Editorial

As was noted in yesterday’s editorial, a collaborative workshop by the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Social Protection and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) announced the impending development of a Strategic Plan for the care of the elderly in Guyana.

A report last week that Guyana was moving to draft a strategic plan for elderly care was welcome news, especially the knowledge that said plan would ensure that seniors’ rights are respected and upheld.

A cloth banner, about eight feet wide and four feet high, attached to the wrought iron grillwork fence of the National Library at Church and Main streets reads: The National Library in collaboration with the University of Guyana and other special libraries celebrates Library Week 2017 April 23-28 “Facing the Future Information Literacy in a Changing Technological landscape” The last three words of the theme “changing technological landscape” suggests a change in the function of the library in the future.

No astute witness to the cataclysmic decline of the University of Guyana over the years would seriously challenge the view that the prevailing conditions at the institution are, in large measure, a function of the debilitating diet of crass political intervention that it has had to endure and much of which has manifested itself in some of the most unenlightened and counterproductive feuding between the country’s two main political parties.

As stated in yesterday’s editorial, the complaint by nurse, Ms Sherlyn Marks against the former Region Five councillor Ms Carol Joseph raises issues as it relates to protection of whistleblowers and whether the transfer of the nurse was a blatant attempt to punish her for being forthright.

Last week we reported on the case of a Berbice nurse, Ms Sherlyn Marks, who was transferred from the Fort Wellington Hospital after her complaints relating to a Region Five Councillor, Ms Carol Joseph became public.

President Trump’s imaginary ”armada” – a description that suggests a certain historical illiteracy – has set the stage for a genuine military confrontation with North Korea.

On April 15, 2017 a new multi-million dollar investment was unveiled in Guyana, uniquely labelled as both “state-of-the-art” in terms of the technology involved, and “first of its kind” indicating its singular presence in Guyana and the Caribbean.

Late last month, this newspaper carried a report about flooding affecting an octogenarian in Delph Street, Campbellville.

Last Saturday, 15th April was the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, founder leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (commonly referred to as North Korea), and observed as the Day of the Sun, the most important national holiday in that country.

Nothing has happened over the years to persuade informed observers that government is even remotely close to securing the upper hand in the fight against serious environmental transgression by mining operations in remote regions of Guyana to which, as a general rule, we pay less than merited attention.

In a blunt statement in response to a column in the Guyana Chronicle by presidential advisor on the environment, Rear Admiral (ret’d) Gary Best, the Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, Per Pharo has set out in stark terms what decisions have to be made by the government here to access monies accrued under the 2009 forest protection partnership.

A former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education under the PPP/C administration, Mr Hydar Ally, had a letter published in this newspaper on Good Friday.

For the first time since its establishment in 1957, Guyana’s Bureau of Statistics has moved into its own dedicated building – the former Customs House on Main Street.

Just how gullible the government thinks Guyanese are was revealed on Tuesday in the news that the Cabinet had decided that the Value-Added Tax (VAT) would remain applicable to private school tuition fees, but would be reviewed in the preparation for next year’s budget.

As the spring thaw continued, it was an interesting week in the world of politics.

It would have come as no great surprise to political watchers that South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is facing yet another political crisis.

On Thursday, the eGovernment Project Execution Unit, accompanied by the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU),  descended on the Enmore/Hope Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and seized 15 computers.

Last month through letters to this newspaper, the public’s attention was drawn to visits to some of our secondary schools by a US missionary group called the Faithful Word Baptist Church, led by Pastor Steven Anderson.

As President Trump announced his decision to authorize a “targeted military strike” against “Syrian dictator” Bashar Al-Assad on Friday morning, he spoke of America’s “vital national security interests” in responding to the use of chemical weapons in Idlib earlier this week.