The news that the US sent only US$300 million in aid to Venezuela in the wake of their earthquake, which flattened whole sections of towns with fatalities over 3350 and counting, has raised criticism. Not only because over US$8 billion is sitting in US-controlled accounts from sales of Venezuelan oil – but because back in 2010, the comparable Haitian earthquake they’d sent in US$3 billion in aid – within US$13 billion overall commitments!! So why didn’t the Yanks do even comparably this time?? Was it just because they’ve cut back their USAID programme?? In your Eyewitness’s view, it’s more likely because of the rampant CORRUPTION that saw most of that money never reaching the intended beneficiaries – the Haitian people!! Surprisingly, the biggest culprits appear to be the Clintons – through whose “charitable” Trust, most of the money was funnelled!!
And that’s the thing about corruption: it infects everyone – high and low; rich and poor!!  And sadly, the economic system we practice – “capitalism” – actually encourages this tendency since it comes with its own morality – where money is god and making money is the reason for our existence. By any means necessary.
But even Karl Marx, who railed against capitalism’s tentacles, admitted it was the most efficient system even invented to produce more and more for less and less – pushed by greed!! So the item you’re selling is defective…do you tell the buyer? Heck no!! “Caveat emptor” is the rule – BUYER BEWARE!! But what about things BEFORE capitalism?? Were folks angels flitting around with halos hovering over their heads? Ha, ha, ha!! Using people as serfs and slaves to work their land wasn’t corruption – plus having the seignorial “right” to bed their wives and daughters??
One influential ole head back in the day threw up his hand in disgust and concluded we’re all created “out of this crooked timber”. It’s a good analogy – corruption’s from within, none of us are “straight” – we all got a price. The sooner we concede this, the sooner we’ll be able to deal with corruption. We gotta accept that any politician who denies there’s corruption at all levels of Government is either a fool or a vagabond!! Some time back, didn’t VP Jagdeo and then later Pressie, admit there’s corruption in the Government! They just don’t think it’s as prevalent as the Opposition claims!!
So what should Government leaders do?? Well, take a leaf from Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew’s book (literally!!) and make Government workers less susceptible to bribes from the business class by educating and paying them so well they’re insulted when a bribe’s offered!! And coming to all the brouhaha being raised by the OFAC-sanctioned LOO, we should accept that politicians can also make investments!!
And not demand they wear sackcloth and ashes!!

…US World Cup ouster
While your Eyewitness is a cricket fanatic – he gotta admit that football is “the biggest name in sport”!! The viewership in FIFA’s World Cup – with 48 nations participating – reached 1.3 BILLION in a single game, Cape Verde vs Argentina!! For the longest while, the US had resisted the charms of football, of which they had their own variant!! But the lure of the big bucks proved too much, and back in 1975, they’d inveigled Pele, the then-iconic football player, to front a NY Club, Cosmos and launch them on the World stage.
They qualified starting in 1990 and hosted World Cup 1994 – where they advanced to the Group 16 stage and were knocked out by Brazil with Romario!! This year, however, while their team had noticeably improved, their Group 16 knockout match against Belgium was marked more by politics than football dexterity. Pres Trump had intervened to have a red-card disqualified player reinstated – earning the entire football world’s ire!!
Their 4-1 drubbing and elimination was unsurprisingly celebrated!!

…LOO’s barefacedness
Sanction Man has demanded Pressie’s resignation – based on his accusations about improprieties in the ownership of Pressie’s farm on the Linden Highway!
But what about HIS retention of the office of LOO – while being officially sanctioned by OFAC?!!

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