Editorial

Wednesday will mark three weeks since the ghastly Carifesta Avenue accident which claimed three lives and was later revealed to have been as a result of an intelligence-gathering operation under the aegis of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

The seemingly endless catalogue of murders has everyone alarmed. It is not just the number which is a source of disquiet, but the extraordinary brutality which accompanies them.

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,” wrote William Wordsworth about the early days of the French Revolution, “but to be young was very heaven.”

Today’s issue of the Stabroek Business details the contents of a letter it received from Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Major General (ret’d) Norman McLean that seeks to provide an update on the now twice postponed public/private sector National Economic Forum which was originally scheduled to take place last September.

In a recent BBC World Service Report, technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones describes technology tycoon and maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk as “both bonkers and brilliant, the most visionary technology leader I have encountered in 20 years of interviewing many of the leading figures in the industry.”

There could be no contradiction in stating that all policyholders in this country are aware that quality education has been proven to be the panacea for many of society’s ills.

In what is a period of relative global stability, different kinds of events still appear to portray areas of instability and uncertainty, and as such, draw the attention of the major powers.

Decades of varying degrees of state control of the media in Guyana has retarded the growth of a culture of unhindered two-way information flow between government and governed, a condition customarily associated with democratic behaviour.

On August 26 last year, the Minister of Governance with responsibility for natural resources Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News that after the government took up office in May it found evidence of rampant gold smuggling to the United States and other countries and had therefore made tackling it a priority.

If it weren’t for the fact that the incident involving Sergeant Robert Pyle ended in such tragedy, the sequence of events leading up to the fatal crash in Carifesta Avenue on December 30 might have been termed a comedy of errors.

Earlier this week, as economies in the developed world anxiously awaited the fallout from China’s tumbling stock market, key international aid agencies issued a warning that a severe El Niño event this year will likely produce drought, crop failures and food shortages for millions of people during the next few months.

Firdose Moonda, the South African cricket journalist, has written a wonderful article (‘Africa applauds a son of transformation’) on ESPNcricinfo, on the significance of Temba Bavuma’s century against England, on Tuesday, in the just concluded Test at Cape Town.

Whatever it takes, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, under its present configuration and when it takes its new form after local government elections, must make safe disposal of garbage a priority.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s address, at the end of last year, to the people of Trinidad & Tobago following his People’s National Movement’s victory at the polls, has laid out the problems, particularly in the economic sphere, confronting the country.

President David Granger has made a particular point of commending Ms Simona Broomes for her work in the Ministry of Social Protection even as he made the announcement regarding her move to the newly created Ministry of Natural Resources, amongst various other ministerial adjustments.

Now that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has rejected the key recommendation of the Caricom Cricket Review Panel (CCRP) for an immediate dissolution of the board the stage is set in this New Year for the ultimate test of wills.

Mr Bharrat Jagdeo is very much a political being and his comments on many subjects, therefore, should be placed within a political context.

As the season of rejoicing and renewal draws to a close, amidst rituals of repetition – whether of the spiritual or the spirituous kind – thoughts naturally turn to the New Year ahead and what it has to offer.

When we focus too narrowly on what happens close to home — whether that be Guyana, Caricom, or the Americas — we tend to forget how difficult and uncertain political, social and economic progress has been in many other countries.

Our Caricom heads of government effectively ended a year of international relations activity with their participation in the global Climate Change conference in Paris, following which they have been able to claim that the concerns of small states, including small island states in the Caribbean, were given substantial consideration.