Editorial

Guyana missed the bus, as did the rest of the Caribbean, with regard to reducing the rate of maternal mortality by three quarters as stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which ended this year.

Commentary in some of the international press indicates surprise at the apparent effusiveness with which President Xi Jinping of China was welcomed in Britain last week by the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, including the extensive participation of Queen Elizabeth in the proceedings.

The battle has already been manifestly enjoined with the PPP finding itself trying to fend off a continually (virtually daily) unfolding tirade of official accusations of corrupt practices during its tenure in office against which it has – up until now – mounted weak responses.

At Thursday’s sitting of Parliament, questions by PPP/C MP Dr Frank Anthony on spending for the inauguration of President David Granger were answered in writing by Minister in the Ministry of Education, Nicolette Henry.

For the third time this year President David Granger appeared before the National Assembly to address MPs – and by extension the nation – on the matter of Guyana’s frontiers.

The election that swept Canada’s Conservatives out of power earlier this week shows that, contrary to the prevailing wisdom of many campaign strategists, optimism still matters in politics, as does tone.

On October 15, former Venezuelan presidential candidate Manuel Rosales returned home after six years’ exile in Peru and was promptly arrested at the airport.

It is events like the death of 17-year-old Nikacia Allen after her third Caesarean Section (C-section) in four years that bring forcefully home to us the fact that not only is society failing our children, but that our health and social/welfare systems suck.

As he had promised during the last general election in Britain, Prime Minister Cameron has now gone on the hustings again to justify, and seek the support of the British electorate for continued membership of the European Union (EU).

The government has decided to stick with its widely unpopular ministers’ salary increase.

Now that President Granger has spoken it appears that the APNU+AFC administration has decided there will be no turning back on the much decried salary increases for ministers which range as high as 50% for Cabinet members.

The old-fashioned teachers’ brigade will be savouring an ‘I told you so’ moment, while the One Laptop per Family (OLPF) aficionados would no doubt feel somewhat chagrined.

When the Marxist art critic John Berger won the Booker Prize for fiction in 1972, his riposte to the judges was exemplary.

Last Friday, in discussing the embarrassment arising from the arrest of the former Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the United Nations, Dr John Ashe, and the damage done to the image of CARICOM by allegations of corruption, we suggested that influence peddling was a bit of a grey area in our part of the world.

The second reported case of physical assault of students by teachers in the Rupununi area, Region 9, for this year involves a headmaster, who, according to reports, was frustrated and allegedly lashed out.

Politics, in particular presidential politics, in our Brazilian neighbour continues to take an interesting turn as economic growth has substantially diminished since the period of President Lula da Silva’s tenure.

Even if we debate the matter of just how deserving of a salary increase our ministers are till the proverbial cows come home, differences of opinion on the issue will remain.

Appointing international civil servant Dr Richard Van West-Charles as the new Chief Executive (CE) of the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) is another ill-advised decision by the APNU+AFC administration that immediately leads reasonable minds to question whether the coalition is truly wedded to separating itself from the debased culture of the former PPP/C government.

Power does strange things to office-holders. When they are sitting on the opposition benches they see with great clarity the need for transparency and accountability; they promote the virtues of the meritocratic state, criticising nepotism and patronage, and promise value for money to taxpayers should they ever be voted into government.

The 2015 Nobel prizes indicate how much the landscapes of diplomacy and letters have shifted in recent years.