Daily Features

‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.

Outgoing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Cuba last week was a disgrace to her legacy as a democratic leader.

Last week, we began to highlight the key findings contained in the IMF report entitled “Guyana: A reform Agenda for Petroleum Taxation and Revenue Manage-ment” dated November 2017.

By D. Alissa Trotz Alissa Trotz is Editor of the Diaspora Column Last week, in meetings with lawmakers to discuss a bipartisan deal addressing immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and several African nations, US president Donald Trump commented (in remarks later verified by several present) “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He

President Castro could not have been clearer. Speaking before Christmas to the Cuban National Assembly about the US, he said that the country had in 2017 “witnessed a serious, irrational deterioration in relations”.

In our society, there are many “judges” who are not qualified to operate in courts of law, but they are performing the roles nevertheless.

Part 31   Introduction I must start this week’s column by publicly complimenting the painstaking and excellent work done by the technical staff of Ram & McRae in comparing, line by line and word by word, the 1999 Janet Jagan’s Agreement with Esso and the Raphael Trotman’s 2016 Agreement with Esso (not Exxon), Hess and CNOOC.

Granny Joycelyn’s pension – and her death! I pay genuine sincere tribute to our more analytical commentators.

Paid at least “a guinea” or about 21 shillings for each Indian indentured immigrant delivered alive to the destination colonies in the West Indies, seasoned medical doctors appointed as surgeons-superintendents wielded significant power aboard commercial “coolie-carrying” ships.

‘Government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another.’

One of Venezuela’s most prominent intellectuals, Harvard economics professor Ricardo Hausmann, has just published an article that is raising eyebrows across the hemisphere: He is calling for a military intervention by the United States and other countries as the only way to end Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. 

By Andaiye, Moses Bhagwan and Eusi Kwayana Sometimes in political life, movements that promise relief to the majority of the population fail to perform and are left to flounder and crash.

In last week’s article, we mentioned some of the key findings contained in the IMF report entitled “Guyana: A reform Agenda for Petroleum Taxation and Revenue Management”, dated November 2017.

At the end of November, the Cuban government hosted an unusual meeting.

What would happen if more people started eating to live rather than living to eat?

Today’s column continues a review of the Esso/Hess/Nexen Petroleum Agreement signed on June 27, 2016 and publicly released by the Government of Guyana on December 29, 2017.

How criminal enterprise pays Some may recall that I did a somewhat provocative piece a few months ago challenging the usage – and aspirations – found in our national motto.

Borne upon the ocean’s foam Far from native land and home.

The ancient Greeks, considered the progenitors of modern democracy, referred to the rule of one person as ‘tyranny’ and particularly in countries with weak institutions, modern presidentialism and prime ministership quickly morph into one-man autocracies in which the single leader, to whom access is limited, surrounds himself with a retinue of fawning, usually self-seeking, followers (Foley, Michael (2000) The British Presidency,  Manchester University Press, and Poguntke, Thomas and Paul Webb (2005) The Presidentialization of Politics,  Oxford University Press).

Accountability Watch welcomes last Thursday’s release of the agreement between ExxonMobil’s subsidiaries and the Government of Guyana, notwithstanding that it was not a voluntary act on the latter’s part.