Editorial

There is one thing which doesn’t have a high profile in the Budget.

It is getting to be something of a habit, writing about Shivnarine Chanderpaul in these leader columns.

This year, the government has proposed that $3.1 billion of its $208.8 billion budget be allocated to the housing sector, “to continue the process of ensuring citizens have improved access to housing and a better quality of life”.

The United States, at its highest leadership level, travelled to the Middle East last week, presumably as a demonstration of its continuing deep interest in the Region as a second-term Obama administration begins.

By now this newspaper runs a serious risk of sounding like a stuck record on the subject of violence among schoolchildren and in schools.

When asked on Friday about the growing scandal over the issuing of radio licences and frequencies, President Ramotar failed spectacularly to address the many disturbing facets about the actions of former President Jagdeo in the days preceding the November 28, 2011 general elections.

A delegation from the Falkland Islands flew into Guyana last week seeking support for the islanders’ right to self-determination in the face of Argentina’s insistent claim to sovereignty over the British overseas territory.

Talking up – and playing down – new rules for the British media, prime minister David Cameron said it was “closing time in the last chance saloon” and argued that the post-Leveson system had “real independence at its heart and is going to be properly overseen without allowing parliament to endlessly interfere.”

The announcement of a changing of the guard in Havana – albeit not for another five years – has been somewhat overshadowed by all the fuss over the death of President Hugo Chávez and the election of Pope Francis.

On Tuesday morning, teacher Mr Sheldon Williams took dramatic steps never taken before when he climbed onto the roof of the Richard Ishmael Secondary School where he teaches in protest against the non-payment of his salary and the non-approval of his application for no-pay leave.

When high-level teams from the Caribbean Community and the United Nations Security Council visited Haiti in February last year to assess the post 2010 earthquake reconstruction efforts, one of the unanticipated issues that had to be taken account of was an outbreak of cholera which has resulted up to now in a total of about 8000 persons dead and over 600,000 suffering from the illness.

These days, the political landscape has become even more polluted by an atmosphere of jingoism and incivility that stretches from the acrimonious discourses in the National Assembly to the acerbic day to day exchanges across the political lines that play out in the media.

Voting against the simple and straightforward Firearms (Amendment) Bill on Thursday does no credit to the opposition-led Parliament. 

Be sober my muse, and with gravity tell What sad havoc and ruin all Kingston befel; How the sea swept away all the dam and its smouses, Made canals of the streets, Noah’s arks of the houses, How some bridges blew up, how some houses came down, And together went wandering over the town.

Religion and politics have always been uneasy bedfellows, particularly within the three Abrahamic traditions that have dominated the Western world.

For the sake of continuing warmth in the bilateral relationship between Guyana and Venezuela, the Government of Guyana has made all the right diplomatic moves.

On Monday and again on Tuesday above normal high tides with ferocious surfing waves, lashed the Guyana coast causing some amount of destruction.

Much comment has been made, following the recent death of President Hugo Chávez, emphasizing forebodings about the fate of the PetroCaribe initiative and other forms of assistance, including the creation of the Alba; and the effects of any disappearance of these initiatives on the economic welfare of the Caricom countries, among other countries of the hemisphere.

Works and Hydraulics Minister Robeson Benn would have significantly enhanced his already considerable reputation as a lightning rod for controversy by taking his objection to the lyrics of the winning calypso directly to the studios of the National Communications Network (NCN) and, it seemed, triggering a chain reaction that led to the removal of the entire clutch of Mashramani 2013 calypsos from the state-run radio station.

Each year, and particularly at Babu John, Port Mourant it becomes clearer and clearer why the person who holds the position of Head of State should not also be the person who heads the government.