Editorial

Earlier this week Apple became a trillion dollar company, an estimate close to the combined value of America’s ‘big four’ banks, and the single highest valuation for a company in history.

“Press freedom is facing new threats in major democracies as well as in repressive states, where authorities are focusing their efforts on social media and other online platforms after reducing the independence of major print and broadcast outlets.”

On Monday last, the BBC reported on a shocking incident of assault, the video of which had already gone viral.

One of the lesser known Japanese products of recent times is the Shouting Vase, a pottery –inspired plastic jug mouth muffler which is designed to fit the contours of your mouth. 

It is not in the nature of newspapers like the New York Times, on those occasions when they must pay a measure of editorial attention to countries like Guyana, long arbitrarily grouped as ‘banana republics,’ to fail to litter their offerings with ill-informed and open ridicule, sparing no feelings.

More than three years after APNU+AFC entered office, the public has grown increasingly impatient with the poor performance and corruption in the security sector particularly considering that President Granger had had deep engagement with law and order matters before taking office and was one of the members of the 2003 Disciplined Forces Commission (DFC) which enquired into the deficiencies and challenges facing each of the services.

On Wednesday we will celebrate Emancipation Day. And it is worth celebrating, not just by the descendants of those from whom the shackles of slavery were removed on August 1, 1838, but by everyone.

When Facebook’s stock plummeted earlier this week, wiping out US$120 billion dollars of market capitalisation in a single day, Wall Street’s analysts – most of whom had rated the stock as a strong buy just the day before –  couldn’t agree on the exact cause.

When writing an article, a writer wants his first few words and sentences to grab the attention of the reader and to set the tone for the rest of the article.

Video footage taken last week and shared online more than a million times since, to expressions of disgust and outrage from many, shows sluggish waves of waste, mostly plastics, hitting the shoreline at Montesinos Beach in the Dominican Republic capital following a storm.

The Mission: Impossible franchise started out in 1966 as an American television series and ran for seven seasons.

One might have thought that in a discipline-driven  organization like the Guyana Police Force (GPF) it would be unnecessary for the subject Minister to have to ‘reach in,’ so to speak and to publicly declare that policemen (and women) responsible for damage to the Force’s vehicles in circumstances that can reasonably be deemed to be the result of their own recklessness/carelessness would have to go into their pockets to pay for the damage.

Former US President Carter’s recent conversations with President Granger and Opposition Leader Jagdeo in an initiative to get high-level dialogue between the two leaders going is most welcome.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that there are increasing numbers of Venezuelans taking refuge in this country.

 A recent study by America’s Economic Policy Institute shows that US income inequality  is now approaching levels not seen since the eve of the Wall Street crash.

Over the years the response of the Guyana Civil Defence Commission (CDC) to various local emergencies, mostly to do with flooding in riverain areas, has not always been sufficiently sophisticated, nor always timely and effective.

For the year so far, at least seven men have been convicted of child rape, one pleaded guilty, at least one was acquitted and more than three have been charged.

When the Air France jet carrying the triumphant French team, the 2018 FIFA World Cup champions, touched down at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Monday it was greeted with a water cannon salute and hundreds of adoring fans. 

The manner in which drugs and other materiel associated with the delivery of services at the state-run health care institutions in Guyana are acquired has long been the subject of animated public chatter that often alights upon the subject of the circumvention of tender regulations and excursions into what are believed to be optional corrupt practices.

Last Monday, the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) made the startling revelation that the mercury content of the Kaituma River was tested and found to be too high for consumption by the residents of the Region One community.