IF your country spends money on arms that serve no purpose and brings in not one cent to the government’s pocket, after a while, money needed for vital social pathways will not be there. Social anger will seep in and over a period of time will get deeper.

What happens then is that politicians that are not democratically inclined will manipulate that growing anger to win power. That has happened. The result is right-wing, racist populism. It remains a horrible mystery why the West since 1945 has not learnt that lesson.

I always get angry when I hear and read in Guyana that political parties and social activists want outside help to provide solutions to our problems. Janet Bulkan appeared in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACH) to ask them to intervene to stop oil production in Guyana. What has the IACH done in relation to what the Americans did to President Maduro? What is the balance sheet of the IACH over the past 60 years?

Azruddin Mohamed has asked the same IACH,  OAS and the UN to intervene in Guyana. This is the same UN that has not been able to get Israel, a country of a mere eight million people with 8,000 square miles to stop committing genocide in Gaza.

What is the balance sheet of success of the UN since 1945? The world still has colonies owned by imperial, colonial powers yet the UN has a Decolonization Committee. Since when the UN is a custodian of international democracy when the UK and France have veto powers in the UN but India and not one African country have the same?

In Guyana, political actors often appeal to Western countries to seek solutions to Guyanese problems. This is called subliminal imperialism. It is as if these countries are superior and they have the moral compass to teach us about compromise and conflict resolution. But many of these countries have more social and political internecine animosities than nations in the Global South.

Any human anywhere on Planet Earth that has read an objective sociological critique of the United States of America would tell you it is a country tearing itself apart and its racial, cultural and political problems are literally intractable. What can Germany teach the world about peace and democracy when its laws prevent German citizens from criticising Israel?

After Israel committed genocide in 2025 in Gaza and we saw how steadfastly the West and its journalistic bandwagon stood with Israel that became the time when the eyes of the peoples of the Global South were opened. After Gaza and the sycophantic role of Western journalism in hiding those genocidal acts, the West lost whatever moral role in the Global South it had left.

So why we in Guyana still think they can offer solutions to our problems. We have CARICOM. We have India. We have Africa.

If we want adjudicators and arbitration panels to come to Guyana we don’t have to look to the West. They have their own problems, one of which is the rise of a crazy form of populism because there is no money to spend on development because it goes to the military.

Since 1945, hundreds of trillions have been spent by NATO countries on arms fearing an attack by Russia. Since 1945 to 2026, 81 years now, not one Russian jet or Russian fishing boat has passed near Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Belgium, Italy etc so where did those hundreds of trillions go? Those sums were simply wasted.

It is the most moronic thinking of any Western leader since 1945 to believe that Russia would attack a NATO country. That would be the end of Russia because three NATO nuclear powers –US, UK and France – would destroy Russia. It will never happen so why continue to spend billions on arms that will never be used?

Now all EU countries have agreed to vastly increase military expenditure. The billion-dollar question is where that money is coming from and if it is found, where is the money coming from for social spending?

This is where the right-wing populists have an unlimited gold mine. Since there is no money left to spend outside of military expenditure, then voters will find right-wing populists attractive because these dangerous politicians will promise salvation.

I end with an example to show how militaristic is old Europe that poses a danger to world peace. Greece ran into miserable financial problems that threatened its very survival a few years back. The EU imposed draconian conditions on Greece.

Greece was told to stop spending on every conceivable social item. Guess which sector was exempted – military expenditure. The West cannot teach Guyana anything about democratic development.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited