Gordon Robinson | The fall of UK/USA empires and the rise of a Chinese dynasty

Those who believe it meant nothing to England when Barbados “severed ties” with the Monarchy better think again.

Traditional Brits are incensed that “Bim”, formerly England’s most reliable devotee, dared to believe it could survive without Queen Elizabeth’s protection from the world’s heathen. One Jeremy Clarkson, with an available platform in the Sunday Times, exposed his bumptious bigotry on December 5 with a tirade headlined Bye Bye Barbados, China can have you!:

“Apparently Prince Charles was fairly sanguine during his ceremonial tie-severing visit to Barbados. But I bet that behind the impenetrable mask of duty, he was wearing a wry smile. Because he will know, like everyone else, that by about next Tuesday, [Barbados] is going to regret its decision to become a republic.”

Oh dear, what has Little England done to itself now?

Exhibiting the inanely arrogant mindset of a former colonial master, Clarkson patronisingly announced that he “know(s) Barbados pretty well”. How? He “spent every Easter there for nearly 20 years”. Well, whoop-di-doo! Based on this scientifically acquired local knowledge, he rebuked Barbados (which he hasn’t visited for years due to alleged tourist harassment) for charting its own way forward. He seemed confident that Barbados had a new lover: China!

Apparently possessed by a green-eyed demon, he wrote:

“Bajan people will be feeling smug about this. They’ve got rid of the Queen … and are wooing a replacement, who’s already given the country a new roundabout and everyone in it better lavatories. Lovely.”

How low can you go? China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative was introduced in 2013. By 2020, one hundred and twenty-five countries had signed 173 “cooperation agreements”. Eight of CARICOM’s 15 members signed on, namely Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad.

None of them did this to spite the Queen or receive free toilets. That’s supercilious snobbery!

According to Clarkson, they’re all just plain dumb as “Beijing is trying to lure poorer countries into debt traps”.

He gives “examples”:

“[China] lent the Ugandan government a wheelbarrow full of cash but wrapped the debt up in such a way that it’s impossible to repay. And now it’s saying, ‘Well, you’ve forfeited, so we want, let’s think, Entebbe airport.’”

Fact Check: Reuters reported from Kampala (November 29) that the Chinese Embassy rejected public hyperbole that it may seize Uganda’s sole airport. Public outrage was triggered by a parliamentary probe that found the loan terms to be “onerous” (shocking that international lending institutions/governments should impose “onerous” terms, right?) including “potential” forfeiture of the airport in case of default.

There has been neither forfeiture nor demand for the airport. The Chinese Embassy in Uganda called the allegations “malicious” with “no factual basis” and “is ill-intended only to distort the good relations that China enjoys with developing countries including Uganda”.

The embassy was more specific: “Not a single project in Africa has ever been confiscated by China because of failing to pay Chinese loans.”

What the blurdeeps scurdeeps would China want with a Ugandan airport? Every international lender wants to profit from interest payments and as much geo-political support as possible. Either is fine by them – both ideal.

THE RANT CONTINUES

Back to Clarkson’s snootiness surfeit:

“Within a few years, Barbados is going to be simply absorbed by China ... . Already, the Barbadian government has opened an office in Beijing to attract investment, and the Chinese are seemingly happy to oblige. So far they’ve handed over £400 million, which will be spent on home improvements and roads and possibly a new luxury Hongqi car for the prime minister… .”

Watch out Jamaica! For pity’s sake, don’t seek investment from China. We can’t believe you rejected our offer of a brand-new prison to host Jamaican deportees from the UK. Instead, you’re accepting Chinese help with roads and housing. Tsk, tsk.

If Jamaica prioritises Chinese roads over British prisons, its political leaders can expect gratuitous abuse similar to this intolerant ignoramus’ insult of Mia Mottley.

Clarkson continues his anti-China rant:

“Then you have Sri Lanka, which was forced to hand over an entire southern port to the Chinese because it couldn’t afford to repay £980 million it borrowed from Beijing to build it.”

Sigh. This one is worse than the Ugandan example. The whole truth is that a profligate Sri Lankan government, despite already ballooning debt, embarked upon a project it knew, from its own studies, wasn’t feasible and which other frequent lenders like India had refused.

