Hugo Chavez vs. President Obama at the 5th Summit of the Americas

I just watched President Obama get off his plane and lope along the red carpet at Piarco Int'l Airport here in Trinidad - watched on television, that is - and my initial impression, obviously shaped by my profound analysis of the issues surrounding this 5th Summit of the Americas, is: Lawdie, Lawdie! He's hawt! My sister doesn't see what I see, though. She insists I just like skinny guys.

Now that I've succeeded in disgusting you, let's get back to those issues...

• Trinis, with my mother spearheading the torrent of aggrieved citizens, are annoyed because there are no meet-the-public events scheduled for this historic president. If I have to hear her complain about this one more time I'll scream. Very loudly. Because I know she would never brave the milling crowds of Obama-crazed Trinis to catch an in-the-flesh glimpse of the man, or shake his hand, or genuflect at his feet, or whatever his local worshippers think they have been unfairly deprived of the opportunity to do.

• I, on the other hand, am looking forward to some fireworks from the defiant president of Venezuela. According to Mr. Chavez, "We are ready to attend the meeting of the Americas and let's hope that the US President comes and not follow the example of the King of Spain when he told me to shut up, because we are going to speak our truth." And I can't wait to hear it. He thinks Cuba should not have been omitted from this summit, and I happen to agree with him.
  

• The fallout, the aftershock, the backlash from T&T's hosting of this summit promises to be entertaining in the extreme. Why? Because the snowballing public outcry against the obscene amount of money spent on this event may well determine the outcome of the next general election. The current estimate of the cost to taxpayers is $1 billion to $2 billion TT dollars (US$161 million - US$323 million), or about 13% of the GDP of Trinidad and Tobago. That's about 10 times the cost of hosting the recently convened G20 Summit.

Yes, folks. There's lots of excitement ahead.