{"id":56270,"date":"2025-03-16T05:31:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T09:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56270"},"modified":"2025-03-16T05:31:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T09:31:26","slug":"pnms-obtuse-rationalisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56270","title":{"rendered":"PNM\u2019s obtuse rationalisations"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nMarch 08, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>Blissfully, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow will soon relieve us of our miseries. Unfortunately, he leaves his clones behind who know not what they say or do. Chief among them are Faris Al-Rawi, a former attorney general, and Stuart Young, our first unelected prime minister.<\/p>\n

Al-Rawi complimented the Leader recently for \u201chis policy initiatives and actions, which he said were critical in stabilising the oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago. He also complimented Young for his measured approach to the imminent change in leadership\u201d. (Express, February 27.) I am not sure what that last sentence means.
\n
\nAl-Rawi continued: \u201cHe has certainly laid a track [I wonder if he meant \u2018laid a trap\u2019] which is taking us to an organised outcome of yielding a new prime minister under the constitutional arrangements by which we are governed.\u201d Al-Rawi could not have anticipated President Donald Trump shutting the door on T&T\u2019s economic arrangements with Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

It is plausible that Al-Rawi did not know that T&T had entered into an arrangement that paid Maduro\u2019s government \u201croyalty, a special commission of 5 percent, surface tax and social contributions totalling US$1 million, and a confidential signing bonus\u201d. (Express, February 27, 2025.)<\/p>\n

However, he was aware that the Leader breached PNM\u2019s party rules regarding Young\u2019s selection as prospective prime minister. Yet he boasts that the Leader\u2019s arbitrary postponement of the PNM\u2019s national convention and subsequent selection of Young as prime minister are among the Leader\u2019s prized political achievements.<\/p>\n

Al-Rawi also advanced this verbiage to support the culmination of the Leader\u2019s \u201cexcellent run\u201d, saying: \u201cI am acutely aware that the PNM is very conscious that it must demonstrate the policies and, more particularly, actions which are deserving of a third term in office…I am excited and motivated to get out and win the next general election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same day Al-Rawi extolled the Leader\u2019s genius, the Leader wrote on his Facebook page that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is \u201ca hateful woman\u201d and \u201cunpatriotic\u201d for criticising Maduro.<\/p>\n

He ramajayed: \u201cThis ill-advised, direct attack on the Maduro government is an attempt to provoke them [Venezuela] to scuttle any favourable dealing with Trinidad and Tobago and is a call to the US government to take action against Venezuela, knowing any such action by the US is likely to damage or destroy the current arrangements upon which Trinidad and Tobago depends for future gas supplies. How unpatriotic can this cabal get?\u201d (Express, February 28.)<\/p>\n

This is a nasty form of gaslighting. Does the Leader not understand that it is evil (to use his words) to engage in any form of emotional abuse that may cause the people whom he serves to doubt their own thoughts and question their sanity? Trump was not waiting on Persad-Bissessar\u2019s signals to take action against Maduro\u2019s government, nor does he care what Al-Rawi, Young or the Leader says. These people are irrelevant to him.<\/p>\n

It is also disingenuous of Young to promise that the \u201cgas supply expected by 2027 would help secure foreign exchange, pay the country\u2019s bills, and ensure adequate health care\u201d when last week Trump cancelled Chevron\u2019s licence \u201cto pump oil from Venezuela and gave the company one month to exit operations\u201d. (Financial Times, March 7.)<\/p>\n

Young also said: \u201cI can assure the people of T&T, both in my current…and future roles, that I will fight for the country. I will do everything I can to advocate for T&T, regardless of what happens.\u201d Trump\u2019s action against Chevron reduces Young\u2019s resolve to meaningless garbage.<\/p>\n

In analysing the relationship among British PM Keir Starmer, the UK government and Trump, Robert Shrimsley remarked: \u201cHeroic talk abounds…For all the emphasis we place on individual leaders, they are still bound by economic and diplomatic realities. A newly daring Starmer does not make the UK richer nor able to suddenly stand against a capricious US.\u201d (Financial Times, February 27.)<\/p>\n

The Leader and his minions are living in a time warp. It prevents them from understanding Trump\u2019s capricious approach to US national and international affairs.<\/p>\n

In 1655 France\u2019s King Louis XIV told his Parliament: \u201cL\u2019Etat, c\u2019est moi [I am the State].\u201d Edward Luce says Trump changed that dictum into: \u201cThe state—it\u2019s me and Elon for now.\u201d We are witnessing the transformation of a democracy into an emerging oligarchy in the US.<\/p>\n

One way to respond to the \u201cabsolute foolishness\u201d of the Leader and his minions is to remind them of Eric Williams\u2019 observation in \u201cMassa Day Done\u201d. He said: \u201c[T&T\u2019s] population of today is far too alert and sophisticated to fall for any such claptrap…It was the Guardian I attacked for its slave mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it time PNM leaders renounce their backward thinking and obtuse rationalisations and move thoughtfully into the second quarter of the 21st century?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe March 08, 2025 Blissfully, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow will soon relieve us of our miseries. Unfortunately, he leaves his clones behind who know not what they say or do. Chief among them are Faris Al-Rawi, a former attorney general, and Stuart Young, our first unelected prime minister. … Continue reading PNM\u2019s obtuse rationalisations<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[310,1,1103,30],"tags":[171,49],"class_list":["post-56270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-general-tt","category-general-tt","category-oil-and-gas","category-pnm","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56271,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56270\/revisions\/56271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}