During the recent budget debate, and I use the term debate very loosely, one of the MP's (V. Alfred Gray) raised the simply dumb idea of The Bahamas joining PetroCaribe yet again.
If you don't know what PetroCaribe is, Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela wants to sell fuel to The Bahamas and other countries in the region on credit. A hair brain idea, if there ever was one, and Alvaro Vargas Llosa has hit the nail on the head once again with his recent op/ed.
The article, entitled Oil Prices-Who Are the Culprit, point the finger squarely where it should be pointed. The political class in the US.
He notes:
Who is responsible for the astronomical price of oil? Most of the blame, as exemplified by the recent shenanigans in Congress with oil executives defending their paychecks under questioning by sanctimonious, eyebrow-raising legislators, is being put on petroleum companies. In European countries, protesters are denouncing the government for not taking immediate action to protect consumers. In newspapers from Hong Kong and Australia to Buenos Aires, traders responsible for the $260 billion currently invested in commodities funds are being condemned as “speculators.” [More...]
If our MP's would spend time studying this issue, rather than making Bahamian's think there is something for nothing, they would learn enough not to promote hair brain schemes of wanna be dictators. Or should that be dictators?
The PetroCaribe deal has been refuted as one that would drastically and quickly increase the national debt of The Bahamas. Something we can ill afford in these very trying economic times.
