, Eustace is about as viable as NDP leader as Osama bin Laden is as Al Qaeda leader.
I watched the whole thing. Part of it was the morbid curiosity that makes me slow down to watch a car accident on the side of the road. But the other part was that I was struggling to process it all. WTF? Why now? What was said? What was unsaid? Here is my review and instant reaction to what I just saw (caution: final opinions may differ from instant reactions, after sufficient rum shop debate).
Instant Reaction #1 – Sir James: Original VincyPatriot?
The first part of the interview was dedicated to establishing Anansi’s bona fides as a true patriot. He told us, in mind-numbing detail, about his every letter and telephone conversation with Gonsalves over the last decade. What did they talk about? According to Sir James, big issues: human rights, fisheries, financial blacklists, agriculture, and maritime boundaries. Major issues of national importance. This build-up served three purposes. First, Mitchell is showing us how much he loves his country. For Son so loved Vincy, he can speak with the enemy. Second, he’s showing us that his conversations with the Comrade are nothing new, and didn’t start with his self-serving Amajaro cocoa project. And third, it sets him up as the nice guy, which will make his later assassination of Eustace more credible. If you watch a recording of the interview later, you can skip this part.
Instant Reaction #2 – Sir James: The least interesting man in the world?
In Mitchell’s mind, this part is titled “Sir James: Agricultural Expert.” After establishing his patriotic bona fides, he was trying to do the same for his agricultural expertise. I considered turning off the TV here. You know those ads for Dos Equis Beer that star “the most interesting man in the world?” Lets just say that Sir James won’t be drinking any Dos Equis beer at the Frangipani any time soon. Jerry George should be shot for letting Mitchell drone on about the evolution of the cocoa bean. I mean, really. If I wanna know what Montezuma served the Spanish conquistadors for dinner (seriously), I’ll Google it.
Instant Reaction #3 – Sir James: Cocoa Impresario?
You see this Amajaro thing? I aint buying it. I don’t care if its NDP or ULP selling, I aint buying. Amajaro is a group of speculators that stockpile cocoa beans, drive up the price by artificially controlling supply and demand, and engaging in illegal blood chocolate smuggling (think blood diamonds, but with cocoa beans). Through it all, everyone associated with Amajaro gets filthy rich, except the farmers. Ask how many African cocoa farmers have been lifted out of poverty by Amajaro. And how many "slaves" are harvesting cocoa in the motherland.
So my teeth were on edge in this part of the show, where Sir James extolled the virtues of Amajaro and cocoa farming. He made the point – and it’s a good point – that Amajaro wants a private sector partnership directly with individual farmers, “not ULP or NDP government.” But the cocoa segment was begging a whole bunch of questions that Jerry George didn’t ask, so let me ask them for him:
Q: “Anansi, do you take me for an ass?” – The way Sir James tells the story, he independently came up with the idea for cocoa production, and mentioned it at an NDP convention. After he makes this presentation, he coincidentally bumps into an Amajaro executive in Bequia, and they exchange contact info. These execs then show up in SVG, coincidentally at election time, where he and his daughter show them around. Wow.
Q: “So hold on, Arnhim has NEVER met with Amajaro?” – Remember during the election, when Arnhim had his hasty, 11th hour, weekend news conference where he announced concrete plans to build the airport, a hotel, a banking centre, and a cocoa plantation? Well, Arnhim said that he’d been in lengthy discussions with all these people. When pressed for details, the only detail he could muster was the word “Amajaro.” He’d met with Amajaro, and they wanted to do business with SVG. But to hear Mitchell tell it, Arnhim NEVER met with Amajaro! In fact, when James and Louise Mitchell asked Arnhim and Godwin Friday to meet with Amajaro, they refused! So, um, on what basis was Arnhim presenting this plan to the Vincentian people? And on what ground can he claim ownership of it now?
Q: “What has Amajaro given you or promised you?” – James says that Lenny Daisley met with Amajaro. He says that Lenny later told him that Arnhim wanted to know “where is the cocoa money?” Um, what cocoa money is that? Apparently, Arnhim and his wife think that James put “the cocoa money” in his daughter’s account. Um, again, what cocoa money? Did someone plant, harvest and sell cocoa when I wasn’t looking? C’mon Jerry, do your job!
