Seeing the bigger picture

November 14, 2001

The responses to some of my recent columns have been fascinating, to say the least. My aim is always to dig below what is regarded and projected as official government policy. The day we begin to accept readily all that is told to us by officialdom is the day that we would have given up on the possibilities of "democracy" that can only come with eternal vigilance and a willingness to disbelieve.

People like myself look for "connections", apparent or not, that lurk below the surface and which usually bring forth other dimensions to the truth of what obtains.

In the recent column titled "Let the truth be told", the aim was to make the connection between the politics of US foreign policy in Afghanistan/ Central Asia and the economics of Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves in which the US Corporation, UNOCAL, plays the leading role.

It was an attempt, quoting from international researchers and investigative journalists, to show the bigger picture. It was never the intention to suggest in any way that the underlying cause of the September 11 horrific debacle in New York was the issue of Caspian oil and gas reserves.

In treating with the subject matter great pain was taken to stay on the high moral ground and be as factual and objective as possible.

But the problem is that most people allow their emotions and subjectivity to cloud the bigger picture and so distort their vision. One person in poignant anger e-mailed the following response:

"...I just read 'Let the truth be told' in the Guardian online. So my obvious question is why did you not tell the truth. I know, I know... have column to write... must write something. etc, etc. But why did you not tell the truth... The USA bombed the Twin Towers and blamed the bin Laden group so the USA could go into Afghanistan and... the oil story, etc, etc... You know. Tell it man. Man that will let me rest real easy. I lost my woman in that disaster and I did not know the real enemy until you told us about the Caspian Sea thing.

"I am a middle-aged man. We have one child and now I know what to tell her when she asks for Mom... I will tell the Caspian Sea truth, Bush's lie and Mr Bukka's exposé. Thank you man. Tell your story to the world. It is true. When they find the bones of my beloved, I will speak your truth so she will know why she died.

"Laden is only incidental to the story. Caspian Oil is central. Wow. And life is so easily explainable. I cry no more mister. I also do not laugh anymore. I force a smile every now and then when I see my child. My life is now dedicated to democracy, fairplay and love. You sir, are the type of vermin that we can do without..."

How do you address someone so tremendously pained but yet so myopic, while claiming to be dedicated to "democracy", the bastion of which is eternal questioning and the challenging of ideas and ways of seeing?

One wonders about the future of the child mentioned and what her view of the world will be, given the fact that she will be raised by such a parent. Nevertheless, America and Americanism are much bigger in perspective.

Not surprisingly an appropriate answer came from within America itself:

"... Living in New York City, I am privileged to view the world in its various shades and to understand the universality of human struggle. Therefore, it is painful to read the litany of woes present in Trinidad which seem to paint the nation as a bastion of banality. The landscape seems medieval and oligarchic - even among the serfs.

"In every nation there are conflicts of interests in politics and business. Heck, they are congruent (sic). Dick Cheney was for several years the chairman of Haliburton Inc - the fourth largest supplier of arms to the US Defence Dept and a key ally of UNOCAL, the premier US oil company in Central Asia (Afghanistan War)..."

The main problem with America and her transnational corporations is that in a lot of instances they manage to get a better rate of profit from backward regimes than they would from modern democratic forces who would obviously want to examine and re-examine all economic relationships and demand equitable treatment and transactions.

At the moment when the Taliban falls, the US may very well re-install a royal family, a monarchy, and the circle of deception will begin all over again. Do not readily expect the installing of a progressive democratic regime! Herein lies the rub.