Editorial

Last month the University of the West Indies hosted a three-day Cannabis Conference at its Mona campus, co-sponsored by UWI and the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force (CCMRTF).

It has been axiomatic through the ages that history is written by the victors.

President Donald Ramotar’s statement at the press conference he held last Saturday was surprising in its candour, while at the same time raising questions that his party needs to answer.

Former commanding general of the Egyptian army Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was sworn in as President of Egypt this week following what were described as presidential elections last week.

All too frequently, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) gets itself into the news for the wrong reasons.

At his press conference on Saturday, President Ramotar spoke optimistically about the sugar industry and lauded the performance of the beleaguered Skeldon factory.

Endless column inches in the independent newspapers have been devoted to the failings of the Guyana Police Force, but the Guyana Prison Service has come under less scrutiny.

For the last fifty years, a book that may well be the most important of the twentieth century has remained largely unread.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion the world has ever seen, with 156,000 Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy, under the code name Operation Overlord.

This is shaping up to be a busy year for the Police Complaints Authority and the Office of Professional Responsibility.

The leaders of the European Union have experienced a virtual earthquake as the strength of rightwing political forces demonstrated itself in major countries like Britain and France in the recent elections to the European Parliament.

Those of us who live in the coastal regions of Guyana and who rarely if ever venture into the hinterland will, by now, be aware that the coast and the interior are, in a sense, two different worlds.

On May 20, 18 workers of Qualfon’s Call Centre at Goedverwagting had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation in various states of consciousness and some of them in hysterics.

Independence Day rolled around again last week, and all the reflections, commentaries, analyses, ruminations, declamations and speeches on the passage of 48 years must have had the naïve and uninitiated wondering whether these really related to one country alone, or whether in fact two nations were not involved.

The success of the United Kingdom Independence Party in the recent European parliamentary elections confirms a trend towards intolerant populism in a surprising number of developed democracies.

The 48th anniversary of our independence has prompted quite a few letters in the media, as well as various online comments and blogs about our evolution as a society and a nation and, by extension, the quality of our democracy.

Guyana will forever be indebted to Ms Bernadette Persaud. Not just because she is one of our renowned artists, but because she brought to light the neglect of valuable visual art stored at the National Gallery, Castellani House as a result of which steps are being taken to correct some of the deterioration.

In the London underground in the United Kingdom, at a certain point an announcement comes over declaring “All Change.”

A great deal of credit is due to the consortium of local commercial aircraft operators comprising Ogle Airport Inc, which, more than ten years ago, embraced the challenge of rehabilitating and modernizing what was then known as the Ogle aerodrome, transforming it into what is now the Ogle International Airport.

As the country celebrates the 48th anniversary of independence and reflects on achievements and disappointments, some may also cogitate on the essence of this freedom to preside over our destiny and the rudiments of the state that keep it on an even keel and prevent usurpation and abuse of powers.