Editorial

The extreme shock demonstrated by the French government and people at the attacks on individuals in Paris has been obvious.

There has been a certain ripple effect arising out of the efforts of the Ministry of Social Protection to more directly engage employers and employees on matters pertaining to workers’ rights, including employer obligations in terms of emoluments, terminal benefits, leave entitlements, etc.

News that Chinese logging company Baishanlin has requested two more years before fulfilling its mirage-like commitments to begin serious value-adding is not surprising.

It happens to all parties eventually, especially those which have been in power for extended periods.

Six months after disputed elections returned President Nkurunziza to a constitutionally questionable third term, Burundi has entered a crisis eerily similar to the situation before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

“May you live in interesting times” is thought to be an ancient Chinese curse although no textual evidence exists to support this.

Eight months after this newspaper first reported on the rundown and unsafe conditions under which four senior citizens were living at the Chase’s Indigent Home in Robb Street, Georgetown, two of them are still struggling to manage as their situation worsens daily.

The occurrence of two events in recent times requires our attention, far away from them as we may be.

Those of us (or at least some of us) who either live in Georgetown or, for various reasons, frequent the capital, would have experienced the ‘feel good’ sensation that derives from the effort in the past few months to change the appearance of parts of the capital city that had been left to degenerate and decay over time.

Sweeping proposals by the Caricom Cricket Review Panel for a revamping of the governance of the game in the region will undoubtedly resonate with the millions of West Indian fans both here and in the diaspora who have wallowed in despair for too long over the fortunes of their team.

Once in a while a press statement is fired off from one or the other of our political fortresses that lands in the public arena with all the explosive force of a cruise missile.

A month before the Climate Summit in Paris considers how to reduce our collective carbon footprint and to prevent further degradation of the planet, a huge swath of Indonesia is ablaze.

As we had opined early in the life of the APNU+AFC administration (SN, June 2, 2015), the appointment of Carl Greenidge as the country’s Foreign Minister was a clear signal by the new government of “a serious readiness to place economic diplomacy on its diplomatic front burner.”

The perplexing deaths of 18-year-old Ramesh Beharry and 19-year-old Kavita Ackloo on Monday last, which followed closely on the heels of that of social activist Zenita Nicholson last week are a sure indication that efforts need to be redoubled where mental health strategies are concerned, with particular emphasis on depression and suicide.

Following early post-election rumblings that have seemed to cast responsibility on Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the defeat of the People’s Partnership government in September, it was almost inevitable that some would raise doubts about her capacity to take the United National Congress (UNC) into office again.

Counseling as a tool in combating violence in schools must be supported by strong PTA’s.

Soon it will be crunch time again for rice farmers who will be expecting payments for their bumper output.

The week before last former President Bharrat Jagdeo opened a little window onto the nature of the negotiations his government had been pursuing to resolve the boundary controversy with Venezuela.

One way to gauge the enormity of China’s one-child-per-family policy — which is now being terminated after more than 35 years — is to consider the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

The results of the West Indies’ Test series against Sri Lanka do not make for pretty reading.