LABOUR DEFENDA FLOGS THE FLOGG

 EVEN WHEN YOU'RE RIGHT, YOU'RE WICKED!

by Labour Defenda

“A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Jason Sifflet, I didn’t believe you at first, but it seems that you are telling the truth. The Iranians are mining for uranium in Bolivia. The whole ALBA scenario is not just a socialist comeback, it’s a front for Iranian expansionism. It’s not hard to research the facts of this matter and to make sense of nonsense.

But the way  you attacked the Labour Government shows that you  have bad intentions for them. I have tracked the progress of your FLOGG. From the very beginning, it was clear that you thought that Flambeau was ridiculous and so deserved nothing but ridicule. It seemed that you were merely a very entertaining Labour hack posing as an independent blogger. But since then, you have found reason to criticize Kenny Anthony and have given him flogging after flogging in the last few weeks.

The pattern suggests you have a new found motivation for attacking Kenny in particular and Labour in general. You will have to answer this question sooner or later, so having asked the question, I will leave it on your doorstep.

I will say this, however: Either you are really an independent thinker, or you are  the most mercenary journalist in the history of St Lucia – and that’s including George Odlum and  Rick Wayne.

“It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

It’s hard as a Labour supporter to admit that some of the things you write with such malice aforethought  are, in fact,  true. You give no attribution and no substantiation for the crazy things you say, but I can’t help but notice that they turn out to be true. Few people outside of Flambeau’s inner circles saw Chastanet’s landslide victory coming and you also reported the ‘blacklisted cops affair’ weeks before the Commissioner got booted off a plane. 

It is even harder to admit that Kenny and company are impotent when it comes to the economy and hopeless when it comes to foreign relations.

However,  you fail to take into context that these are difficult times for everyone. The mighty United States is confused about what exactly they should do in the Middle East. The Chinese Communist Party is showing signs of strain never seen before. Europe doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going. And the Bolivarians seem confused as to whether they are socialist or just plain anti-American. The certainties of the 20^th century have passed away and in their place are no clear answers.

But you act as though Kenny Anthony should have the answers easily. Furthermore,  you seemed poised to attack him no matter what he does. If he admits that he doesn’t have all the answers,  you have a FLOGG for that. If he comes out with a set of solutions, you have a FLOGG for that. It is almost as though you have written Kenny Anthony’s FLOGGs way in advance. I can’t help but notice that you replied to the Prime Minister’s televised address this week in less than two hours – and I saw you talking to some people by a bar after the PM’s address for at least half an hour.

You want me to believe that you didn't write  at least parts of that critique bforehand? Please...

What do you expect Kenny to do? Come out and admit that this job is stressing him out that St Lucia is in a tailspin? You want him to come out and put the country in a panic about the situation we’re in? You want him to confess all the misdeeds of his youth as well, Jason Sifflet? You would like that, wouldn’t you,  for him to tell you all the dirty details? But that’s not realistic. A man under pressure with enemies all around him is bound to circle the wagons. And that’s what Labour is doing right now, with good reason.

Furthermore,  this is politics where all things are relative. Tell me, Jason Sifflet, do you really prefer the prospect of a Chastanet prime ministership to that which exists today? It’s a rhetorical question. I know you are an intelligent person. I was just  making a point to show that you are attacking your best hope of defending yourself from the worst thing you can imagine.

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

I enjoy The FLOGG. I sense that you have advantages that other reporters don’t have,  because you are not bound by the same rules and you don’t have to answer to anyone. I like your style of writing and your insistence on humour, no matter what the subject is.

But I also sense that you while you want to project the image of someone who wants to build a better nation,  you are, in fact, attacking and breaking things down. Right now, you are on a dangerous track of attacking both major political parties at the same time. Theoretically,  this means that you probably have no friends,  at least none with any clout.

This might seem fine to you now.

But I am sure there are people who have advised you that while truth and controversy are good for the soul, compromise and pragmatism are good for everything else. You have to be able to get along better than that. You are provoking and upsetting an entire class of people who are accustomed of holding power or being the official challengers of power. What you are doing undermines both the holders of power and the challengers.

Don’t lie to yourself, Mr Sifflet, you don’t want to get into that situation. Respect for the truth includes knowing which truths can be told, which truths should be told and which truths need a better way to be told before anyone can tell them.

I fear that you will soon find yourself in the unenviable position of having both rival major parties allied against you and your FLOGG. And that would be a shame, because there ain’t nothing to read in the newspapers but the classified ads.