Campbell's Commentary - TEFLON TAPIA. DIPLOMAT OR BAG-A-MOUTH

By Aubrey Campbell

 

NEW YORK, NY. Tuesday, November 3, 2020 --- I am not at all surprised that Donald Tapia continues to meddle in the internal affairs of Jamaica, a sovereign state, from his very high and lofty perch as United States Ambassador to Jamaica. He was sent to Jamaica to be a thorn in the backside of the government because the Trump Administration has reason to believe that Andrew Holness can be bought.

I am not surprised that loud mouth Tapia again passed his place last week, flying off in a jealous rage over Jamaica’s love affair with ganja and China.

What surprises me is that he is still there and was allowed to offer a half hearted apology for an excuse, and having the balls to say that someone used his social media account to spew hate on Jamaica and Jamaicans.

For all I care, Tapia should have been put on a plane and send back to the USA, long, long time, for not adhering to protocols relating to the behavior of diplomats on foreign soil.

This is what is fundamentally wrong with the foreign policy approach of these United States. Their front yard is a rotting, smelly swamp yet, they have time to see every fly that pitch in everybody else’s backyard!

Tapia should have long been declared ‘persona non grata’ and ask to leave his Upper St. Andrew address for the Washington, DC swamp, where he would make perfect bedfellow with the lying, cheating, tweeting Trump!

But no. He is from America and that makes him an untouchable.

Teflon Tapia!

If you cross him, all he has to do is to take a red ink pen and cross your passport page with the visa.

Done!

Such a shame. It’s not the first nor the second time he has put his foot in his mouth.

Tapia has a problem with how a sovereign state like Jamaica chose its friends, be it Cuba, Venezuela, China.

The other day when he realized that he could not say what he wanted to say, he asked the playground bully, Michael R. Pompeo to stop by and make the point for him.

America, under this ‘Commander in Tweet’ is not about regional integration and that’s why this US Presidential election has so much riding on its outcome. America wants to see the Caribbean region remain a dependency of ‘Uncle Sam’ and so, as bad as the China Colonization Syndrome may seem and sound, it is a major worry to the Trump Administration, but hopefully, not for too much longer.

I am not going to be fooled by the government’s quick acceptance of Tapia’s excuse, worse when his defense is that someone used his social media account!

Get this…

Dem man deh. Fi dem security detail control by D-Lawrence. Virgin tight! So, me nah buy dat!

It is just unfortunate that the unforgiving rape of the country by successive governments and politicians since 1962, has left us in a mendicant state of mind, nothing to sell but some sunshine, sea and sand!

Colonization in reverse, if you will, but the Chinese offer is hard to refuse. If real estate is the best avenue to wealth creation then infrastructure development has got to be the way to build an economic foundation.

Think it thru’ for a second. If America meant the region any good, regional governments would not have to be selling citizenship to the highest bidder, to survive, an initiative that has angered Washington, DC.

Tourism is not sustainable in its present context, and it did not take the pandemic to prove that. Mother nature has, many times over!

With a road network providing easy access to key areas of the country, just imagine what Jamaica will look like when the population realize that agriculture is the key to their prosperity and not politicians and political parties.

People like Tapia have no right being a diplomat. I have seen better than him chased out of town under the cover of darkness, never to return!

Persona non grata!

That’s the fate I wish for those who lie, cheat and tweet. So, help me, God!

BTW. From my pen to your eyes only. RIP the real Bond, James Bond. Agent 007 and Leonard ‘Chicken’ Mason. Gone too soon but never to be forgotten!

You have the floor!

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Editor’s note. Aubrey Campbell is a career broadcast/Journalist and producer/host of THE POWER HOUR, airing Saturdays, 9.00 am – 10.00 am, on radio station WPAT, 930 AM, and streaming on the Wee Radio Network at; www.weeradioonline.com.