If yuh no mash ants yuh no fine him guts — Jamaican proverb

Translation: If you do not smash an ant it is impossible for you to find its guts.Explanation: It is only when you are closely involved with some individuals that you are able to really know them. 

It

surprises me, anyone may well be surprised that today’s Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has, for all intents and purposes, adopted a position of ‘see and blind, hear and deaf’ in relation to the oppression of the Venezuelan people by the Nicolas Maduro regime? The PNP has long hit their political rock bottom.“My dear, when people show you who they are, why don’t you believe them? Why must you be shown 29 times before you can see who they really are?” Those words were spoken by the late American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou during an interview with talk show icon and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey. They epitomise the blinkered attitude some still have in relation to the PNP. The PNP is rotting from its core.“We believe that it is best for the People’s National Party [PNP] to form the Government; therefore, anything that will lead or cause us to be in power is best for the PNP and best for the country.” This putrid utterance by the PNP’s ‘Chairman for Life’ Robert “Bobby” Pickersgill testify to the moribund state of Norman Manley’s party. They doubtless also explain why Dr Morais Guy, Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and Leader of Opposition Business Senator Mark Golding are apparently willing to submerge in the deep recesses of their consciousness the fact that 59 Venezuelans have been killed during nearly 10 weeks of street protests. (

Reuters, May 29, 2017)These excerpts from a report filed by the internationally credible

Agence France-Presse (

AFP) on May 30, 2017 seem not to meet the benchmark for State repression by the current PNP:“Venezuelan police have arrested nearly 3,000 people in the two months since a wave of anti-government protests erupted, a judicial campaign group said on Tuesday. President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents accuse him of repressing protesters who are calling for elections to remove him from office. He accuses them of plotting a coup against him.“Foro Penal (the Criminal Justice Forum) has counted 2,977 people arrested during the deadly unrest, of whom 1,351 are still in detention, Director Alfredo Romero told a news conference. Of those, 197 have been jailed after being sentenced by military courts, said a lawyer working for the group, Alonso Medina.“ ‘This is a situation that occurs under dictatorial regimes,’ Medina said.“Prosecutors say 60 people have been killed in violence linked to the protests since they broke out on April 1, many of them shot dead. Riot police have fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. Protesters have, hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks.”Last Sunday, veteran journalist Ian Boyne set out these facts which brilliantly summarised the dire conditions of the Venezuelan people.“Yet, Venezuela is a country whose economy has shrunk by 10 per cent last year, more than war-torn Syria. Its inflation has been estimated at 720 per cent, nearly double that of failed state South Sudan. The

New York Times reported on May 14 that Venezuela’s murder rate in 2014 was equivalent to the civilian casualty rate in 2004 Iraq. Last year, the Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Federation estimated that 85 per cent of medicines were unavailable or difficult to obtain. Soap and toilet paper are scarce. Diseases like diphtheria and malaria, which had previously been eliminated, have reappeared.“A study showed last year that as much as a shocking 87 per cent of the population doesn’t have enough money to buy basic foods, and another study showed 30 per cent of school-age children to be malnourished. Three-quarters of Venezuelans are said to have lost weight under what has been called ‘the Maduro Diet’, as more than two-thirds of basic goods are scarce. The infant mortality rate increased by an astounding 66 per cent last year, resulting in the sacrificial offering of the health minister.” (

The Sunday Gleaner, May 28, 2017)Did Dr Morais Guy read Boyne’s article before he penned his letter which sought to reprimand the Andrew Holness Administration for raising concerns about the rampant abuse of human rights in the Bolivarian Republic. Every right-thinking Jamaica ought to cringe in fear at this sentence from Dr Guy’s letter: “Ingratitude is a curse that leaves an immovable stain.” (

The Gleaner, May 29, 2017).He does not understand that the oil Jamaica gets from Venezuela under PetroCaribe belongs to the people, not Maduro. It seems that subsidised oil is more important to him than the shedding of innocent human blood. Democracy, for Dr Guy, it seems, can be bought and sold. Maybe Senator Mark Golding, Dr Guy, and the PNP see the growing death toll in the socialist State as mere collateral damage. Is the PNP’s position on Venezuela a harbinger?In recent times we have seen where the PNP has refused to formally concede after being rejected by the people at the national polls. Like Maduro, the PNP feels they have an ordained right to form the Administration. Chairman Robert “Bobby” Pickersgill has told us as much. Country folks, in their philosophical genius, warn that we should, “Tek sleep an’ mark death.”This eye-opening article published in the globally respected

The Economist should serve as a warning and a reminder of the dangers of the brands of socialism perpetrated by mis-leaders like Michael Manley, Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez, and others.“Every weekday morning a queue of several dozen forlorn people forms outside the dingy headquarters of SAIME [Servicio Administrativo de Identificación, Migración y Extranjería de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela], Venezuela’s passport agency. As shortages and violence have made life in the country less bearable, more people are applying for passports so they can go somewhere else. Most will be turned away. The Government ran out of plastic for laminating new passports in September. ‘I’ve just been told I might need to wait eight months!’ says Martín, a frustrated applicant. A US$250 bribe would shorten the wait.“As desperation rises, so does the intransigence of Venezuela’s ‘Bolivarian’ regime, whose policies have ruined the economy and sabotaged democracy. The economy shrank by 18.6 per cent last year, according to an estimate by the central bank, leaked this month to Reuters, a news agency (see chart). Inflation was 800 per cent. In 2001, Venezuela was the richest country in South America; it is now among the poorest.” (

The Economist, January 28, 2017)Edward Seaga celebrated his 87th birthday last Sunday. Seaga, I maintain, is Jamaica’s best prime minister to date. Were it not for Seaga’s rescue of Jamaica on October 30, 1980, we in all likelihood would have been the Venezuela in the Caribbean today.The PNP’s fourth president, Dr Peter Phillips, reaffirmed his allegiance to the tenets of democratic socialism at his affirmation on March 26, 2017.What were some of the consequences of Michael Manley and democratic socialism?• The Bank of Jamaica had to print money for the country to survive after the treasury was drained.• Michael Manley used most of the increased bauxite levy to finance free education, which was not free at all, because the schools and parents had to cover the gap.• This left little to finance several other social make-work projects that were announced by Government under the ‘socialism is love’ explanation given to the people. Most of the schemes collapsed from lack of funds and people who wanted money, not work.• Unemployment increased to a record 27 per cent, aided by the fallout of the make-work projects.• When Jamaicans saw what was happening, they converted their money to US dollars through banks and the black market and moved their savings and other funds to US banks.• Soon, the Bank of Jamaica ran out of reserves in foreign exchange, for the first time, and had to use funds set aside for paying debt.• The Bank of Jamaica could not supply the amount of foreign exchange to the banks, which were under pressure by business clients and others to pay bills for goods ordered by companies and to meet other demands for foreign exchange. In addition, there was a growing flight of capital.• This resulted in a severe reduction of imports of raw materials and spare parts, closing down of factories and increasing unemployment.• Oil supplies were short, resulting in frequent blackouts and loss of factory time.• Imported food items were so short that riots erupted at supermarkets when goods arrived.• Small shops — 14,000 of them — either closed or kept one window open mostly to sell aerated water, Foska oats and toilet tissue. The dismal performance of the macroeconomy was the result of deterioration over the previous eight years, 1972-1980, as revealed by the database published:• The value of the total production of the economy (gross domestic product [GDP]) in 1980 was 17.5 per cent less than in 1972, after decreasing every year but one.• Inflation increased by 250 per cent, peaking at 49.4 per cent in 1978.• While revenue remained almost constant over the period, expenditure increased by 66 per cent.• The budget deficit, as a consequence, increased from 3.9 per cent to 17.5 per cent, one of, if not the highest, of any country not at war.• The total public debt, as a percentage of GDP, increased nearly 500 per cent, creating a crushing burden in debt service.• The level of investment collapsed by 40 per cent of GDP, and savings by 53 per cent.• Foreign exchange reserves were wiped out, plunging from positive US$239 million to negative US$549 million.• Economic growth was negative in seven of the eight years and less than one per cent in the eighth year. (

The Gleaner, October 23, 2016) St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the most senior head of government in Caricom, believes the regional grouping should be united in adhering to a position of strict non-interference in Venezuela’s deepening problems. He made these comments on May 21, 2017 on

Nationwide New Network (NNN). I am surprised that people are surprised at Dr Gonsalves’ comments. They match perfectly his Manley-, Maduro-type socialist proclivities.Former Jamaican Prime Minister P J Patterson says all Caricom leaders need to unite and find common ground on a solution to the crisis gripping the embattled Bolivarian Republic. (

NNN, May 23, 2017) This was a classic empty glass recommendation. I am not surprised.Then there was this shameful statement from Senator Mark Golding:“ ‘It saddens me to think that the Government of Jamaica could now be on the defensive, so to speak, trying to justify statements that are in the public domain suggestive of a lack of support for the Venezuelan Government that has been so very generous to the people of Jamaica, especially the poor and dispossessed people of our country,’ Golding commented while responding to a statement from Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith in the Upper House yesterday. (

The Gleaner, May 27, 2017)Senator Golding’s comments must have caused its founding President Norman Manley and the PNP’s second president and Jamaica’s fourth Prime Minister Michael Manley to turn in their graves.These excerpts from an

NNN news story on May 22, 2017 tell us that we have a prime minister who believes that the best way to demonstrate gratitude to the Venezuelan people is to give tangible support for their inalienable right to freedom of expression, freedom of movement, life and liberty.“In his letter, dated yesterday, May 18, Prime Minister Holness tells Dr Gonsalves that he believes the OAS [Organization of American States] is the appropriate forum to deliberate on Venezuela.“He says this is so when ‘the essential elements of democracy such as the separation of powers, periodic, free and fair elections, access to and exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law are not adhered to.“He says the OAS should deliberate on these matters ‘in order to help peacefully resolve the situation’.“Holness says there should be ‘no disagreement that the OAS has been assigned this role’ by its member states.“And, he says it should be allowed to play this role. A clear message to Gonsalves that Jamaica will not remain silent on the trampling of democratic principles by the Maduro Administration in Venezuela.“Prime Minister Holness also defended meetings on the matter which Jamaica has attended.” 

Mi come yah fi drink milk, me nuh come yah fi count cow. — Jamaican proverbTranslation: I came here to drink milk, not to count cows.Explanation: Mind your own business. Enjoy what you are entitled to. Don’t worry about details which do not concern you. 

Garfield Higgins is an educator; journalist; and advisor to the minister of education, youth and information. Send comments to the Observer or

higgins160@yahoo.com.