Editorial

Invariably the deepest and darkest secrets from opaque and dysfunctional institutions like the Guyana Police Force come from within and most unexpectedly.

When former Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe spoke out in June last year saying, “sometimes I am ashamed, because when I joined the force you had incidents, yes, but not this blatant corruption of some of the ranks… I believe it has gone out of control,“ he got, of course, a blast of hot air from the Ministry of Home Affairs in response. 

Eighteen months ago, the Port-au-Prince earthquake claimed nearly ten thousand lives for each second of its half-minute apocalypse.

The former President of Cuba and revolutionary legend, Fidel Castro, turned 85 last Saturday, a milestone marked by a range of cultural festivities on the island, from which he was noticeably absent.

History is replete with examples of inventions that ought to have been used specifically for the betterment of mankind being hijacked, misused and abused.

Jamaica celebrated its 49th anniversary of independence on August 6 with much public, and generally critical, comment on the state of the society and economy as the country approaches a half century of sovereign independence.

Media accounts of the recent shocking episode of the bullying and intimidation of a team of NIS officers by a prominent businessman and his employees suggest that the act was as crude as it was barefaced,   One of the more disturbing things about the incident is that it appeared to matter little to the perpetrators that they were unlawfully and forcefully menacing and impeding public servants pursuing their legitimate duties as officials of the state.

That 29 tonnes of building material was shipped to State House in 2009 in the name of President Jagdeo should not be a problem in ordinary circumstances.

President Jagdeo was holding forth on one of his favourite topics on Thursday – post-independence Guyanese history.

The widespread anarchy in England last week seems to have surprised only the politicians who were forced to interrupt their summer vacations in order to deal with the crisis.

As Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Caricom’s new secretary general, assumes office next Monday, he could do no worse than read, if he has not done so already, Sir Shridath Ramphal’s magisterial lecture, delivered at the Bank of Jamaica, on July 22 last.

Handing a sort of indefinable victory to women in what may yet prove to be a major skirmish in the age-old battle for gender equity, recent research has proven that companies with women directors tend to do better than those with executive teams made up entirely of men.

We refer to global economic jitters as we watch the difficulties that both the European Union authorities and the United States government have been having in recent weeks, with various stops and starts in dealing with the management of various economic issues, as reflected mainly in financial gyrations.

One of the surprises of the so-called Arab Spring that has witnessed widespread popular uprising against the most entrenched political regimes in the Middle East, has been the speed with which some of them have collapsed – a matter of weeks in the cases of both the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia and, even more surprisingly, in the case of the Mubarak government in Egypt.

When the contestants for the presidency mount the platform in the city, Black Bush Polder or Waramadong they are likely to utter many of the platitudes that proliferate at times like this.

Timehri, or the CJIA as it is now known, has been fortunate in that it never had a major air crash prior to last Saturday morning.

Six months into the Arab Spring, the ongoing carnage in Syria is a tragic reminder of how far parts of the Middle East have yet to travel on their putative journey to democracy.

Elections are coming and politicians from all parties are beginning to warm up.

It is estimated that today more than 1.5 billion of the world’s 7 billion people still live without electricity and are basically denied access to the 21st century with all its new and evolving technology.

The appointment of Mr Irwin LaRocque as Secretary General of the Caricom Secretariat has been generally welcomed, and we join others in that regard.