In a scene that would make even Emperor Nero blush with envy, President Irfaan Ali last evening hosted a lavish cocktail reception at State House for attendees of the All Members meeting of the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership. The event, complete with clinking glasses, glitzy gowns, and synchronized smiles, unfolded just hours after three reported attacks on members of the Guyana Defence Force by Venezuelan forces.
Yes, you read that right. While Guyanese soldiers held the line against foreign aggression on our borders, the political and social elite of Georgetown sipped, twirled, and posted selfies under chandeliers.
Photos released by the Office of the President proudly display beaming diplomats and high-society Guyanese celebrating climate partnerships, while Guyana’s territorial integrity is being actively undermined by a hostile neighbor who, not incidentally, has also announced plans to conduct illegal elections for leadership over Guyanese territory.
Venezuela, already defying international courts, seems to have adopted a new hobby: sending waves of “refugees” across the border, many of them able-bodied men whose status raises troubling questions. Are they migrants? Interlopers? Sleeper agents? Who knows. Apparently, not this government.
Instead of mobilizing national defense, calling CARICOM or the OAS into emergency session, or activating the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament (which remains in hibernation, despite being chaired by the Hon. Amanza Walton-Desir), the Irfaan Ali administration has opted for finger foods and foreign flattery.
And let’s not forget the president’s “strong response” to the attacks; a formal appeal to the Venezuelan government… to investigate the attacks that they orchestrated. That’s like asking the fox to kindly look into who raided the henhouse.
Meanwhile, the citizenry watches with growing anxiety as the government waltzes and wavers, the military stands exposed, and Guyana’s sovereignty hangs in the balance.
But take comfort, Guyanese. The hors d’oeuvres were divine. The music? Sublime. And as the photos prove, Rome may be smoldering, but the party at State House is just getting started.
Nero fiddled. Irfaan catered.
