The Undisputed Truth

US$300 million later : smiles, handshakes, photo ops, laughs and nothing.

Highlights for today:

• Well the definite mark that the Summit was an epic fail and nothing more than pricey intellectual masturbation was some commentary by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Usually for Summits there is some form of documentation emerging from it stating atleast some general accomplishments or agreements which were formed by the participating heads of state. We all know that these points coming out of that documentation have a slim chance of being practically implemented anyway.Turns out however, the documentation for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, the Declaration of Port-of-Spain, was drafted years ago, was only brought to the attention of the participants just before the Summit’s conclusion, and not all of them signed it.. Matter of fact the link to this so-called declaration which is declared by noone on the Summit’s official site is dead when I checked it out. The latest update is that some countries will ‘adopt’ the declaration but not ‘endorse’ it. In other words, we don’t even have confirmation that the leader’s even really agree and commit to the airy-fairy, practically insignificant “accomplishments” of the Summit….even though if they agreed, nothing will have really happened anyway!!
• PM Patrick Manning got dissed by a foreign reporter who questioned whether it was Hugo Chavez who was in charge of the planning for the Summit. Apparently access to the actual meetings among leaders, other than Chavez/Obama photo-ops were extremely limited. Manning responded quoting the Bible, saying basically the Summit is better off without “public scrutiny”. Last time I checked, the Summit is supposed to, at least academically, ultimately benefit the public. How then can it be better off without having the media free access??? Is this the Bildeburg Group???
• PM Manning again was asked by a Barbadian reporter how he intends to answer critics like myself who think the Summit is too costly. Manning responded saying that no cost is too much as the  Summit will be beneficial for investment, and that “the World’s eyes are on Trinidad”. Manning is therefore officially stating that its ok to spend as much money as possible for aesthetic upgrades for the country to appear to look good “in the world’s eyes.” He’s also saying its all worth it because foreign investment will just suddenly rise because rich foreign businessmen will just be anxious to invest in Trinidad because there are brand-new high-rise buildings and because President Obama a.k.a the 21st century Halie Selassie walked here and there are nice little Miami-esque areas in Port-of-Spain. This ’spike’ in investment is of course of an undisclosed amount, over an undisclosed period. PM Manning is therefore accounting for spending large amounts of taxpayer money to look good is voodoo magic that will just work out for the good in the long run.
• PM Manning “suggested” to reporters that they ask questions to other foreign leaders other than the ones for whom they had questions for like the typical banana republic strongman that he appeared to be.
• Local security detail were floored (as in punched to the ground) by Argentine Presidential security detail. Details have been sketchy but amusing nonetheless.
• Some of the U.S media heads are already saying Obama wasted his time in Trinidad, that he should be in America talking to Geithner about the economy and should have just sent Hillary Clinton to Port-of-Spain.
• Obama looked a tad weak by sitting for 50 minutes to listen to some anti-American rant by Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega without shutting him up or walking off.
• The international media made little to no reference of PM Manning or Trinidad and Tobago as anything significant other than “country X is hosting Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas”. This is of course expected, but certain naive elements of the local media seemed to have believed that the whole world would be……I don’t know, impressed at something?
• The authorities in charge of the local ambulances and police vehicles seemed to been playing pranks while Barack Obama gave his press conference. For almost 5 minutes during his press conference, sirens blared loudly for some unknown reason.
• Barack Obama gave his news conference at what I believe to be a very risky location - a rooftop.
• Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas thoroughly embarassed and belittled himself and the entire Caribbean in one fell swoop by approaching Barack Obama………………………………….for an autograph.
• Guyana’s President Bharat Jagdeo sounded like a Somalian refugeee at a news conference talking about “funds” for Guyana.
• A local reporter asked the most ridiculous question for the Summit to Canada’s Prime Minister Steven Harper about “toxic waste in the region” that somehow affects…rainforests in Tobago? Even Stephen Harper said he didn’t get the “gist of the question” and went on to give a general speech about environmental conservation. Up to now I really don’t understand what he meant?? His question was indeed toxic waste on its own.
• Barack Obama still doesn’t understand that Chavez actually dissed him by giving him the book yesterday, the Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano (now a bestseller) :

“The book was banned in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Since we live in a free society, the book is available in the United States through Amazon.com, despite the fact that it pretty much denounces everything that America has ever done south of Texas. The book describes how the United States is responsible for the exploitation and oppression in Latin America for the last hundred years or so. The author blames the United States and European colonization for Latin America’s poverty.

- Rightpundits.com

So as expected, its intellectual/political masturbation, all ado about nothing.  Oh wait, all ado about Obama and Chavez pictures. Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago will still live below the poverty line, be kidnapped, be murdered, be robbed, be trafficked to other countries, not enjoy the public goods which its government can more than afford, and generally just live a sucky life and suffer.

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But hey, that cultural show was really good wasn’t it? It really made me proud. I don’t think too much money was spent, too little was spent! What the hell is wrong with these people? Geez….

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*update*
lol, clever words used with the latest update at the Official Summit of the Americas website : Hemisphere’s Leaders Adopt Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain

Adopt basically means saying “ok cool” without committing to it. I’m quite sure that could have been done over the phone or on the way to the bathroom without hosting a summit. But that’s just me.