China, in pursuit of global influence, was happy to spend on the project. Over years of construction and renegotiation with State-owned China Harbour Engineering Company, the project was, as predicted, an abject failure. With tens of thousands of ships passing by one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the port attracted only 34 ships in 2012.

Sri Lankan voters changed governments in 2015 and the new government struggled to make payments on its predecessor’s debt. Under pressure from Sri Lankans, who considered 80 per cent debt/GDP ratio intolerable, and after months of negotiations, the government handed over the Air-Jamaica-like Albatross. This wasn’t a hostile takeover. It was Sri Lanka’s way out of a bad Sri Lankan decision.

Clarkson seems almost manically obsessed with China’s Belt and Road geo-political strategy using massive budget surpluses created through years of hard work, sacrifice, and frugality. He whines: “Since 2005, China has lent Commonwealth countries alone £700 billion.”

What’s happening is a tectonic shift in geo-political influence which China tactically realised can come from third-world support. Meanwhile, the UK sees the third world as insignificant, delinquent children who should speak only when spoken to and do as they’re told. The USA sees it as a group of “s*hole countries” to be ignored or bullied. So while China uses largesse to woo the third world, the USA/UK ignore it except when delivering instructions.

Africa, in particular, woke up and spotted the geo-political opportunity. The Caribbean, as usual, lags behind, but its alarm clock is finally off snooze. Barack Obama felt the steel tip of influence-loss entering the USA’s posterior, hence his Cuban policy shift and Jamaican visit. The Orange Orangutan was unable to pretend he cared.

RACIST RANT

Like an old man on a nude beach, Clarkson exposed his limitations by closing with a racist rant about Chinese people disguised as a warning to Barbados:

“When the Chinese take control, it’s not a pretty sight. Because in my experience, Chinese people think that non-Chinese people are basically ants. We are completely irrelevant ... . I’ve been there and said some firm but fair things about their truly appalling cars and no one cared … ,”

Poor boy. Nobody took you seriously? Boo hoo.

“In Laos I watched a busload of Chinese tourists finish their packed lunches and lob the polystyrene boxes into the Mekong. And when I admonished them for this, they looked at me in the same way as we would look at a plant pot or a lamppost.”

Or an interfering busybody with an antipathy towards Chinese tourists …

“If they want to build a casino resort in Barbados, they will, despite casinos being illegal and … some locals will object on the basis that it will be ugly and necessitate the destruction of an entire town. They [won’t] care.”

Wha, wha, WHAT? Ugly? Lookie here, Clark, son of Nostradamus. The Barbados government is entitled to grant any foreign investor permission to start any responsible enterprise beneficial to Barbados. This. Is. How. Small. “Developing”. States. Grow. It’s none of your flipping business!

“… when the Chinese arrive … those funny little dives in First and Second Street [will] become a Bicester shopping village taking visitors from cruise ships that dock in the new port where Sandy Lane used to be.”

What the actual flock? And what’s wrong with a Bicester shopping Village? Too many hoi polloi allowed?

“Worse still, everything that made Barbados Barbados [will be] swept away to make way for waving golden cats; hideous casinos; and yet another shop selling fake Burberry hats ...”

Well kiss my red, wrinkled rungus kungus mi nungus! This congenital colonialist seemingly thinks he knows more about Barbados than Barbadians! THIS is why Caribbean nations must reconstruct their governance and education systems in their own image while expelling from our minds former imperialists who KNOW we don’t know what’s good for us.

I’ve bad news for them. Like it or not, we’re witnessing the fall of the UK/USA empires and the rise of a Chinese dynasty. And former colonies have learned to make outside friends. Especially during COVID, Barbados received assistance from the USA, India, Ghana, Cuba, UK, China, and many others.

Going forward, Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, currently in excellent hands, will be a critical policy source tasked to develop subtle strategies to benefit from the balance- of-power shift without becoming another colony ruled by another colonial master. Whether physical, psychological, or fiscal, colonialism by any other name is as oppressive.

Peace and Love!

- Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.