Editorial

As congestion increasingly chokes urban centres globally  including those in Guyana, the instinct to widen roads or construct new ones may seem like a straightforward solution.

On August 11th this year, the Police  arrested 42-year-old Weston Pickering of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara claiming that a search of his home had unearthed an illegal AK-47 assault rifle and matching ammunition.

A recent incident at St Joseph High School, involving a young boy targeted by several others who could be four or five years older and the initial responses to that assault, force us to yet again confront an uncomfortable truth; the individuals and institutions that should be protecting our children are failing miserably.

This newspaper’s Letters to The Editor column continues to provide  a stage for the public at large to have their voices heard.

No Guyanese who is even vaguely abreast of the currents that are the basis of critical discourse in our country would have missed (if they had read it) the poignancy of the Stabroek News’ editorial ‘Indefensible’ published in its Thursday October 17 issue, the central theme of which – in the opinion of this writer –  is the seeming astonishing indifference of the powers that be to what is now widely felt to be the deeply alarming distancing by the Guyana Police Force from the tenets of its Service and Protection motto.

Anytime a senior member of the police force is facing allegations of the type that have beset Assistant Commissioner of Police, Calvin Brutus, the country has a major problem on its hands as it relates to law enforcement.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing to emerge from the Annual Report of the Police Complaints Authority for 2023 which was made public recently, was that after interviews had been conducted with over 300 police officers from senior superintendent to rural constable none demonstrated substantial knowledge of critical laws or the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

In what they described  as a pivotal move to strengthen the protection of freedom of expression, journalist safety and other fundamental freedoms, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

President Irfaan Ali has indicated that he intends to appoint Mr Clifton Hicken as Commissioner of Police.

Some years ago, one of the annual satires (either the “Link Show” or “No Big Ting”) produced by local theatre champions Ron Robinson and Gem Madhoo, introduced the populace to a figure who became a constant on the show – ‘Officer Tek-a-Bribe’.

The topography of the sports landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace as new developments in technology become more and more applicable and indispensable to the various disciplines.

In what seems to be a developing trend this year, the findings of the 2023 Auditor General’s Report on the Account of Ministries, Departments and Regions has been disputed by the Ministry of Health as it relates to the matter of expired drugs.

In his wide-ranging address to the National Assembly on Thursday, President Ali sought to offer assurances that his administration is doing all it can to ensure transparency in public procurement which has been seen as an area prone to corruption of all stripes.

While President Irfaan Ali was in full flow in Parliament on Thursday, the opposition was demonstrating outside.

It goes without saying that the money being disbursed or committed by this government is the entitlement of all of the people of this country.

“We must nurture creativity and innovation,” said President Irfaan Ali recently.

Anyone taking a walk around the city – whether in the downtown mostly commercial district, or the mixed commercial/residential areas of north and south Georgetown – would unfortunately be hard pressed not to find a roadside drain decorated with plastic bottles.

On Sunday night, as the die-hard Guyana Amazon Warriors fans were, once again, wallowing in the bitter agony of losing in the final of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), for the sixth time in the 12-season history of the event, former Guyanese and West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd announced the launch of a new T20 competition, the Global Super League (GSL).

It is conceivable that it would not have occurred to many Guyanese residing on ‘the coastal plain’ that both children and teachers in parts of the hinterland must endure the safety and health hazards as well as the indignity that attends the need to use pit latrines outside of schools’ and, seemingly, that there appears not to exist, up to this time, any immediate-term plan to remove this unacceptable obstacle to the delivery of education in a convivial environment in those areas.

In his September 25th interview with the New York Times’ International Climate Correspondent, Somini Sengupta, President Ali trotted out his standard argument as to why there should be no qualms about Guyana’s unrestrained extraction of oil and the envisioning of a future for the industry here past 2050.