Editorial

Guyana’s ventilation at the Organization of American States’ Permanent Council meeting last week of the Linden crisis and the shape of things since the November 28, 2011 general elections is yet another sign of a government floundering and unwilling or perhaps incapable of coming to grips with reality.

The Government of Guyana never loses its capacity to surprise.  On August 3 it abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution condemning Syria for its indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in civilian areas and its widespread violations of human rights.

The US elections may seem safely distant to outsiders but many American pundits are confidently predicting a struggle for Obama to survive the disappointed hopes and lack of change in his first term.

Julian Assange, the founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks, is wanted in Sweden for alleged sexual crimes.

If Republican Congressman Todd Akin is to be remembered for anything other than his awfully ignorant and horribly tasteless comments which were publicized last Sunday, it would be for coining what could possibly be the most offensive phrase of this century: ‘legitimate rape.’

Probably hardly noticed in the English-speaking Caribbean, a new President, Danilo Medina, was sworn in last Thursday in the Dominican Republic, after elections held there on May 20 of this year.

The Donald Ramotar administration has spent much of the eight months or so that it has been in office fending off demands for independent inquiries into various allegations of corruption said to have been perpetrated during the period when Mr Bharrat Jagdeo’s government was in office.

There will be a genuine sigh of relief on the expected conclusion today of a deal between the government and a delegation from Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) on a raft of economic issues for Linden.

While events in Linden were commanding public attention, the National Toshaos Council Conference was held in Georgetown between August 6 and August 10. 

Many years ago, a primary school teacher in Georgetown divided her class into two halves on opposite sides of the room and placed a cardboard box on a table between them.

Jacques Rogge, the Belgian surgeon who is president of the International Olympic Committee, is probably a very charming man to those who know him well.

When schools reopen in a few weeks’ time, some 830 children between the ages of 5 and 12 years at Linden will be at a loss.

As both Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica have been celebrating fifty years of independence this month, the rich results of their countries’ participation in the recently concluded London Olympic Games will undoubtedly have brought a welcome relief to their citizens, and even more importantly, to their governmental leaderships.

Presumably, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) would have much preferred that the verbal jousting between supporters of David Granger and Carl Greenidge, the two candidates for the leadership of the party, not enter the public domain.

It is refreshing to see ministerial initiative embedded in a results-oriented framework and targeted at enhancing service to the public. 

The arson which took place in Linden on Friday simply cannot be excused.

Watching Usain Bolt, flanked by two fellow Jamaicans, leap onto the podium after his unprecedented defence of two sprint gold medals, it was clear that his arrival in the pantheon of Olympic legend owes as much to personal charisma as it does to athletic prowess.

When the United Kingdom made its pitch to host the 30th Olympiad in 2007, one of the key messages underlying the bid was the wonder of the rest of the world coming to London in 2012 rather than the old stereotypical notion of the post-imperial power still seeking somehow to impose its will and its presence on the rest of the world.

The discovery of the decomposing body of missing 14-year-old Basmattie Moonsammy of Woodley Park Village, West Coast Berbice in a rice field in the area on Sunday last, coupled with the battering of 19-year-old Alana Farley at the hands of her ex-beau reveal more than the obvious – the fact that violence against women is as prevalent and horrific as it ever was.

A ruffling of the leaderships of the police forces in the Caricom area has been going on for some time, and the changes last week at the top of the police force of Trinidad & Tobago have served to remind us of this.