Editorial

The 43rd annual meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board of Governors in St Lucia last week, had the aura of a stocktaking of the state the region’s economies, in a context of persistent difficulty being experienced by many of the member countries.

For reasons that have to do with more than the incident itself, there are eye-opening lessons about the use and abuse of power and the limits to power which we in Guyana can learn from South Africa’s recent so-called “wedding plane scandal.”

Five months into an ambitious reform programme for the soon-to-be Guyana Police Service, the public would have to be excused if it declares that neither Home Affairs Minister, Mr Rohee nor the Police has been able to show evidence of convincing change.

The political issue which has been eating up column inches in the nation’s newspapers over the past few weeks relates to proposed legislation rejoicing in the somewhat cumbersome title of ‘The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill.’ 

For the tens of thousands of West Indian immigrants who live within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Rob Ford, the city’s current mayor has always been a polarizing figure.

Last week, in commenting on the May 10 sentencing of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, 86, to 80 years in jail for genocide and crimes against humanity, we were of the view that Guatemala had taken a courageous step towards putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes.

When Fire Chief Marlon Gentle raised the spectre of dilapidated buildings once again this month, City Hall, under which the responsibility falls, issued the usual pat answer through Acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba that the matter would be discussed at a meeting and then action would be taken.

When, in January of this year, Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to the British people on the issue of the country’s membership of the European Union, he promised that following the next parliamentary general elections due in mid-2015, the electorate would have an opportunity to decide on that issue, in what he called an “in or out” referendum, by the end of 2017.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro took his first of what may well be several tilts at President Barack Obama recently, reportedly describing the US President as the “grand chief of devils” after Washington had declined to recognise the outcome of the poll that won him the presidency.

GuySuCo’s first crop production of around 48,000 tonnes of sugar must shock the corporation and the government into action.

Much outrage has been expressed over the two vigilante-style killings the week before last, the first, and most disquieting in Sophia, and the second the following day in Berbice.

One of the many pleasures of the third annual NGC Bocas Litfest recently concluded in Port of Spain was the thrill of watching large audiences sitting rapt for an hour while regional writers and intellectuals discussed their literary influences, the idea of national literatures and the achievements and challenges of postcolonial historiography.

A Guatemalan judge has sentenced General Efraín Ríos Montt to 80 years in jail for genocide and crimes against humanity during his de facto presidency between 1982 and 1983, with specific reference to the slaughter by his troops of some 2,000 members of the indigenous Ixil people in the mountainous region of El Quiché.

“Families hold societies together, and intergenerational relationships extend this legacy over time” – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon    If families hold societies together, then what happens to societies when families disintegrate?

At the beginning of this month, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved new funding arrangements to help stabilize the Jamaican economy and put it on a path to economic growth.

It is not at all surprising that the nation has not immersed itself in oceans of shock and awe following last week’s two reported vigilante killings. 

President Ramotar’s decision to reject two bills which were passed by Parliament on the strength of the opposition’s one-seat majority on the grounds that they were unconstitutional will further deepen the political divide in the country and make it even more difficult for mature compromise between the two sides.

The continuing controversy over whether or not the late Mr Burnham should receive the Order of the Companions of O R Tambo has once again drawn public attention to a spectre which has long haunted the PNC and the country at large, namely, the assassination of Dr Walter Rodney.

Earlier this week the non-partisan Pew Research Center released a report on gun violence in America.

Brazil’s ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo, is to be approved by acclamation, as the Geneva-based organisation’s new director-general, at next Tuesday’s meeting of its general council.