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So, in my life and in my writing, I try for some balance. I am not always successful (almost all of the time), but I continue to make the effort. In the past few weeks, I wanted to do lighter pieces and topics, a bit different from the topics of politics, national budget and the general obvious, in-your-face, choices. I did not want to be typical. The essence of the column is about learning something different and bringing a new point of view to make the reader think. This week’s topic was supposed to be continuing in that realm. But, of course, life intervened. It is difficult to think about light, different and interesting, when the possibility of your Trinbago being in the centre of military action is staring you in the face. It is a Friday evening, and you are liming with some friends, drinking a beer and wondering two things. Firstly, how did we reach to this point so quickly? Secondly, as Trinbagonians, we are so not ready for this. We definitely do not know war. It is not in our DNA. Trinbago is about family, lime, laughter, multiple religions, the more public holidays per year than many countries, the best food in the Caribbean, the best and fastest memes in the Caribbean, a good-looking bunch of people of different colours and ethnicities. Military action and war are not part of that recipe. For sure, our army personnel are not prepared. Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way trying to disparage or undermine our military security services. But the last time we had any type of military action was the 1990 attempted coup and that did not involve Tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers. Our military personnel are in no way war-ready. Especially a war involving our neighbouring country, a mere few kilometres away. Aside from our lack of readiness by the military staff and general population, the second most significant thing is the general communication that all is well and there is nothing to worry about. This is comparable to a woman seeing the outside woman’s WhatsApp messages, smelling another perfume on his clothes, seeing hickeys on his neck not produced by the said woman, hearing him at 2 o’clock in the morning whispering to someone with a high-pitched squeaky voice, a voice definitely not ‘Jake from State Farm’, and having him deny it and say it is just your imagination, there is nothing to worry about and there is no outside relationship. Sometimes it is about what people do and not what they say. The facts speak for themselves. We have had, up to this point in time, at least ten boats destroyed in international waters, the last one at night, supposedly drug runners, killing 43 persons in total. Now don’t get me wrong. I am all about getting rid of the criminal elements. Our quality of life has severely reduced with the high levels of crime. Crime is for sure our largest issue, slightly ahead of our economy with gas predicted to run out in a few short years, minimal diversification, no real molecule hope of a Dragon deal and scraping-the-barrel forex levels. But in no way is it right for some other country’s military to be judge and jury for any boat moving in international waters near to Venezuela. To just shoot down any boat, killing persons who may or may not be involved in criminal activity, before being captured and evidence assessed, cannot be right. And repeatedly labelling everything and everyone as narco-terrorists does not make them such and, for sure, does not make it justifiable. This is all with a background of Venezuela having the largest oil reserves in the world. In addition, there is the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that confirms that there is minimal transporting of narcotics through and from Venezuela compared to the gun and drug trafficking coming from Colombia and Ecuador. This military threat is about oil, resources and power and definitely not primarily about drug trafficking. Aside from the shooting down of ten boats, we now have one of the largest war carriers coming to our country on Sunday and staying for a few days, supposedly to train our Defence Force personnel. Then we have stories of Russian and Chinese military equipment being readied for combat. There are videos of Venezuelans training, women, men and children, in preparation for military action. Colleagues in other Caribbean islands have sent WhatsApp messages wondering if it is safe to travel to Trinbago in the midst of the tensions. Students preparing for exams in November and December are not completely sure that their exams would not be cancelled, in the midst of military action. Sitting here tonight, with my friends, drinking my beer, I do not want to be preparing tinned items and enough food to last for a week. I do not want to be assessing what basement to hide in. I do not want to be organising with my family members a check-in or extraction plan. I do not want high levels of crime. But even more than that, I do not want war. Like many of you, I am not ready. More significantly, I do not want to be. Dr Joanne F Paul is an emergency medicine lecturer with The UWI
