T&T: So much for Barbados and T&T being one country

BARBADOS had been planning since November last year to take Trinidad and Tobago to the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea (ITLOS) to settle the fishing and maritime disputes.

Although Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur only revealed on Monday night that his country was going to ITLOS, Newsday reported exclusively last November 25 that Barbados was planning to take TT to ITLOS in Hamburg, Germany. Barbados, according to reliable sources, had been consulting a team of international lawyers to contest the matter at ITLOS headquarters. They did so while they were holding so-called adjudication meetings with TT, one of which is being held today in Bridgetown. ITLOS is an independent judicial body established by the United Nations to adjudicate disputes arising out of matters involving maritime boundaries. Disputes before the Tribunal are instituted either by written application or by notification of a special agreement.

Evidently, somebody told Barbados's PM Arthur that T&T's PM Manning is a bobolee, so Arthur came with a cocoa-scorpion tack. He was dealing with Manning, accusing him of lying, and generally gallerying just to look good, when all the time Arthur had no intention of dealing with T&T in good faith. How else to account for his administration having gone to ITLOS behind Manning's back?

Sorry Arthur. T&T don't play that. Moreover, you've proven yourself to be the classic smart man Baje of Kitchener's calypsos, and we know how that story ends up. T&T's national interests are more important to T&T than are Barbados's. So, for your perfidy, you will know where barley does grow.