Editorial

Last year, on 30th March, with much fanfare, it was announced that commencing in September 2022, the final rounds of the next three seasons of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the region’s Twenty20 cricket competition, would be hosted by Guyana.

One of the primary reasons (though not the only one) why we are now confronted by numerous longstanding law and order-related anomalies is almost certainly linked to the seeming elevation of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) above official criticism or vigorous reprimand and the serious pursuit of corrective action. 

Around midnight on September 14, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a release headed  `Statement on audit of ExxonMobil expenses’  in which it said that the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat had endorsed the position outlined earlier in the day by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that the Guy-ana Revenue Authority (GRA) is the “competent authority” to lead all audits for expenses incurred by ExxonMobil Guyana and its partners.

Friday was International Democracy Day which brought in its train the expected commentary from government on the five months’ suspension of democratic norms here some three years ago.

Seventeen-year-old  Anthony Richard drowned the other day in a sea of mud.

The matter of reparations has raised questions of history, yet again because there is a suggestion that indentureship should be included in the claims, and not just slavery.

Much like the polymer it was named for, Plastic City seems destined to be a forever issue.

As we are fast becoming totally consumed by the subject of oil, its accompanying distractions – profits, barrels, taxes, etc – and the politics for the control of the coffers, our level of awareness of who we are, as a people and a nation, is quietly seeping through our fingers.

This newspaper’s allusion to the barefaced `shakedowns’ and various other pockets of shocking lawlessness that obtain in traffic administration in its Tuesday, August 29 editorial (‘Going with the flow) was by no means an attempt to hold the Guyana Police Force (GPF) up to public ridicule.

If there ever was any doubt, it is now clear that President Ali has no intention of moving towards substantive appointments to the positions of Chancellor of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice (CJ) as long as the current acting holders of the posts are the ones who are in line for confirmation.

There seems to be no end to the Cuyuni River saga. 

Al Jazeera recently rebroadcast a fascinating documentary series entitled “Blood and Tears: French de-colonisation”.

Three days ago when commissioning a new primary school at Tuschen, President Irfaan Ali announced that schools would be given greater autonomy to manage their own affairs.

Last Saturday, while witnessing the harvesting of a bio-fortified rice variety at Lesbeholden, Black Bush Polder, Berbice in the presence of farmers, officials from Caricom and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha declared that India’s ban on rice exports would open the market for Guyana.

When a person applies for a position, he/she submits a resume which includes suitable qualifications and relevant experience.

Insofar as we have, over the decades, given back anything meaningful to that handful of local athletes who have ‘done us proud’ on the international stage, what we have done, for the most part, has been limited to affording them some measure of public exposure and from time to time handing out modest honoraria that do little justice to the recognition that they would have brought us on the international stage.

On Saturday, the police force announced the arrest of six persons over the killing of a security guard at the Lusignan Golf Club, among them a stepson of the deceased. 

Two critical points which emerged from this newspaper’s interview with outgoing US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch on Tuesday, related to communication with the opposition, and the importance of strengthening institutions.

In August 2013 then Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn had sparked hope that the administration was finally going to embrace the concept of government-run public transportation.

Times have changed in the Indigenous areas.  When the Amerindian Act was drafted in 2006 (strictly speaking it is an amendment to the 1951 Act), it had little significant direct input from indigenous sources, although indirectly views were noted and sometimes incorporated when the Bill was drawn up, especially as these related to land.