Editorial

Last week the Stabroek News drew to public attention the fact that Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud had signed a Permission for Geological and Geophysical Survey (PGGS) in the New River Triangle in favour of a company called Muri Brasil Ventures Inc.

Two days ago, as the world’s reigning A-list celebrity readied herself for another flirtation with the paparazzi; she broadcast, via social media, a photograph of herself in a fetching yellow dress.

It was most symbolic and appropriate that the heavens opened over the memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, for the rains are regarded in Africa as a blessing; as South African Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said: “It’s a blessing from the ancestors welcoming a son of the soil.”

There is something particularly putrid about the way in which the state apparatus treats this country’s children.

Once in a while, little events occur which suddenly assume greater proportions leading to unanticipated publicity, including the intervention of persons in high positions.

It is doubtful that any political accomplishment by a single figure during the twentieth century quite matches what Nelson Mandela accomplished in South Africa.

Gifted with an historic one-seat majority following the November 28, 2011 general elections, the opposition must now do some soul-searching on whether they have managed to employ that advantage for the betterment of the people.

Even by the undemanding standards of this country, what happened on Wednesday was exceptional.

It is hard to read tributes to Nelson Mandela without recalling how strenuously the governments that now hymn his praises sought to marginalize the jailed “terrorist” leader who threatened their interests while apartheid South Africa was still a valuable Cold War ally.

During a trade mission to China in October, British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne noted in a BBC interview that China’s leaders were “a lot more market orientated than the British Labour Party.”

If the statistics produced by the United Nations are taken at face value, the world should give itself a pat on the shoulder for meeting part of the first target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) five years ahead of the deadline.

The conclusion of initial negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear capabilities has brought further into relief the changing relations between the major powers – old and new ‒ of today’s world.

Six months shy of its twentieth year in office the African National Congress (ANC) has had to relinquish much of the moral high ground which it had held in May 1994 when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the country’s first black President.

With nothing much for the country to celebrate, it was perhaps unsurprising that the second anniversary of the November 28, 2011 elections came and went without much fanfare or notice.

One might be forgiven for thinking that we have a government which is incapable of making simple deductions, or learning from experience, or alighting on an obvious solution to an old, old problem. 

Ever since the deregulation of the world’s financial centres in the 1980s, politicians and economists have puzzled over the inequality that has accompanied, and often undermined, the neoliberal vision that lies at the heart of globalization.

A week ago on Wednesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly gave President Nicolás Maduro controversial new powers to rule by decree for one year, without having to consult the country’s parliament.

Overnight rain resulted in severe flooding in Georgetown and its environs yesterday as well as in Region Three.

A year or so ago there would have been few, if any, takers on a bet that the events culminating last Sunday could have occurred.

Diplomacy prevailed encouragingly in Geneva last weekend. The small but highly significant breakthrough in talks between Iran, on the one hand and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, on the other, may well have reaffirmed a measure of faith in the diplomatic option as a mechanism for settling differences.