Editorial

Our Little Caesars and their political minders

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.

Version of history

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

‘The infinite unity of our mutual needs’

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.

A few good women

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.

Global economic jitters

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.

Hama… again

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.

Mrs Seephia’s plight

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.

Plane crash

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.

Barefoot professionals

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.

A new Secretary General

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

The attack on the NIS Inspectors

NIS inspection visits create considerable unease among some business houses. Such visits can lead to the disclosure of irregularities in the management of NIS registers and the unearthing of evidence of evasion of employee remittances.

Presidential guards for hire?

In the wake of the stunning allegation that eight presidential guards spearheaded an enforcer operation on behalf of a Brazilian businessman that involved vandalism and a series of other crimes, one would expect the immediate standing down of the Head of the Presidential Guard, an instant shake-up of arrangements for presidential security, a risk assessment and an inquiry into exactly what transpired.

Emancipation

It is impossible at this distance in time to fully grasp the extraordinary brutality of the eighteenth century slave system and the extent of the suffering both physical and mental which it inflicted.

Hate speech and open societies

Police in Norway have yet to determine whether Anders Behring Breivik acted alone when planning and carrying out the bombing and shooting spree that claimed at least 77 lives in Oslo last week.

Horror in Norway

Norway, a country comparatively unknown to most Guyanese, has in the past couple of years become relatively more familiar because of its interest in the preservation of our rainforest.

Police academy

Over the years, judges and magistrates have railed at police prosecutors and the police in general over poor prosecution, insufficient evidence, illegally obtained evidence and a host of other missteps that have caused cases to collapse and be thrown out because guilt could not be proven.

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