Editorial

President Donald Ramotar is supposed to have told his Cabinet at one of their early meetings that he was concerned about corruption.

Every city, rather like every citizen, has parts that do not reflect well on it; eyesores, ramshackle bits, the odd carbuncle or blemish.

The intensity of what can now be called a civil war in Syria continues unabated.

Whenever a policeman comes under attack in the line of duty the authorities have a particular obligation to seek to apprehend and bring the perpetrators to justice quickly.

Last week, residents of Demerara River communities took extreme measures to ensure that ships journeying to the Bosai bauxite plant didn’t go excessively fast or too close to the bank.

There has been no epiphany in Freedom House. No new thinking.

The success of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Mursi, in  the opening round of Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential election will undoubtedly prompt fearful responses in the West.

We are loath to insert the adjective ‘former’, when describing Ramnaresh Sarwan as a West Indies batsman, but we have to wonder whether this wonderful but unfulfilled talent will ever return to the West Indies Test team.

‘How’s life?’ It’s a seemingly innocuous question that people tend to ask when they have not seen each other for a long time.

Recent news about developments at Caribbean Airlines (CAL) considered still, in fact if not in legal terms, as an airline of and for the Caricom area, must be disturbing to Caribbean citizens beyond Trinidad and Tobago.

Last Wednesday, at a meeting convened to discuss work permit issues affecting Brazilians mining gold in Guyana, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Karen Livan was subjected to a thorough tongue-lashing by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Robert Persaud.

Earlier this month, the public became aware of a convoluted arrangement involving central government, the Guyana Revenue Authority and the National Insurance Scheme for the gigantic, ill-starred CLICO building on Camp Street.

Last week we reported the case of a student who was killed at lessons.

Within two days of its Initial Public Offering, the social network Facebook was worth more than US$100 billion – making it, at a stroke, more valuable than such iconic brands as online bookseller Amazon, banking giant Citigroup, and global fast-food empire McDonald’s.

For all his titles and letters after his name, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, KA, PhD, etc, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, really does spout a lot of rubbish sometimes.

On Tuesday last, women’s rights activists picketed the Medical Council of Guyana and the Ministry of Health over the sloth in the investigation of the abortion death of Karen Badal, and also to lobby Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran to make abortion procedures accessible countrywide.

Only a few weeks after Chancellor Merkel of Germany appeared to be on the upswing as she dominated Eurozone policymaking in respect of the crises in Italy, then Spain and Greece, her apparent success seems to have begun to unravel.

We can only hope that the incident last Wednesday in which a resident of Sophia collapsed and died while shots were being fired by police in the community where she lives is deemed by the authorities to be deserving of a full and unbiased investigation.

Amid the hysteria whipped up over the cuts to its 2012 budget, it may seem trite to state that it is the government which has failed signally to deliver on the steps that would put the designated sums in its hands for the Low Carbon Development Strategy projects. 

On Friday the Guyana Human Rights Association described the PPP/C as being in denial over the November 28 election results.