One thing that Mitchell made perfectly clear is that Amajaro doesn’t give a fast flying fuck whether the ULP or the NDP is in power. They had some questions about SVG’s topography, and the ability of our farmers to plant and harvest cocoa. Mitchell pointed out, quite rightly, that our farmers are the best. But when Jerry asked him if Amajaro had any issue with the fact that ULP won the election, Mitchell said no. Of course, the Eustace line straight through the election was that Amajaro would never ever do business with the communist-terrorist-Cuban-Venezuelan-Iranian-rights trampling-idiot Gonsalves. This, apparently, was not true. So Arnhim never actually speaks to Amajaro, but then also invents their motives for doing business?? And THIS is the guy who’s the business savvy option in SVG?
Instant Reaction #4 – Sir James: Political assassin?
All of this TV show, of course, was leading up to Mitchell’s murder, beheading, disemboweling and dismembering of Eustace as leader of his beloved NDP. For those of you who missed it, let me paraphrase Mitchell for this section of the interview:
I made Arnhim. Every job he’s ever had in SVG, I gave it to him, including that of Prime Minister. I even gave him the East Kingstown seat. Arnhim has lost three consecutive elections and hasn’t come to grips with his latest defeat. He’s a senior citizen, who shouldn’t be trying to become Prime Minister at age 70. I resigned when I lost an election back in the 70s; shit, I stepped down when I won an election and handed the thing over to Arnhim. The NDP has plenty of talent, and that talent should be embraced (read: not pushed aside like my main man Linton Lewis). Arnhim is not indispensable, not at all. His time has come and gone. I don’t agree with all these endless demonstrations and court cases. Elections are won on Election Day, not in the courts. Arnhim has lost three straight democratic elections, and a leader needs to listen to the will of the people. There is a greater danger of Ralph catching up to me as a 4-term Prime Minister than there is of Arnhim winning the next election. Hang it up. Oh, and by the way, I’m the guy who hatched the NDP’s victorious referendum strategy, but they ignored me when election time came around. Even my former lieutenant Cruickshank dissed me on my expertise. And other than my daughter Louise writing the section in the NDP manifesto on the environment, I had nothing to do with that piece of shit document that doesn’t even mention the word “cocoa” in its agriculture section. Resign, Arnhim!
Damn! I mean, damn! Has that ever happened in Vincy politics? For a former party leader to take to the public airwaves and brand his successor a loser while calling for his resignation? This is what Mitchell came on TV to say. All this Mitchell the patriot, Mitchell the cocoa expert, everything was leading to this premeditated attack on his handpicked successor. It was great theater. It was brutally efficient. But it was also sad. Who, exactly are Arnhim’s friends in the NDP? It aint Mitchell. It aint Linton Lewis. It aint “major” Leacock. Who does he have? Anesia and Vynette? You’re leader of a party since 2000, and your main allies are two unelected rabble-rousers that emerged in the last 24 months? Wow.
Instant Reaction #5 – Sir James: Money makes the world go ‘round?
Mitchell offered an interesting, and unsolicited window into his overarching political philosophy. He was talking about SVG’s long history of one-seat majorities, and what it took for them to fall. In a word, it takes money and bribes. Labour bribed someone $50,000 back in the day to switch sides. Not to be outdone, P.H. Veira chipped in a $75,000 bribe in the PPP era. The “Road Block Revolution” was successful in Mitchell’s mind, not because of the involvement of the teachers, nurses, police and civil servants, but because of money spent to rent trucks and mobilize the masses. It all comes down to cash. Sir James' entire political thesis is that what you need to form government is plenty money. Not ideas, vision, plans, accomplishments, alliances, charisma, luck, nada. Hard, cold cash. That's what you need.
Mitchell didn’t say this approvingly or disapprovingly. He just said it as a matter of fact. If you wanna bring down the ULP, you don’t demonstrate, you bribe. Now, if only I could figure out what’s the equivalent of that $75,000 bribe in 2011 dollars...
(btw, this entire blog posting was typed and posted on my nephew's free netbook. Pretty cool, huh?)
